THE CHIRST PRINCIPLE: LINKING THE VINE TO THE BRANCHES

Here are some thoughts about how the Christ Principle links all peoples to himself.

The Coming of Jesus’ Hour.^*20Now there were some Greeks^* among those who had come up to worship at the feast.ⁿ21^* They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”^o22Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.^p23^* Jesus answered them,^q “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.24^* Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat;^r but if it dies, it produces much fruit.25Whoever loves his life^* loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.^s26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.^t27“I am troubled^* now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.^u28Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”^v29The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”^w30Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.^x31Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world^* will be driven out.^y32And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”^z33He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.34So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever.^* Then how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”^a35Jesus said to them, “The light will be among you only a little while. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overcome you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going.^b36While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light.”^c

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/12

What do you think this phrase, “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself” means? Lifted up from the earth to where? Draw everyone, not just Jews, to myself? Ponder this reading in the light of all creation being resonant through the Christ Principle.

When I link myself to Jesus, the vine, my thoughts tend to go like this.

I am the only me that there is in the world, despite the number of me’s out there. Why is that?

I am here for only seventy or eighty years, if I am lucky. Why is that?

Within that seventy or eighty years, I am like a book or a computer that records everything on my brain. Why do I have reason and the ability to choose what I put in that book?

Some thing in life are meaningful and rewarding while others in my book are worthy of shame and I would be shamed to bring them up again. What is the center against whom I measure what is meaningful and what is hurtful to my humanity?

The World and the values it says are meaningful will not bring me to a higher level in and of itself. Why it is that the Christ Principle will fulfill my desire to know, love and serve a power greater than me and one which I aspire to attain as I can?

To be lifted by to this next level of my evolution, I alone must die to my old self in order to find the source of energy that will propel me towards my destiny. The purpose is life is to know, love, and serve God in this lifetime so that we can be happy with Him in Heaven. (Baltimore Catechism, Question 6).