Christ: Discovering Hidden Treasures in Faith

The X Factor: Where Χριστός (Christ) Marks the Spot

Lost and weary road
The treasure sought, one abode
Christ, calls you to rest
~Thomas C. Maples

Χριστός (Christ), guide me as I look for a treasure greater than my own senses afford me. Grant me a heart worthy to see You in all of Your workings. Bless this day with the knowledge of Your peace, Your strength, and the direction in which You guide me.

Amen.

As a child, I would often play treasure hunting games. Sometimes, I imagined searching for the greatest treasure of all—the one as a child, I only knew God, but as I began to develop faith, I understood it as his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. We were pirates, and in our escape from those lofty sailors who wanted our booty, we would either choose to bury our treasure or look for hidden treasures of our own in the vast world around us.

X always marked the spot. Unfortunately, even in these flights of fantasy, what would often be found was only a quarter, nickel, dime, or bottle cap. But how wonderful were those flights of spirit for the energized traveler?

As I reflect upon those childhood games, I realize this ‘hide and seek’ state was merely a prelude to a more grounded journey. Today, X still marks the spot, but for a treasure far greater than a child’s mind could imagine: the rest that soul and spirit find upon the ‘Lost and Weary Road’ as we reach the actualization of the Self in χ (Christ).

Navigating the Lost and Weary Road: The Human Plight

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

~(Jung 1967, para. 335).

We are not the sum of what happened to us in our past. Instead, we build upon these foundational blocks in ways that shape who we choose to become. Good and bad, we create the picture of our own actualization.

The human psyche has an innate capacity to treat its past as a prison. Even worse, the underlying capacity to feel guilt—while in and of itself a developmental necessity—creates a means by which the soul often takes on elements of shame from collective sources that may have nothing to do with the individual. It is by blocks that the individual psyche builds itself; yet, it also assumes burdens that may not have been of its lot to carry. Whether those stones were carved from joy or quarried from “darkness,” it is our plight to make conscious those underlying elements that form the strength of the block, so that we can shape the road to our destiny.

“Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.”

~(Stevenson 1881, para. 4).

Navigating the weary road: oh, what a labor of love it is. It is there that we stop being victims and assume stewardship over our own destiny, arriving in due time at its hidden temple. It is here that suffering builds us to make sense of the beauty within—a coordinate where χ (Christ) calls us to our inner sanctum.

Finding the One: The Treasure of Χριστός (Christ)

The Diamond and the Master Jeweler: E Pluribus Unum

Have you ever truly seen the brilliance of a diamond? We are told it is just a lump of coal—but is it? Over millennia, that single element is ground down and subjected to such immense heat and pressure that it loses its opacity and finds a terrifying clarity.

But its brilliance does not stop with the pressure. It takes a Master Jeweler to make precise cuts in that rock to amplify its light. Once fully refined, that once brittle and porous element becomes the hardest, strongest, and most beautiful substance known to man. The soul, as Teresa of Avila reminds us, is no different. We are “Out of Many, One”—taking the many “blocks” of our past and allowing the Master to cut them into a singular and brilliant abode, we find brilliance, strength, and the will to persevere in the direction we seek.

The Master Room

“I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many mansions, just as in heaven there are many mansions.”

~(Teresa of Avila 1577, 1.1).

If you have two mirrors positioned opposite each other and stand between them, looking into one at an angle, you will see an infinite loop. The reflection mirrors itself as far back as the consciousness that perceives it can reach, until it moves ever smaller into spaces undefinable.

Now, if you focus only on the image of yourself (ego), you will appear as you, in this moment. But if you broaden your focus, you will also see what is behind and in front of you, and see yourself undefined by space. You see yourself from a supraordinate perspective, one I like to see as a world of possibility. As the image grows smaller, it reminds us that, as Carl Jung once stated,

“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

~ (Jung 1973, 33).

But which one are you?

As St. Teresa of Avila states, there are many mirrors in the diamond of the soul, as there are mansions in heaven. Yet, I cannot help but wonder, in what reflective space does the beauty of the soul’s daimon rest?

Look into this loop and meditate. The beauty of the soul’s daimon rests in the stillness at the center. It is a “Master Room” that does not move, even as the reflections appear to recede into infinity. While we traveled the road, we sought to awaken from reflections on the weariness of past dreams or future ambitions. Yet, it is when we realize that we are the one standing in the center, held by a supraordinate perspective of that being who guides us, that maybe, just then, can we realize that χ (Christ) marks the spot, and the one who sees us is both the mirror and the light.

The Call to Spiritual Rest: Finding the Spiritual Center in Χριστός (Christ)

On the road less traveled, we often find ourselves weary and longing for nourishment. It is important to take breaks and replenish the body on long and arduous journeys. Life is no different; these small moments to reflect and reorient toward our destination represent a calling back to the mirror of the soul—the Imago Dei. It is here that stillness can reign, and we may just receive a glimpse of the beauty of that person who is, was, and is becoming, seen through the mirror of infinite possibilities.

To “rest” in Χριστός (Christ) is to stop chasing the receding reflections of who we were or who we might be. When we stop trying to outrun our shadows to manufacture our own light, we find peace. Even more importantly, it is within the stillness that rest provides that we are invited to speak with the inner daimon of the soul—that unique beauty existing within each of us. It didn’t need to be found; instead, it needed only nurturance to find its guiding light in the “outside” world.

As you step into this Master Room, remember that the “supraordinate perspective” is not a cold, distant eye. It is the gaze of a Master Jeweler who has walked the weary road alongside you, precisely cutting the image of the diamond your soul held within, and who now invites you to simply rest and be.

Carry on, wayward sons and daughters, for the search will soon find its destination, where Χριστός (Christ) marks the spot.

Bibliography

Jung, C. G. 1967. Alchemical Studies. Translated by R. F. C. Hull. Vol. 13 of The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. First published 1945.
Jung, C. G. 1973. Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume I, 1906-1950. Edited by Gerhard Adler and Aniela Jaffé. Translated by R. F. C. Hull. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. 1881. Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co.
Teresa of Avila. (1577) 1921. The Interior Castle. Translated by the Benedictines of Stanbrook. London: Thomas Baker.
The Holy Bible: New American Bible Revised Edition. Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2011.