Beginning Again in Love

Awakening at the intersection of justice and love

When we love someone - a child, a friend, a pet - we are in relationship with them but we are also in relationship with Love. And being in relationship with Love means being in relationship with Justice.

. . . love and justice are not different. Because they are the same does mercy stand at God’s right Hand, and gives the Son of God the power to forgive himself of sin (T-25.VIII.9:9-11).

Justice, like love, is abstract. It's conceptual. We can read and talk about it endlessly. But if the love and justice revealed by our study don't manifest a practice of love and justice then we remain mired in the "sleep of forgetfulness" (T-16.VII.12:4).

The way we live in the world attests in 1:1 correlation to what we believe is true about God and, by extension, Creation, which includes us. Look around you. Is God merciful, just and loving? Or cruel, indifferent and vengeful? Is Creation worthy of love? Under what conditions or circumstances?

Most of us, if we are honest, live in a world in which we do not see endless peace - its comfort, safety and freedom - equally shared. Happiness has not undone the many causes for war. The hungry are still hungry, the naked have no clothes, and the homeless remain unsheltered and unseen.

Ask yourself: does forgiveness shine its "merciful reprieve upon each blade of grass and feathered wing and all the living things upon the earth" (S-3.IV.2:3)?

If not, why not?

Don't retreat into metaphysics! "It's just a dream, Sean." Of course it's a dream, but the dream is instructive! It's the "outside picture of an inside condition" (T-21.in.1:5). The dream matters; it contains important information that we need for salvation. It's not given to be dismissed or ignored but responded to in love.

The whole point of A Course in Miracles (the whole point of following Jesus really) is to learn that all suffering is local, no matter how far away (in time or space) it appears. We are not separate from our brothers and sisters, broadly defined, in any meaningful way (e.g. T-14.XI.11:5).

Justice looks on all in the same way. It is not just that one should lack for what another has. For that is vengeance in whatever form it takes. Justice demands no sacrifice, for any sacrifice is made that sin may be preserved and kept (T-25.VIII.4:2-5).

This is not a new practice of Christianity! "Whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers, that you do unto me." Jesus wasn't saying he was special - he was saying we are all, without exception, equal. Together, we are one. Of course we are always serving him; of course we are always serving our own self. How could it be otherwise?

Jesus undoes specialness by teaching us to stop fixating on personal interests in order to see instead the perfect unity of God's Creation. Our aversion to suffering is shared. If we don't want to experience suffering then we answer the call to end the suffering of our brothers and sisters. Cooperation in the service of happiness and peace is literally what Christ is.

The form that cooperation takes - the form in which we remember Christ - is our "special function" (T-20.IV.5:3).

Your special function shows you nothing else but that perfect justice can prevail for you . . . For only love is just, and can perceive what justice must accord the Son of God. Let love decide, and never fear that you, in your unfairness, will deprive yourself of what God’s justice has allotted you (T-25.VIII.14:3, 6-7).

Is it clear? The Holy Spirit exists to literally teach us how to undo the suffering we perceive right here in the world. Ours and that of our brothers and sisters. It is a form of service we offer one another without exception or condition, and it is a form of service that only we can offer.

Such is the Holy Spirit’s kind perception of specialness . . . To each He gives a special function in salvation he alone can fill; a part for only him. Nor is the plan complete until he finds his special function, and fulfills the part assigned to him . . . (T-25.VI.4:1-3).

Our special function is the means by which we remember that peace is fundamentally limitless, and thus present in all circumstances, no matter how we perceive those circumstances (e.g., T-11.IV.3:1-3). Remembering in this sense is not merely a mental operation, like recalling a lost fact. It's also re-membering in the sense of uniting with our brothers and sisters, a healed - and healing - family.

Limit the peace you share, and your Self must be unknown to you. Every altar to God is part of you, because the light He created is one with Him (T-11.IV.3:2-3).

I don't know what your special function is. I only know mine, and that of a few close companions. It is a very intimate and evolving knowledge. But I do have a good idea about your special function. It is a form of service unto the world that reminds everyone you meet that love, not fear, is their Guide on the journey back to God. It may or may not require words. It absolutely requires your full - whole-hearted, open-minded - presence.

I also know that your special function scares you, at least a little. That is why we hide it in fantasy (I'll get to it one day), indifference (someone else will do it or is already doing it) and doubt (I'm not strong enough / smart enough / brave enough or whatever).

But the truth is, if we are not (at least a little) scared of our special function, then it is not actually our special function. That's because the only way we can teach others that fear is not real is by facing fear in and as our own selves and discovering the specific way in which it is illusory (T-12.I.8:5). This learning and undoing must occur in relationship.

Fear is a symptom of your own deep sense of loss. If when you perceive it in others you learn to supply the loss, the basic cause of fear is removed. Thereby you teach yourself that fear does not exist in you. The means for removing it is in yourself, and you have demonstrated this by giving it (T-12.I.9:1-4).

Your special function is the beautiful thing you are called to do to help heal the world. It's a way of being that's scary because it naturally undoes your defenses against love. It's relational, dialogic and nonviolent. And it's right in front of you, crying out for response.

A Course in Miracles is clear - suffering is a thing we do to our own self (T-27.VIII.10:1). Are we not ready, at last, to see in our brothers and sisters, the way to stop and begin again in love?

~ Sean