Daily Lesson

  

L e s s o n  357

Truth answers every call we make to God,
Responding first with miracles, and then
Returning unto us to be itself.     

<AUDIO> <VIDEO>   

Hear Today's Lesson~Voice & Music by Martin Weber-Caspers[maz] 

IAMBIC PENTAMETER 
Format from URTEXT by Lee Flynn 

   "Forgiveness, truth's reflection, tells me how

    to offer miracles and thus escape

    the prison house in which I think I live.

    Your holy Son is pointed out to me,

    first in my brother; then in me. Your Voice

    instructs me patiently to hear Your Word,

    and give as I receive. And as I look

    upon Your Son today, I hear Your Voice

    instructing me to find the way to You

    as You appointed that the way shall be:

    'Behold his sinlessness and be you saved.

     Look on the Christ in him, and he is healed.'"

     ~ Original Handscript of ACIM   February 16, 1971     

 What Am I? 

 <AUDIO> <VIDEO>      

Voice & Music by Martin Weber-Caspers [maz] 

IAMBIC PENTAMETER
Format from URTEXT by Lee Flynn       

   "I am God's Son, complete and healed and whole,

    shining in the reflection of His Love.

    In me is His creation sanctified

    and guaranteed eternal life. In me

    is love perfected, fear impossible,

    and joy established without opposite.

    I am the holy home of God Himself.

    I am the Heaven where His Love abides.

    I am His holy Sinlessness Itself,

    for in my purity abides His own."

   Our use for words is almost over now.

   Yet in the final days of this one year

   we gave to God together, you and I,

   we found a single purpose that we shared.

   And thus you joined with me. So what I am

   are you as well. The truth of what we are

   is not for words to speak of nor describe.

   Yet we can realize our function here,

   and words can speak of this, and teach it, too,

   if we exemplify the words in us.

   We are the bringers of salvation. We

   accept our part as Saviours of the world,

   which through our joint forgiveness is redeemed.

   And this, our gift, is therefore given us.

   We look on everyone as brother, and

   perceive all things as kindly and as good.

   We do not seek a function that is past

   the gates of Heaven. Knowledge will return

   when we have done our part. We are concerned

   only with giving welcome to the truth.

   Ours are the eyes through which Christ's vision sees

   a world redeemed from every thought of sin.

   Ours are the ears which hear the Voice of God

   proclaim the world as sinless. Ours the minds

   which join together as we bless the world.

   And from the oneness that we have attained

   we call to all our brothers, asking them

   to share our peace and consummate our joy.

   We are the holy messengers of God,

   who speak for Him. And carrying His Word

   to everyone whom He has sent to us,

   we learn that It is written on our hearts.

   And thus our minds are changed about the aim

   for which we came and which we seek to serve.

   We bring glad tidings to the Son of God,

   who thought he suffered. Now is he redeemed.

   And as he sees the gate of Heaven stand

   open before him, he will enter in

   and disappear into the Heart of God.

   ~ Original Handscript of ACIM  February 10, 1971 

ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 

Lesson  357    
 Truth answers every call we make to God,
Responding first with miracles, and then
Returning unto us to be itself.

Sarah's Commentary:         

It is through forgiveness, and only forgiveness that we escape the prison house which we made and which keeps us trapped until we recognize the way out. The truth is that we don't really live in this prison house, in this world we made, but we think we do. But to be released from this prison we must question every one of our false concepts and false beliefs. Every doubt thought that we hold about ourselves must be questioned. We need to ask ourselves often, is this belief that I hold the truth? Is this doubt thought that I hold the truth? When we bring these doubts and false beliefs for healing, when all of our self concepts are questioned and brought to the truth, then we will remember who we are as the Christ Self. It is the choice always available to us, in every situation, to choose the grievance or the Correction. And by our choices in this regard we demonstrate that it is a choice that anyone can make. And thus we become an example of this choice.

"Your holy Son is pointed out to me, first in my brother; then in me". (1.2) Our doubts and fears are projected on our brothers. That is the first place that we will see them. I see sin in my brother which is how I can see my own projections of  my own sin seen "out" in the world. But if I take back what I project and recognize that it is my own unhealed mind, then I can look at it, recognize it as mine and release it. This may seem to be a painful process at first and in fact, may engender fear. But when we allow our private, deeply hidden parts of our mind to surface, the miracle shows us the truth of our innocence. There is absolutely no difference between what we see on the 'outside' and what we believe about what is on the inside. So it is only our perception that needs to be healed.

For example, I am looking after my mother who is 96 years old and is experiencing sadness and loneliness about her situation. When I try to be available to her to as often as I can so she won't feel neglected, I am distracting from my own sadness and loneliness. I am thus called to go within to look at what is showing up in my mind rather than try to address in form, what I think is there in her and thus distract from my own inner turmoil. When I stay with what is showing up in my mind, and release it, then I can be truly guided to ask how to respond to my mother from a place of love rather than guilt and fear.

