The Christ Principle
Pere Teilhard wrote that "By Baptism in cosmic matter and in sacramental water we are more Christ than ourselves, and it is precisely because of this predominance of Christ in us that we can one day expect to be fully ourselves." Paul: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory." This is to say that the principle is the Christ conception, the realization of the Christ principal as exhibited in the Christ person which brings you in touch with the personal element in the universal spirit, the divine creative, the first moving spirit of the Universe. Therefore, it is so essential that you should know the law of your own mind and realize its continual amenability to suggestion.
The overwhelming fact about our world is that the majority if its people are poor, exploited, and marginalized. This forces us to realize the chief sign of the times in all its force and meaning. That sign is Jesus the poor person. We cannot dissociate the condition of the poor and oppressed from the mystery of Christ. Jesus presents himself to us as the chief liberator, and we can recognize Him as such. His condition of poverty is no accident. It is a necessity of all salvation history, and representative of God's unfathomable love. The liberating love of God is ever linked historically to the poor. It is clear that from the very first, Christian faith was community rather than just the faith of scattered individuals.
To understand these things is to have the mind of Christ formed in you. Salvation is not enough, you need to be led by His Spirit in order to reach out in others in unselfish love.
The Christ Principle is Jesus formed in us. The phrase to be "in Christ" in Paul's letters many times means "in the Christian community", part of the body of Christ. Being in that body does not stand for a private kind of mysticism; the mystical element is in the unity of our faith to the faith of others. To be in Christ is to be in the church.
