As we leave behind the three spiritual Festivals for another year we recognise that their note, potency and rhythm will reverberate throughout the spheres for some time to come. Perhaps one of the outstanding and enduring images we have in our minds during these Festivals is the active, living, and ever present role and presence of the Christ, the World Teacher Who plays such a pivotal role in these planetary events and in the life of humanity.
But, I wonder if we ever stop to think about the awesome responsibility of the Christ’s work in the past, today and upon His return to the outer world of human affairs in the not too distant future: the responsibilities of His High Office, the working out of the great Law, His role as the head of the spiritual Hierarchy of the planet, His relationship to Shamballa and to the Lord of the World who stands at Its centre, His association to the Buddha and to other great beneficent planetary and inter-planetary Lives who work and stand with Him, and of course to His eternal and abiding relationship to the human family, as ‘the Eldest in a great family of brothers’1, all of which must present Him with no easy picture. For nearly three thousand years, in His capacity as the World Teacher two millennia ago, and in an earlier incarnation as Shri Krishna and also as “one other who was little known but who did a great work in still earlier centuries”2, He has been preparing for the seventh initiation that of ‘The Resurrection’. At the conclusion of this initiatory process, it is said, the Buddha and the Christ will stand before the Lord of the World, our planetary Logos, and “together see the glory of the Lord and, together pass to higher service of a nature and calibre unknown to us.”3 And, like the Buddha, His great Brother, the Christ has emerged out of the human family, and today He stands as the ‘God-man’, the divine representative on Earth, and the supreme spiritual executive. To these and other great exalted Individualities, the keynote of their lives is to eternally serve.
There are a growing number who recognise in their own incomplete, small and humble way the sacrifice, love, dedication to duty and response to the divine Will that characterise the Christ and the great Hierarchy of Lives Who guide our planetary evolution, and Who help to release consciousness from form, and to liberate the inner spiritual life from the imprisoning walls of matter.
Signs of His approach are clearly evident: such as the coming together in consciousness of all those who love and care for their fellow human beings and which can be seen from one perspective as the organising of the army of the Lord. There is also the work of the group of world servers, the general staff of the Christ and who have been described as “potent a body of forerunners as has ever preceded a great world Figure into the arena of humankinds living”4. So, there is cause for optimism and hope, but not complacency, and the work of preparation goes forward with clarity, potency, and commitment.
Like Mary Magdalene in the New Testament, who spoke to the Christ and not recognising Him said: “They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid Him”5, so, aspiring humanity, yet still materialistic, too must search for the spiritual, that which the living and risen Christ represents and embodies. The outer symbols and vestiges of religion, the stone buildings and narrow minded theological dogmas, and the pomp and ceremony must give way to “the Temple of God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”6. Spiritual reality must overshadow symbols and their pale reflections, and the simple and practical application of spiritual truth for the benefit of all must take precedence over separative theological interpretations and platitudes.
We might ask ourselves how can we help to prepare human consciousness for the return of the Christ, the World Teacher? Perhaps, one of the greatest contributions we can make is to breathe right human relations into our family, office, community, and national environments, and on a large a scale as possible. It goes without saying that this will require patience, understanding and a deepening commitment to human welfare. Also, daily sounding The Great Invocation, a world mantram is an indispensable tool in our work together and its use is described as providing “a spiritual inflow right to the very heart of humanity and from the highest sources”7.
Every evening, somewhere in the Himalayas, it is said, that under the great pine in His garden and at just before sunset, the Christ raises His arms in blessing to all those who “truly and earnestly seek to aspire”8. As the World Teacher, His love embraces all of humanity and we can be assured that His return is imminent “to complete the work He started, and again to demonstrate divinity in far more difficult circumstances.”9
1 Romans VIII:29
2 Alice Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, pp.557-8
3 Alice Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations, p.84
4 Alice Bailey, Externalisation of the Hierarchy, p.598 adapted
5 John 20:13
6 Alice Bailey, Externalisation of the Hierarchy, p.471
7 Alice Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age, Vol 11, p.187
8 Alice Bailey, Initiation, Human and Solar, p.44
9 Alice Bailey, Externalisation of the Hierarchy, p.607
