Holidays? Xmas? Christmas? What is This Season Anyway?
abracad, · Categories: christmas, externally authored, jesusPresented by Niánn Emerson Chase
Holiday Issues
I recall that in December 2005, President and Mrs. Bush came under much criticism from certain conservative Christians who were unhappy with the wording on the card sent from the White House. These critics complained that since the Bush’s are Christians and Christmas is a Christian holiday, they should have used the word Christmas on the card rather than holidays. In the seven years since then, there has been an increasing conflict between the conservative Christians whose agenda is to keep the holidays “Christian†and the non-Christian religionists and non-religious to keep all signs of Christianity out of the holidays.
This is a season that Christians as well as those of other religions enjoy their particular traditions, and the citizenry of the United States is comprised of people of many religions, nationalities, and subcultures. Regardless of religious and cultural leanings, most people (including  the nonreligious)  in this country celebrate this season, for almost every aspect of society is permeated with utilizing the “holiday season†that starts around Thanksgiving and ends after New Year’s Day.
It seems that, whether from a religious perspective or a secular, “the holidays†are filled with anticipation for some kind of magic outside of the daily mundane routine to happen. I think that during these times people are looking for a more meaningful expression of love, and almost every facet of the dominant culture in this country is tinseled with this anticipation. Every advertisement, in trying to get you to buy something, attempts to cleverly connect the dream of something great and good with the product that is being sold. All of the celebrations, parties, dinners, music, sales, trips, holiday-related movies—whether secular or spirit-oriented—are in some manner trying to grasp at something that transcends the cold, spiritless, mechanical materialism of a world gone awry.
This is the season where people grasp for hope, for healing, for transformation into something more meaningful, even those who do not understand that is what they are desperately seeking as they frantically shop and rush around getting ready for the holidays. I think that even within those “Scrooges†who claim to hate this season (for whatever reason) there is a glimmer of desire for some form of miracle, some kind of renewal for themselves and for the world.
The “Spirit†Of Christmas
Innate within every human being is a desire to reach for and find the magical “spirit of Christmas.†What is that spirit of Christmas and its awesome power to transform hearts and lives during the holiday season? Since I am a person who loves language, who understands the power of words—written, sung, signed, and spoken—I want to look at the words and their meaning within the concept: the spirit of Christmas.
The word spirit of course indicates that we go beyond the material level of living. The Fifth Epochal Revelation found in The URANTIA Book and The Cosmic Family volumes states over and over that there are three levels of reality throughout the grand universe: Â material, mindal, and spiritual. Within divine pattern, spirit dominates the material and mindal.
Here on our world that is broken and confused, due to the Lucifer Rebellion that deviated from divine pattern and procedure, the spirit circuitry from Paradise is continually present, but each of us individual ascending sons and daughters of God must discover that for ourselves. So, we human beings have within us the potential for encircuiting with the circuitry of God, the Universal Father/Mother. We have within us the Threefold Spirit that calls to us to realize, embrace, and live in the magical spirit of Christmas every day, every moment of our lives.
In order to begin to grasp the spirit of Christmas at a deeper level, we have to go beyond the shopping, beyond the eating and drinking, beyond the frantic searching for reassurance that we are O.K. and cool. We have to begin to move beyond material mindsets into a realization that love is more than buying and receiving gifts. Those who share their time, their skills, their money and possessions with others less fortunate are realizing at a level the true spirit of Christmas, even if they do not consider themselves religious at all.
Whenever any human being begins to wake up to the fact that he or she is more than just a physical body and that love is more than just getting what you want from another person, that individual is beginning to be awakened. If a human being continues to allow himself or herself to unfold into discovering more facets of his or her being, then eventually that person will respond to the leadings of the Threefold Spirit circuitry within all of us—the Fragment of the Father, the Ministry of the Mother, and the Spirit of Truth. That human being begins to realize that he or she has spirit also. That discovery in itself can seem like a miracle! In order for any of us to begin to truly experience the spirit of Christmas, we must bring spirit into our thinking, feeling, and doing.
Christmas originally was two words: Christ Mass. According to Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, the word mass means: “coming together to celebrate the Eucharist.†The term Eucharist is always capitalized and is derived from a Greek word meaning “grateful, having gratitude, being in a state of grace.†I think that the capitalization rule is an implication of divinity being present in the denotations and connotations of Eucharist. Today the term Eucharist denotes “spiritual communion with God.†What I get from the semantics of Eucharist is that in order to spiritually commune with God you have to be in a state of grace, and a state of grace is a being in a mindal state of gratitude, of gratefulness.
So, Mass (coming together to celebrate the Eucharist) and Eucharist (a spiritual communion with God) means that Christ Mass is not done entirely alone, that there is a coming together of people to celebrate life in gratitude. And God is not left out of it. In fact, God is the source of Christ Mass; we are continually growing in our experiences of God’s presence and circuitry within us and each other. Christ Mass is a celebration with each other and with God.
Who Or What Is “Christ�
The word Christ originates from the Greek word that means anointed and today is associated with “Messiah†and “Jesus.†The term Christ also connotes “an ideal type of humanity, the ideal truth that comes as a manifestation of God to destroy incarnate error.†Wow! That’s in good old Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.
The URANTIA Book expands upon the very limited Christian understanding of who Jesus was, who the Christ was. Indeed, most Christians, Muslims, Urantia Book readers, even Buddhists and those in the New Age movement would agree that the word Christ does connote “an ideal type of humanity.†When anyone aspires to be in the “Christ consciousness,†they are indeed reaching for a higher, nobler expression of being a human being.
