 Gnosis of the Creed –by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
Chapter Seventeen—And in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
 A Look Forward
After naming Christ in the Creed, we proceeded to consider His deeds upon this earth, both past and future. Now, having named the Mother, the Holy Spirit, all the remaining subjects mentioned in the Creed are Her works: the Church, the one Baptism, and the Resurrection. Moreover, She Herself is “the life of the age to come,” for through the prophets She once said: “He who explains me shall find life.” The Mystical Nature Of The Church
“And in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” The Church–or Sangha–is the work of the Holy Spirit in the world, so we should consider just what that term means.
The Lord said: “My kingdom is not of this world,” “the kingdom of God is within.” Being inward, by nature it is hidden. Just as God is hidden (mystikos) in His true being, so also are the Son and the Holy Spirit.
“The king’s daughter is all glorious within,” because the work of the Holy Spirit which glorifies us is also within. What we see of that glory outwardly is only a reflection of the inner reality. The workings of that divine Force are in the depths of our being, and that is the Church.
The Church Is Life
The Church is a mode of life. If that mode of life is ours, then it follows that we are in the Church, for our life is an expression of our consciousness. “Christ Consciousness” is the living out of the Life of Spirit on the material plane just as Jesus did. “The works I do you shall do,” is both a promise and a command. Ecclesia
The Greek word Ecclesia was used by the Apostles to designate the Church. At that time it had a very definite political meaning which they spiritualized. Just as the modern democracies have legislative bodies, so the Greek democracies were governed by a body of selected citizens, known as the Ecclesia, which means literally, “the called out,” in the implied sense of a specially gifted group of people who have been mandated to perform a special function. The nearest term we have in English is “selectmen,” an almost obsolete term referring to the equivalent of a Town Board.
Nature Of The Church
Why did the Apostles choose this term to indicate the Christian community? For one thing, it indicated that membership in the Church was the result of a “call,” a personal revelation or intuitive communication from the higher planes. That is, a member of the Church would have been spoken to in the depths of his spirit, for membership in the true Church is not membership in some kind of external religious or philosophical institution, but membership in Christ. Membership in the Church is spiritual in character and should be the result of an inner urge to union with Christ.
Called To Where?
Since ecclesia means “the called out,” where are we called to? We are called to return to Paradise where human beings really belong, and thence to evolve ever upward until we reach the Bosom of the Father, from whence we originally came. The Church is composed of persons who can say with Saint Ignatius of Antioch: “There is within me a fountain welling up, that ever says: ‘Come to the Father.’” Those within the Church have heard the call to be finished with material life and its perpetual cycle of birth and death, to abandon the realm of death and resurrect into eternal life beyond the earth plane.
Christianity And India
As we have noted, Jesus more than once refers to writings of the Indian religions, both Hindu and Buddhist, in His teachings. This is because He spent many years in India with the “wise men” who had come to worship Him at His birth. Saint Catherine Emmerich saw in her visions of His life that the Lord loved India greatly, always feeling at home there, whereas in Palestine He was spiritually an alien. She further said that the Indians understood Him perfectly and loved to hear Him teach, but the Israelites could not comprehend His teachings.
Since, as the Fathers often said, the Lord came not to bring a new teaching, but to reaffirm the Ancient Wisdom which had been known throughout the world before its degeneration, He naturally drew from the living roots of India. It is not amiss to say that philosophically Christianity was the planting of the universal philosophy of Sanatana Dharma, “the Eternal Religion,” in the West.
Because so many of the Church’s mystical and (original) theological writings were destroyed by the Roman persecutors, and later on by the Byzantine emperors, knowledge of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy helps us in understanding Christian theology.
A Significant Prayer
One of the Indian prayers that Jesus would have been very familiar with, and which is recited daily by devout Hindus, sums up perfectly the attitude of the Christian spirit that has truly been “called out” unto Christ:
From the unreal lead me to the Real.
From darkness lead me to the Light.
From death lead me to Immortality.
Unreal To The Real
“From the unreal lead me to the Real.” The Fathers of the Church constantly emphasized that this world is unreal. It is only a mirage, a dream within a dream. We must understand that to say the world is unreal is not to deny its existence. It does indeed exist, but it exists in the way a mirage, a dream, an illusion exists, without ultimate reality. In a moment, within the winking of an eye, the Lord can wipe out this creation just as a television set or motion picture projector can be turned off and the picture annihilated. And in a moment He can bring it back again all new and different, or exactly at the point where it was terminated. To the Fathers, “real” meant permanent, without change. And since God alone abides forever, changelessly–as does our spirit, being part of Him–God and the spirit alone are real.
Even modern physics realizes that this entire relative existence is but a play of light upon light. It is God’s dream. It does exist, but we do not see its true nature; therefore it exists within our mind as an illusion. For example, in dim light a rope may be mistaken for a snake. We may even “see” its eyes glitter and “hear” it hiss. But when the light is turned on we discover it is only a rope. The whole imaging of the snake was a projection of our mind alone. Now, the rope does exist; our impression is not a pure hallucination. Rather, it is a wrong “seeing.” The rope exists, and the image in our mind of a snake exists, too, yet it is unreal.