 We think our perception is the truth. We rationalize and justify the way we see things.  We defend the objectivity of our perceptions. That is how the prison house in which we think we live was made. But every time we offer forgiveness we make a call to God and it is always answered. When we can "behold his sinlessness" (1.5)  itis then a reflection of our own healing.  We   first see it in our brother which we do when our false perceptions are brought to light.  So with willingness, desire and great humility, we can experience the healing that will return us to the gates of heaven. Be as little children "Be humble before Him yet great in Him" (T.15.IV) We are guided every step of the way and with His guidance we learn to give as we receive.  

What the miracle does is undo our misperceptions. The whole course is about making a shift in how we perceive the world, ourselves, others and every event and circumstance in our lives. It all starts with what is in front of us now and what we are believing about our experiences. The work starts with where we are right now because of our belief in our perceptions. We believe we are bodies living in this world with others who hurt us and upset us. Now we can start by asking for help in how we are seeing any situation so that we can see our brother who seems to be bringing pain to our minds, as God's Son. We are not separate. It is forgiveness, which is a reflection of God's Love that allows this new perception to reign in our minds. Now we can see our brother as sinless. But first we need to see how we are currently judging our brother and ask for a new perception. To withhold our brother's sinlessness is to undo our misperceptions of him and thus we receive the gift of innocence for ourselves.   

 I have been working today on some judgments that I have made about a brother who I saw as selfish. Those judgments were exacerbated as I judged the behavior not to be fitting of a course student. Sometimes as students of the course, we think we know more than others and use this learning as metaphysical nazi's always watching for their errors! Upon further examination when more sanity dawned on my mind,  I looked at my mind  and realized it was my own judgment of myself that I needed to heal. And in bringing my perceptions to the Holy Spirit the way back to peace was opened up. It is in that opening that the miracle will arise.

So our greatest opportunity to learn forgiveness is from those very people that we would rather not see, those we would avoid, ignore, dislike, dismiss, fear, hate, condemn, make comparisons, etc. They offer us another opportunity to look at the judgments we are making and the painful aspects of our own minds. As Jesus reminds us "only what you have not given can be lacking in any situation". (T.17.VII.4.1)All seemingly unhappy circumstances are there for our awakening. "What is joyful to you is painful to the ego, and as long as you are in doubt about what you are, you will be confused about joy and pain". (T.7.X.3.6) As he tells us often that we can't tell our greatest advances on this journey of healing from our biggest retreats.  

To see divinity in our brother is to recognize that the same divinity must be in us. If we are attacking our brother and demeaning him, and being mean and spiteful or falsely empathetic and identifying with his weakness,  then clearly we see this capacity in ourselves and will decide that we can't possibly be God's Son. We thus deny ourselves  our own inherent innocence.  When we extend forgiveness, love and acceptance to our brothers, the path is cleared for our own acceptance of that same love and acceptance for ourselves. We are constantly assessing our own behavior towards others. And it is on that basis that we judge ourselves.  We simply cannot behave in a mean, spiteful and attacking way and see ourselves as innocent. It is not God's judgment on us but our own.  

 "Your Voice instructs me patiently to hear Your Word, and give as I receive".(1.3)  

Jesus asks us to listen to the Voice for God which is constantly instructing us to find our way back to Him by beholding our brother's sinlessness. It is the law of love again that what we see in our brother we receive for ourselves. That is why we need our brothers as a projection screen where we can see our guilt as well as to find our own innocence. We won't find it in ourselves. We must see it in our brothers first so we can then know it in ourselves.  

"And as I look upon Your Son today, I hear Your Voice instructing me to find the way to You, as You appointed that the way shall be: "Behold his sinlessness, and be you healed."(1.4-5)

 So, our way home is ultimately very practical. Our brother shows us the way home. Our brother is our savior. Our process is not an abstract one which focuses on a mystical experience of union with God. While that kind of experience is motivating and has value, our path is not solitary. We find God through forgiveness of those around us. Pursuing the spiritual experience without the focus on all of our relationships and encounters will only delay our healing. In this season of Christmas, we learn that the Christ is born in the holy relationship. Where an ancient hatred has become a present love is truly holy ground where the Christ in us is born. Amen! 

Love and blessings, Sarah

Sarah's Home Page

Quotes in this article are from Foundation for Inner Peace edition; To locate the same quotes in the 'Original Edition', use this link:  http://www.jcim.net/acim_us/Acim.php  
[Use 'Advanced Search' and Exact Phrase' option]   

On-Line Searchable Edition of Original Edition

 2011 Study Guide Schedule