The guilty cannot be one with God; their guilt will not allow it. When we believe that we are guilty, we believe that we are separate - from God, from each other, and from creation itself. We are guilty because we are separate, and separate because we are guilty.
It is a vicious cycle which can only be ended by our willingness to perceive only innocence in all our brothers and sisters.
Seek not to appraise the worth of God's Son whom He created holy, for to do so is to evaluate his Father and judge against Him. And you will feel guilty for this imagined crime, which no one in this world or Heaven could possibly commit (T-14.III.15:1-2).
When I judge you, I judge your creator. When I judge your creator I judge my own. It is the latter judgement that causes guilt. As brothers and sisters, we share the Divine Parent. Who can judge against God's creation and not experience guilt? We literally know better.
We rarely experience this guilt - and this judgement - in such overtly religious terms. It is more like so-and-so gossips too much at work. Or this or that biological parent was an alcoholic given to violence. We all have grievances; we have all been wronged. And we feel justified in our grievances. We don't notice the way they ensnare us in an existential crisis.
A Course in Miracles allows us to bring this crisis into the light by articulating it, and emphasizing our role in the process. The emphasis on self-responsibility is not to heighten our guilt, much less to punish it. Rather, it is to emphasize how near we are to salvation. We simply need to change our mind.
When you accept a brother's guiltlessness you will see the Atonement in him. For by proclaiming it in him you make it yours, and you will see what you have sought . . . His guiltlessness is your Atonement (T-14.IV.1:1-2, 4).
This is a gift that we give to each other. It is a gift we must give to each other. For until we do, we cannot undo the confusion that obscures our shared oneness with God.
The state of guiltlessness is only the condition in which what is not there has been removed from the disordered mind that thought it was. This state, and only this, must you attain, with God beside you. For until until you do, you will still think that you are separate from Him (T-14.IV.2:2-4).
The work is to identify those we exclude from salvation by virtue of judging against them. Our judgment - you did this, you violated the law of Love, you betrayed God - is a form of attack. It does not matter how righteous we feel or how apparently justified. It does not matter if the whole world agrees with us.
The attack on the other is always an attack on God for which - deep in our mind - we cannot help but feel guilty. And these guilt feelings exclude us from salvation. Our apparent guilt excludes us from the peace and joy that naturally attends remembering we cannot be apart from God or Creation.
When we identify the one we have judged against, we are invited to re-evaluate them, with the Teacher Who knows only innocence.
Say to the Holy Spirit only, "Decide for me," and it is done. For His decisions are reflections of what God knows about you, and in this light, error of any kind becomes impossible (T-14.III.16:1-2).
The Holy Spirit does not show us that we are bad for having judged against our brother or sister. Rather, the Holy Spirit reminds us that our power of judgment is itself an illusion and thus has no effects. We remain as God created us (e.g., T-31.VIII.5:1).
How gracious it is to decide all things through Him Whose equal Love is given equally to all alike! He leaves you no one outside you (T-14.III.17:1-2).
Again, sometimes the elevated language of ACIM obscures its practicality. We are called to be in relationship, and in each and every one, seek only that which speaks to the shared innocence of creation, which alone reflects God's Love. The act of judging against a brother or sister is the veil which obscures their truth and thus our own.
We do not need to be forgiven for doing this, because in reality it cannot be done. But we do need to remember - and practice, over and over - seeing beyond the veil imposed by our judgment.
Ask not to be forgiven, for this has already been accomplished. Ask, rather, to learn how to forgive, and to restore what always was to your unforgiving mind. Atonement becomes real and visible to those who use it (T-14.IV.3:4-6).
A Course in Miracles is an invitation to practice a form of of love the world does not teach because it does not know it. We are called over and over to return to the site of judgment, gaze clearly at the fear, anger and hatred that give rise to it, and then ask to be shown another way.
And then to live that way with all our heart and mind . . .
I share your sense that this is impossible. Yet I also testify what you have taught me over and over - that the light of Christ in us is given charge of everything we do, simply through our shared acknowledgment it is real (T-31.VIII.2:6). It is Christ, not you and I, Who forgives. Yet it is you and I, together, who remember Christ.
There is no cause for guilt anywhere - yours, mine or anyone else's. We are saved because there is nothing to be saved from. Were it not for you, I would not know it for myself. And if I do not know it for myself, I cannot teach it to you.
Together then, let us spend this day in stillness, extending the joy that naturally attends remembering we "belong to the First Cause, created by Him like unto Himself" (T-14.IV.2:1). Let us atone for the whole world not by overlooking sin but by seeing only sinlessness, which is our reality, given us in Creation to be given back in an eternally fruitful cycle of Love.
Love,
Sean
I liked this a lot too Carl, in fact I loved it. And....... I re-read it too, as I think it is probably the most important part of undoing the illusions that we are creating in this crazy world.
Until we get this fundamental teaching/truth we will never be able to truly forgive.
I particularly liked the quote from the Course "Ask not to be forgiven, for this has already been accomplished. Ask, rather, to learn how to forgive, and to restore what always was to your unforgiving mind. Atonement becomes real and visible to those who use it (T-14.IV.3:4-6)." The baby steps are to forgive another for the grievance against you or the world, the Big step is to see the sinlessness/innocence in everyone and everything. It is then that you can begin to see that we could not have attacked God, it is then the freedom comes.
Thank you for the wise words Sean "Let us atone for the whole world not by overlooking sin but by seeing only sinlessness, which is our reality, given us in Creation to be given back in an eternally fruitful cycle of Love." Beautiful way to end your post.
Much Love as Always, Suzy xx
I have re-read this a number of times, returning to it each day, because I like it a lot.