II. SECTION 14. What am I?
- 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 resides. 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 saviors 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 gate 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 that hear the Voice for God proclaim the world as sinless. Ours the minds that 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.[1]
Dear brothers, we are nearing the end of our first year of study together. We have already accepted our place in the Sonship of God. Yet in today’s lesson, Jesus drives home the points in which we have been schooled in astounding clarity. First, Jesus tells us Who He is, in verse one. Then He assures us, that what He is, we are – God’s Son. This means:
- We are complete and healed and whole.
- We shine in the reflection of our Father’s Love.
- Creation is blessed and eternal through our devotion.
- In us, Love is perfected.
- We have no fear.
- We are so joyful that there is no room for what would be the opposite.
- We are the holy home of God who abides in us and works through us.
- We are the Heaven where His Love lives out through us.
- We are sinless, for God, our Creator is sinless.
- We are pure because God is pure.
Check, check, check. Our hearts are gratified. We always knew this was the truth. It is written upon our hearts, and under the shadow of our darkened, ego-besotted mind, we knew the Love of God. We knew our place in His Kingdom. Our hearts were sick over the separation; we lost our way in this tricky dick world, we thought we were damned for our sins, only to find that we made a mistake, a wrong turn, a detour into darkness – but could never be lost because we belong to Him who made us and calls us His own!
This has been an enlightening year for us, brothers. Sharing the single purpose, which turned our special relationships into holy brotherhood. We can say, along with Jesus: “What I am, you are. What you are, I am.” The truth of what we are can never be spoken of or described with words or human tongue. But words are needed to explain our function in the world. We need words to speak of it and teach it – but words are of no use at all if we are not able to demonstrate what we speak of and teach in our daily lives.
Let us be then what Christ calls us to be – harbingers and heralds, we! Choosing His vision and not our own, we become one with Christ; we are the Second Coming; we bring salvation to the world. Letting Christ alone become us, the world is forgiven and redeemed through His vision. His vision is the gift He gives to us – in that we see everyone as our brother; we perceive all things as gentle and kind. Our thirst for blood and bloodshed is over. Our craving for judgment and condemnation, sin, and guilt and shame has gone away. Blithely we suffer the cruelties of this world – trials of the body are over and done with, so far removed that we barely remember the sting, even as it appears to be happening. We are no longer flesh but spirit, no longer bound in time, but free.
We have no other real function than to welcome the truth, bring the Light, become the Second Coming. We go to the gate of Heaven together. Nobody gets in until all are standing there as one, Creation healed of sick substitutes, mistaken identities put down forever. There, in oneness, we will finally know God, Who is One with us. Dare we believe, dear brothers. Is this too good to be true? Would we instead trust sin, judgment, and eternal damnation? Would we make the ego’s fear our religion? Will we call our God bloodthirsty and cruel, calling for sacrifice and shame?
Let us give our eyes to Christ’s vision and see a world redeemed from every thought of sin. Let us bend our ears to the Voice for God, proclaiming the world as it was created, pure and innocent, and shining with the joy of love and light. Let us use our holy imaginations to join together and bless the world, lifting the curse of fear and corruption. Let us call Creation to share in our courage and boldness, to bring peace and consummate our joy.
What are we? We are holy messengers of God. We speak for Him and carry His word to those He sends to us. We remember what is written on our hearts, and when we remember, others remember. We have lived our life, we have learned our lessons, we have changed our minds – we thought we were here to prove our independence from God, but now we know we are here to remember Him and bring His memory to the minds of the splintered brotherhood. We bring the happy news of redemption. We return our hearts and minds to God and become One with Him Who made us His Son.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. 14. What am I…Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition, p. 479.
the friar patch 