An Enlightened Life In God
As it's being discussed in this series Jesus, the Morning Star, it is necessary to, in life, always pray to God so He can send the Star of Bethlehem that will show a path leading directly to Jesus Christ. When there is the decision to follow its Light, change will happen in your life. Overall, what is the importance and meaning of this Light and its impact on our lives?
To answer that, let's read the Gospel of Christ, according to John 1:1 to 18:
The Word Was God
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2. He was in the beginning with God.
3. All things were created through Him, and without Him nothing was created that was created.
4. In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.
5. The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.
6. There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
7. This man came as a witness in order to testify concerning the Light, that all men through Him might believe.
8. He was not this Light, but was sent in order to testify concerning the Light.
9. The true Light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10. He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not know Him.
11. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.
12. Yet to all who received Him, He gave the power to become sons of God, to those who believed in His name,
13. who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
15. John bore witness of Him and cried out, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ”
16. We have all received from His fullness grace upon grace.
17. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who at the Father’s side, has made Him known.
There's a lot to unpack in this passage. But let's focus on the meaning of the Light that guides our lives as being Christ Himself, showing the path to follow.
The Word
First, there is the necessity to understand the Word. What could it be? It is exactly what is being portrayed here.
Now, I would argue that we are the only animals capable of creating complex communication using words. It is not being said that there aren't animals that can't make complex communications. To even understand them, it is necessary to decodify and translate their communication.
What is being said here is that we can express our thinking, our feelings, and our reasoning through words and symbols purposely constructed to carry objective or subjective meaning.
Words are symbols that have an intimate impact on our spirits. As we reflect on that and choose to perceive it, there is a comprehension that through God's pronunciation of the Word, life came to be. This life is represented by the emergence of Christ, that is Jesus Himself.
Light and Life
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
(Genesis 1:1-3)
In Genesis, 1:3, we learn that amongst darkness, God's first expression is: “Let there be light!”; in Hebrew י ִהְי רא (iei aur); in Latin, which is more common, “Fiat Lux!”
That is, the first words of God are bringing forth the Light from darkness, presenting to us what Life is.
Then, through the narration of the Word of God in the Gospel of Jesus, according to John, it is precisely revealed to us that Life is bound to Light. This means that life is how we perceive it, how we look at things, how we grasp what is right in front of us and then bring forth through expression what is inside of our spirits, minds, and hearts.
These two words, Light and Life, are representations of things that could be extremely different or extremely apart from each other, but in Christ, they aren't. They're connected. It is through Light that we experience the true feeling of being Alive. The realization of this perspective, of actually understanding how this relationship works, establishes in us the condition narrated in the passage we are studying (John 1:9): “The true Light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”
Light became flesh
The True Light, that is Jesus Christ, comes into the world to enlighten everybody. Which obliges us the need to bring forth what lurks in the darkness and what is happening inside of us. Be it an emotion, a thought, or what is inside our hearts, that is part of our intimacy and keeps itself in the darker parts of our souls. The same goes for what surrounds us. This action is a divine work.
Bring to light what needs to be known, what needs to be spoken off.
The expression of what we perceive from the outside world with our own eyes illuminated by the Light of Christ is a process of materialization. That is to make it become a definite thing imbued with substance. Giving it openness to observation for proper discernment.
This is spiritual as much as it is physical. Because, even scientifically speaking, we cannot perceive things without light. If we were in extreme darkness, our eyes wouldn't be able to see anything.
So Light is imperative to our understanding of what is in us and around us. This scientific principle of the necessity of Light to the function of our eyes is also connected to what Christ brings in His Gospel (Matthew 6:22; Luke 11:36): “The light of the body is the eye. Therefore, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. If your whole body, then, is full of light, no part being dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.”
Perceiving Shadow
As we discussed Light and its connection to Life, if we have eyes that only look to the dark parts of our lives, that only perceive shadows, what great darkness we will all be because we are going to be stuck to that perception of life.
Doesn't matter if there is a flower right in front of you. If the beauty of God's Creation is right in front of you, there will always be a fixed perception of something to be fixed. The eyes will only see what is not right, and will always judge nature as an imperfection that only brings bad things to life. That whatever it is is not perfect, it is not right, and needs to be changed. That “perfection” needs to be established so we can finally live. In regards to Nature, that comprehension can mean taking down all the trees and substituting them for concrete buildings, great cities without green around them.
It’s already known that the idea of maintaining Nature apart from the cities, which is an old one, is quite wrong. Even though it brought development in the past, which could be considered a manifestation of Light at the time, throughout the years it ended up being also a center of disease and problems. Now, the work is backward. There is a rush to make big cities into green ones. This example only shows us that even though we may be working towards change and development guided by the Light, darkness will follow its brightness. If we maintain ourselves into its somber frequency nothing will ever be good enough or will suffice. But, if we maintain ourselves in the frequency of the Light and perceive Life as the full manifestation of God’s greatness that He brought forward we will then see the beauty of things. Through the Divine Light of Jesus, even in imperfection, God is there.
Nature itself is the perfect imperfection in harmony. That’s the beauty of God.
Enlightened Journey
You may think that I’m being too optimistic talking about seeing the Good through the True Light, and in a way being in a perpetual spiritual state of awe, only seeing things as totally good and ignoring the bad, the reality of the world and it’s horrendous part.
That's not it. Again, remember that when you see Life through the True Light of Christ, you're not ignoring the reality of the world, darkness, or shadows. No, you're actually having an enlightened life, exactly because you are willing to open your eyes to what Light is showing you and what darkness isn’t, and then go forward to make it shine more and reach those dark spots. Then, depending on what it is, work with it. Work to change it, work to make it more connected to God.
Exposing that view, an enlightened life means that the work to be in this spiritual state is not conquered by ignoring the shadows. It is quite the contrary. We perceive the shadows precisely because they need to be addressed. You are looking at it, you are facing it, not ignoring it. This act is the true pursuit of real life: being in reality and not apart from it, and from that, trying to, in that reality, make God appear.
Another point worth making is that an enlightened person is one who is open to perceiving the workings of God, Christ, and the Spiritual Friends in their lives and in the lives of others.
One with the Light
When we are truly going after the Star of Bethlehem, we are choosing to be part of this moment of the Light becoming flesh. That is, to partake in the moment when Christ is being brought to the world and as the True Light that He is, have our path shine so we can be enlightened.
Working for the Kingdom of God that Jesus Christ preaches about and asks us to spread throughout the nations and thus start living in His Divine Love. So we can be full of this divine spirit, full of the greatness of God.
That is an enlightened journey. One that you don't turn your face from problems, but strive to find a solution. For instance, if you notice that your friend has depression, or even if you notice that in you an enlightened life obliges you to go in front of the mirror and be truthful to yourself asking: What can I do to change? To transform myself? Who can I look for to help me? Or how can I help my friend? What can I do for him?
This is the path to the same spiritual state as Jesus. You see the problem, you don’t ignore it, and you work on it so you can be closer to God and more like Christ: one with God, one with the Light.
It may come to mind that by not being perfect, it is impossible to work on it. But then, who, besides Jesus, is in this world we live in? Give it a chance and see how the Star of Bethlehem, the True Light of the Divine Master can help you to keep moving forward.
Even if you deviate one day, remember these words from Brother Paiva: “Every day is a day to renew our destiny.” Have that in your mind. Every day is a day that we can have the opportunity to turn ourselves to the Light of Jesus, just like the Sun raises every day. in our lives, showing us what it is that we need to be doing.
