9. What is the Second Coming?
If one were to Google “The Second Coming,” there would be a myriad of information available from a poem by W.B. Yeats to the extreme sentiments of day involving fear and reckoning. Like the human experience, one will find a plethora of contrasting information ranging a broad spectrum to conjure up on all types emotions. Luckily, over the next ten lessons we will walk in how the Course identifies with the concept of the Second Coming, giving us a much more neutral approach to the guaranteed end of madness.
“Christ’s Second Coming, which is sure as God, is merely the correction of mistakes, and the return of sanity. It is a part of the condition that restores the never lost, and re-establishes what is forever and forever true. It is the invitation to God’s Word to take illusion’s place; the willingness to let forgiveness rest upon all things without exception and without reserve” (ACIM 9. What is the Second Coming? 1:1-3).
In truth, we have already touched upon the Second Coming. As we have walked through the lessons we have been given glimpses from time to time, abiding in a state beyond forgiveness, where the mind is fully corrected and vision fully restored. The Second Coming is merely the moment when we all live this truth together. It is when our brothers and sisters will join us in our holy state as One. It is the return of the Christ Mind 100% of the time, without waiver, without pause, without needing or wanting to return to any illusion. It is a state where we fully realize the beauty and abundance of our Oneness and live it.
In the country of Peru there is transportation system called, collectivos, a “no-frills” van waiting to take groups of people to a particular destination. Collectivos typically do not have a timetable to follow, unlike buses or trains. Rather, as people show up, whenever they do, once the van is full, the driver takes off. It is a pulsing and living example of “perfect timing that needs no particular time at all.” One day, as I was sitting on the collectivo, waiting for more brothers and sisters to arrive who were heading towards my destination, I realized how these collectivos were like the Ascension, the Second Coming. Some folks may understand forgiveness and arrive to their Identity as Christ before another, thus arriving to the collectivo a bit earlier, but we patiently wait for others to join us, until the tipping point is reached, the van is full, and off we go, the Ascension of All. On the collectivo, no seat is left empty. We all go fully or no one goes at all. Like the Second Coming, no brother or sister gets left behind and no pinkies get left out of Heaven. We all go as One. It is a day we cannot decide for another but what we can do is be the living invitation by our example. We can shine the beacon of peace and joy on the collectivo while we wait for others, who shall arrive in perfect time.
The Second Coming is the guaranteed day of our holy return as One. It marks the time when we no longer need lessons to reach the Truth but where we are the living Truth, not just for a moment, not just for a breath, and not even prompted by a daily statement. We arrive to a state where questions and forgiveness are longer needed because we are IT.
“It [the Second Coming] needs your eyes and ears and hands and feet. It needs your voice. And most of all it needs your willingness. Let us rejoice that we can do God’s Will, and join together in its holy light. Behold, the Son of God is one in us, and we can reach our Father’s Love through Him” (ACIM 9. What is the Second Coming? 5:1-6).
The Second Coming is knowing fully that the world holds nothing for us. We fully ascend with no longer having the curiosity to descend into a maddening world. It is an Identity fully restored and a mind fully integrated. The key here is to allow “fully” this Coming to come through you, for good, no longer leaving the “little pinky outside of Heaven.” You do the work only you can do so that we can all return together.
We will walk as One over the following lessons to experience how the Second Coming can emerge peacefully in our existence. We have already touched upon it many, many times without calling it such a name as the “Second Coming.” Now, we just step into remembering how we can live as the Christ, always, and as One, creating the tipping point for the collectivo Home. Namaste.