This world is a manifestation of God the Holy Spirit, but we do not see that truth. Instead, we see “solid matter” that changes constantly and a mass of “blind forces” that we think must be conquered. Above all, we experience isolation, sorrow, pain, and death, which are but little relieved by short-lived feelings of happiness and fulfillment. Worst of all, we are continually being snatched away by death and cast back into birth, seemingly at random, by the Law of Sowing and Reaping. We fail to see the cosmic laws behind our life; and if we did, we would see them as bonds rather than tools for liberation. In other words, by not seeing God, the only Reality, we not only see unreality, we are drawn into it, wrap it around us, and join in the masquerade dance of birth and death.
Darkness To Light
“Lead me from darkness to the Light.” “God is light, and in him is no darkness.” But who sees God in this world? Instead we see only those illusions which blind our consciousness to God. How, then, shall we see the Truth that is God? Saint John has already given us the clue by saying: “in him is no darkness.” We must enter into Christ and become thoroughly one with Him so that no differentiation exists. Then alone shall we see God, for “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” The only way to see God the Father is to become united to the Son through Christ Jesus. When our consciousness is centered in Christ, as a Christ, our vision will be perfect and we will no longer see the “darkness” of the illusion of this world, but the Light that it really is. Then when we look at the world we will see the face of God and be enabled to say with Saint Paul: “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
Death To Immortality
“Lead me from death to immortality.” God “only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.” Therefore to aspire to immortality is to aspire to Godhood, to aspire to transcend this relative world and enter that unapproachable Light. But if it is unapproachable, how will we do such a thing? By ceasing to be a human, an angel, an archangel, or even a seraphim, and becoming transmuted into divinity. Then we shall not need to “approach” It, for we shall have become It. God does not exist within space, so we cannot be either “near” or “far” in relation to Him. Since He is always present, all we need do is change our consciousness. Then we shall never “die,” having regained our status as immortals with the Immortal. We “shall go no more out,” but shall be in Him unto the ages of ages.
A Drastic Matter
The nature and purpose of the Ecclesia, the Church, is quite drastic. So much so, that Saint Paul was accused of “turning the world upside down” by his preaching. In actuality he had turned things right side up and put everything in its correct perspective. But to those drunk on the illusions of the world, his words were pure madness and those who followed his preaching seemed to them insane. This is because part of being “called out” is the call to become detached from this material world, to get out and never come back. For this reason the first Christians of Jerusalem used to say: “May grace come to us, and may this world depart from us!”
Another Aspect Of Ecclesia
The Greek political ecclesia was a ruling body with genuine authority. So also the Church, the divine ecclesia, is a body of people called out from the world to wield the power of God for their transformation. It is a community of the spiritually gifted, a community of power.
When Pliny the great scholar investigated the Christian Church on behalf of the Roman Emperor, he reported that Christians were completely harmless. “All they do,” he said, “is meet on Sunday and sing hymns to their Messiah.” But how much more it really was! And is.
More chapters of the Gnosis of the Creed:
• Chapter One—The Nicene Creed
• Chapter Two—I believe
• Chapter Three—In one God, the Father almighty
• Chapter Four—Maker of heaven and earth, And of all things visible and invisible
• Chapter Five—And in one Lord
• Chapter Six—Jesus Christ
• Chapter Seven—The Only-begotten Son of God, Begotten of the Father before all ages. Light from Light, True God from true God. Begotten not made, Being of one substance with the Father; By Whom all things were made.
• Chapter Eight—Who for us men, and for our salvation
• Chapter Nine—Came down from heaven
• Chapter Ten—And was incarnate by the Holy Spirit
• Chapter Eleven—Of the Virgin Mary. And was made Man.
• Chapter Twelve—He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. Suffered and was buried.
• Chapter Thirteen—And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures. And ascended into heaven. He sitteth at the right hand of the Father.
• Chapter Fourteen—And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead.
• Chapter Fifteen—Of Whose kingdom there shall be no end.
• Chapter Sixteen—And in the Holy Spirit, the Lady and Giver of life: Who proceedeth from the Father. Who together with the Father and the Son Is worshipped and glorified. Who spoke by the prophets.
• Chapter Seventeen—And in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
• Chapter Eighteen—I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.
• Chapter Nineteen—And I look for the resurrection of the dead. And the life of the age to come. Amen.
1) Sangha is a Sanskrit word meaning “association,” “assembly,” or “company.” [Go back]
2) Psalm 45:13 [Go back]
3) For an extensive consideration of Jesus’ life in India and His involvement with Vedic religion, see The Christ of India and The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ. [Go back]
4) I John 1:5 [Go back]
5) John 1:18 [Go back]
6) Galatians 6:14 [Go back]
7) I Timothy 6:16 [Go back]
8) “But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.” (Acts 17:5,6) [Go back] |