For Christians, most Muslims, and us in Global Community Communications Alliance Church, Christ also connotes a person who actually existed on this world almost 2,000 years ago, who was a great spiritual teacher and prophet who lived an exemplary life that is meant to be an inspiration for all of us humans who want to live a life of compassion and God-consciousness.
For most Christians and Urantia Book readers, Christ also connotes that Jesus was anointed, that Jesus was the anointed one. To be anointed means to be chosen by divine election. Jesus was chosen by God, the Universal Father, to bestow upon this world in human form, to be born as a babe and live a life as a mortal, reflecting the truth, beauty, and goodness of God in His human life. Jesus was indeed the God Child who came to this world. He indeed was the Son of God (with the mind and emotions of divinity) as well as the Son of Man (with a human mind and human emotions). He was, and still is, a Mystery, a Miracle, to us human beings as well as to the myriads of celestial beings.
Also for most Christians and Urantia Book readers, Christ was indeed “the ideal truth that comes as a manifestation of God to destroy incarnate error.†Here’s where Christians and Urantia Book readers differ: how is the error to be destroyed? Most Christians believe that Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, incarnated on this earth to teach and live the truth of God, but that Jesus had to be a sacrifice and actually die for our sins, our errors.
Along with that belief is the belief that in order for anyone to reach God, they have to be “Christian†and all that that encompasses. In that more fundamental context, Christmas is indeed a “Christian†holiday and excludes those who are not of that faith when coming from a religious perspective.
The URANTIA Book says that Jesus did not die for our sins, that His sacrifice was not a requirement in order for us humans to get right with the Universal Father God. Jesus was murdered within the so-called justice system of the day, legally, but He did not have to die in order for any of us to be saved from our selfish and sordid ways.
This Season Is For All
I say that Christ Mass is different than Christmas. Christ Mass does include every soul, every ascending son and daughter of God, even if a soul does not acknowledge God or Jesus or Christ. Christ Mass is for even the Scrooges, the tyrants, the murderers, the robbers, the men in silk suits who have so much power over others and cause so much suffering on this world. (Note that word mass also is defined: “the great body of people as contrasted with the elite; including the whole people, the aggregate.â€)
From the time Jesus was a little child, He lived a life of human perfection; He lived a life of love that goes beyond what we humans understand to be love. He did correct error and eradicate it through His own goodness, through His expressions of divine love, through His teachings that challenged and corrected wrong thinking, wrong ideas, and wrong ways of doing things. Jesus’ entire life was, and continues to be, a challenge to all of us humans who are full of error and messiness. His life was, and is, a gift to each of us ascending sons and daughters.
When we broken ones receive the gift of Christ Mass, we become unbroken, more whole and healed. When we selfish ones receive the blessings of the Cosmic Gift Child, we become more grateful, more selfless, and more loving. But we have to receive the gift of the God Child every day, not just during “the holidays.†We have to embrace and live the spirit of Christ Mass every day.
The spirit of Christ Mass is destined to be in the hearts and minds of every soul on this planet, regardless of whether they have a religion or not, whether they are considered good or bad or both. Actually the spirit of Christ Mass is for every personality in the universe of Nebadon, actually for every person in all 700,000 universes (in potential) within the grand universe.
We here on Urantia (Earth) can have a cosmic perspective of Jesus being the Christ not only for this world but for all of the worlds in the universe of Nebadon. We can have a cosmic perspective of realizing that the man Jesus who lived about thirty-six years on this world was more than just the inspiration and motivation for a religious movement that resulted in the Christian religion that is full of both beauty and beastliness and reflects only a fragment of what He was about. We can have a cosmic perspective that Jesus actually is a divine Creator Son, Christ Michael who is Sovereign of His universe of Nebadon. We can have a cosmic perspective of the Christ belonging not only to all of this world’s people of every generation but to all of the people of every other world in the universe of Nebadon.
We can have those cosmic perspectives, but if we do not practice the spirit of Christ Mass within our own being, within our daily lives, none of the cosmic perspectives and knowledge has any Deo (godly) power. If we do not have our hearts broken over and over by God, by the Christ, then we are mere clanging cymbals. If we are not gardens bringing forth the fruits of the spirit that Christ presented to us, then we are but empty vessels that talk a good talk but don’t do the walk.
In closing, I would like to share a poem by Rumi, the popular ancient Sufi poet from the Muslim religion:
How should spring bring forth
a garden on hard stone?
Become earth, that you may
grow flowers of many colors.
For you have been heart-breaking rock.
Once, for the sake of experiment,
be earth!
Niánn Emerson Chase grew up on four different Native American reservations in the southwestern United States. After earning her Bachelor’s Degree in Literature/English and Education, she returned to the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona where she lived and taught for fifteen years.
In 1989, Niánn Emerson Chase co-founded Global Community Communications Alliance—currently a 100+ member intentional community (at Avalon Organic Gardens & EcoVillage) located in southern Arizona in the historic southwest towns of Tubac and Tumacácori. Within the community, Niánn Emerson Chase serves as the Director of the Global Community Communications Schools for Adults, Teens, and Children, as well as serving on the Board of Elders and as a pastor.
She co-authored the books, Teachings on Healing From a Spiritual Perspective and the series of Global Change Teachings for a New Millennium and has been published in various periodicals including: New Thought Journal, Connecting Link, Communities Magazine, Quantum Thoughts, Inner Word, and the Alternative Voice, of which she is the Co-Executive Director.
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Filed in: christmas, externally authored, jesus
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