Two Seperate Entities?

Loving both Jesus and The Christ
I believe that Francis of Assisi was unique and ahead of his time for loving and relating to both the physical historical Jesus and the creative eternal spirit, The Christ at the same time.   The Christ and Jesus were recognized by Francis and many other early mystics as two separate entities of the central creative source {meaning they are all one in and with God} manifested at different moments in universal time for the same purpose.  To encompass the power and wonder of Gods unconditional love for all that was created.   Most Christians were never taught or encouraged to combine the personal with the universal, or Jesus with the Christ; nor were we told that we could honor and love both of them as different yet also as one in the same. 

Jesus explains in John 10: 30 (KJV) “I and my Father are one.”  How many of us both inside and outside the church today still believe that Jesus’ last name was Christ!  Was it ever suggested to us that the physical Jesus and the creative Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, the Christ were separate entities yet one with God, manifested at different universal times to show the three demotions of God’s love for all his creation?    

Were we ever presented this perspective:  At the Cross, on the day which seemed like a tragedy to all who watched, that the Christ {that which was with God in the beginning Genesis 1: 26 (KJV) “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness and Jesus, would become a resurrected living entity once again for all time.  The mystical writings of John brings it to light for us.   John 1:1 (KJV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  And the word became flesh to dwell among us.  Jesus’ physical death would manifest the eternal Christ.

Some Eastern Fathers and early mystics—like Maximus the Confessor, Symeon the New Theologian, and Gregory of Nyssa—brilliantly taught these ideas, but they remained largely undeveloped in the West after the Great Schism of 1054. This is one example of how the Christ Mystery was portioned out each time the Body of Christ divided (1 Corinthians 1:12-13) or identified with Empire (Matthew 4:8-10), as it did in both Rome and Constantinople.

It is important to place ourselves in the largest possible frame, or we always revert back to a place where both the savior and the saved ones end up being far too small, where Jesus of Nazareth has been separated from the Eternal Christ. Here Christianity becomes just another competing world religion and salvation is privatized because the social and historical message has been lost. The full Gospel is so much bigger and more inclusive than that: Jesus is the historical figure and Christ is the cosmic figure—and together they carry both the individual and history forward.

We made Christ into Jesus’ last name instead of realizing it was the description of his universal role in history and potentially in all world religions. I fully believe that there has never been a single soul that was not possessed by the Eternal Christ, even in the ages before the incarnation of Jesus. And I believe both well-studied Scripture and the Great Tradition will lead you to the same conclusion. Christ is eternal; Jesus is born in time. Jesus without Christ invariably becomes a time-bound and culturally-bound religion that excludes much of humanity from the Christ’s embrace. On the other end, Christ without Jesus would easily become an abstract metaphysics or a mere ideology without personal engagement. We must believe in Jesus and the Christ.

Adapted from morning devotions with Richard Rohr
                                                              "Cosmic Christ"

To here the full interview with Richard click the link below to explore the Cosmic Christ 
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LYQQO5uFtA