Jesus’ most important invitation to us is to set aside our attachment to separation so that we may live in the unifying experience of love.
Jesus’ greatest desire, as he prayed with his disciples was that we would come to know the love that he had come to know in his Oneness with God and that in knowing this love, we would become one within ourselves, remember our own oneness with God and grow in oneness with each other. In this state of oneness, as Jesus explained, there is only unity, there is no room for separation.
Separation is the human construct that arises out of our false perception of separation from God. When we have forgotten our Oneness with God in love, we judge the human experience as filled with fear and pain and we hold others to blame for the suffering that we experience because of this pain. It is through this judgement and casting of blame that we create all the separations that exist within our human condition: race, religion, orientation, nationality, political party, rich, poor, educated, ignorant, good, bad, right, wrong, etc. etc. etc. etc. In this state of judgement and perceived separation, we have forgotten the most important message that Jesus came to teach and that is the lesson of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE! And…..we don’t need to be Christian (another one of those separations) to believe, embrace and live this message. That is the whole point that Jesus was trying to make….when we know this love, there is no separation….ONLY ONENESS.
This message of Oneness has always been of utmost importance, but during this time with all the conflict going on in the world, especially in the hotly contested presidential race, this message of Oneness feels all the more urgent. I have already posted my thoughts on the coming elections in my blog, Elections and a Disturbance in the Force and I feel as if there is more yet to be done. As I see it, the current platform of the election and the respective parties is SEPARATION. A position that is in direct conflict with Jesus’ invitation to love. Here are just a few of the labels/judgments that are being tossed about: Pro-Life/Pro-Choice, Anti-Obama/Pro-Romney, Tax the Rich/Feed the Poor. Then there’s the whole process of casting stones – one candidate proclaiming all the evils of the other candidate, name-calling, mud throwing, bullying, defaming, criticizing and condemning. etc. etc. etc. Jesus would ask, “Where is the love here?” Quite frankly, I’m not seeing it! Sadly the United States’ election process is just a small example of all the ways we seek to separate and choose to live in judgment and fear instead of the love that Jesus invites us to. We judge each other for our race, our sexual orientation, our religion, our economic position, our weight, our hair color, our shoe size, the size of our house and the kind of car that we drive. The list goes on and on and on. And with each judgment that we cast upon each other, the more we drift away from each other and the further we are from learning tolerance, respect, honor, acceptance and most importantly, love.
The invitation today is to LOVE. To take Jesus’ message seriously and to be open to remembering our Oneness with God in Love….to remember the Love within ourselves and to SEEK that love in others. It is love that brings us together, that heals the sin of separation, that allows us to release our judgments and to live in a world of peaceful acceptance. Let us love one another as Jesus loved us!
If you are looking for tools to help you heal the perceived separation within yourself and to remember your Oneness with God in love, check out my book, Authentic Freedom – Claiming a Life of Contentment and Joy.
If you are interested in becoming an Authentic Freedom Facilitator, click HERE for more information.
You bring forth to us in St. John’s gospel Jesus’s invitation to live the non-dual state, where we experience our interconnected with God, the creation, and ourselves. It’s an invitation to move beyond the egoic mind into the vastness that is our true nature. This, to me, is the “Christian Life” … and you could say the true essence within all religions.