Peace on earth—goodwill to men.

 

“The Divine Man, which Jesus brought forth, must be born into the consciousness of the Higher Self, or the Birth of Christ,” Charles Fillmore wrote in “Christmas,” published in the December 1919 issue of Unity magazine.

“We must perceive the real man is constantly coming forth. This is the meaning of Christmas,” Charles Fillmore wrote in 1919. “It does not belong to the past; it is a vital, living, present Truth. The bringing forth of the Christ child is not a work that is finished in Bethlehem. It is taking place in our midst every day. It is this we celebrate.”

“The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness,” which really means the reflection of that light. “See it not outside yourself,” so you do not see Jesus as someone who is outside of you who is different from you, “but shining in the Heaven within,” which is within your own mind, “and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come.” Christmas really means a Christ Time. But the whole meaning of Christmas as we interpret it in the Course is that time when we choose the Atonement for ourselves and we remember who we are as God’s Children. https://facim.org/monthly-topics/thoughts-on-christmas/

Excerpt: “The Holiness of Christmas”

Christmas is holy only if you come

In silence to the manger, to behold

Your holiness made visible to you.

Your gifts are but your open hands, made clean

Of grasping. Nothing else you lay before

The newly-born except your doubts and fears,

Your pale illusions and your sickly pride,

Your hidden venom and your little love,

Your meager treasures and unfaithfulness

To all the gifts that God has given you.

Here at the altar lay all this aside

To let the door to Heaven open wide

And hear the angels sing of peace on earth,

For Christmas is the time of your rebirth*.

( The Gifts of God, pg. 97, by Helen Schucman)

*What is meant by rebirth or born again is the spiritual rebirth that occurs as a result of the miracle when we choose the Holy Spirit rather than the ego. The ego was “born” from the choice for separation, individuality, and specialness, so to be reborn is to choose again. Jesus says to us in “The Holiness of Christmas” what he says throughout A Course in Miracles, asking us to bring to him our open hands “made clean of grasping.” Grasping is symbolic of our special relationships, wherein we are always trying to get something from someone or something outside….specialness results from the thought that there is something wrong within, something missing something painfully deficient. We seek outside ourselves for a missing treasure—the priceless pearl of our specialness—and seize it when we think we have found it, grasping to replace what we feel is missing inside.

Jesus is telling us the gifts we should offer him, or lay before the Christ child, are the doubts, fears, illusions, and pride that accompany the “meager treasures” of specialness that represent our turning away from the gifts of holiness God has given us. Simply stated, we bring our guilt to Jesus, the guilt that gives rise to the world, which in turn defends against this guilt, as do all strivings for specialness. The source of our guilt is the belief that we have betrayed God by deciding that we do not want His gifts of Love and eternal life. When we choose separation, we throw those gifts away in exchange for the ego’s shabby offerings of specialness and individuality. Inevitably what follows is pain and suffering, hatred and death, all of which have their source in thoughts of separation and guilt. https://facim.org/monthly-topics/thoughts-on-christmas/

“Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Heaven is harmony, and harmony is many tones in unison. One note is not harmony, and one-alone would not be Heaven. The One manifest in the many, and the many recognizing the One in all. This was the teaching of Him whose we celebrate today. As we harmonize with all mankind, the Great Chord of the angel anthem peals forth its message of “Peace on earth—goodwill to men.”

Every expression of love, in thought, word, or deed expands both the personal and the [collective] consciousness. Thus, Christmas, by emphasizing love, glorifies the world we live in.

May love surround and glorify all gifts and words of cheer this Christmas.

Excerpted from “Daily Readings” by Ernest Holmes, Science of Mind magazine December 1929.