Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
Lesson 58 Review of Lessons 36-40
- (36) My holiness envelops everything I see.
From my holiness, does the perception of the real world come. Having forgiven, I no longer see myself as guilty. I can accept the innocence that is the truth about me. Seen through understanding eyes, the holiness of the world is all I see, for I can picture only the thoughts I hold about myself.
- (37) My holiness blesses the world.
The perception of my holiness does not bless me alone. Everyone and everything I see in its light shares in the joy it brings to me. There is nothing that is apart from this joy because there is nothing that does not share my holiness. As I recognize my holiness, so does the holiness of the world shine forth for everyone to see.
- (38) There is nothing my holiness cannot do.
My holiness is unlimited in its power to heal because it is unlimited in its power to save. What is there to be saved from except illusions? And what are all illusions except false ideas about myself? My holiness undoes them all by asserting the truth about me. In the presence of my holiness, which I share with God Himself, all idols vanish.
- (39) My holiness is my Salvation.
Since my holiness saves me from all guilt, recognizing my holiness is recognizing my Salvation. It is also recognizing the Salvation of the world. Once I have accepted my holiness, nothing can make me afraid. And because I am unafraid, everyone must share in my understanding, which is the gift of God to me and to the world.
- (40) I am blessed as a Son of God.
Herein lies my claim to all good and only good. I am blessed as a Son of God. All good things are mine because God intended them for me. I cannot suffer any losses or deprivation or pain because of who I am. My Father supports me and directs me in all things. His care for me is infinite and is with me forever. I am eternally blessed as His son.[1]
Notes and Personal Application (2019): Morning Prayer – Thank you for this review of the ideas in this Course, Holy Spirit. Thank you for reminding me of what I have learned and for taking me one step at a time to the fullness of truth. I want my thoughts to be part of the mind of my Creator and part of creation itself! I desire to only think with God, for God’s Kingdom come, and God’s Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. I want to shine my light and join with my Lord and Savior and take my part in the Sonship of God and the Brotherhood of Christ. In the name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.
Morning Meditation – My holiness envelops everything I see. And from it comes my perception of the real world, the one that God created and pronounced good! This is the world that I long for, the world in which I believe. This is the world I talk about, think about, and prepare myself for – the world of love, peace, joy, and goodness. This world and body, which is a symbol of the separation, is not my prison, but instead a learning device. The ego meant it for my prison; the ego meant it for my trap and my depression and my torture, but the Holy Spirit makes this world, this dream, a learning device. My body is a learning device for communication. My body is a learning device to practice miracles. Today when James went on about politics, about the government, about this character, and that character within the melodrama that is playing out in the ego realm, I could keep my mind on the real world. I used the ego world as a comparison for the real world where only Love rules and only creativity and brotherhood are valued. James understands when I do not engage with him. He respects what I am doing, the path I am on. However, I talked to him about when this happens with others. What do I say when people want to engage me in this kind of conversation in which I have no interest? I will trust the Holy Spirit to tell me when that occurs.
Daily Prayer – Holy Spirit, I ask You to guide and protect me and keep me on the right path. Remove all my fear and hesitation, my worries about losing control, and let me know in every part of my being that Holy Spirit will never force God’s will upon me or coerce me to do anything in which I do not choose to do. When I ask for Holy Spirit, I will not get a stone or a rock in which to hang about my neck and drown me, as the ego would have me fear. Instead, I will be reminded of the holiness, in which I was created. I have followed the guidance of Holy Spirit in studying the Course, and I trust in the love of Christ to protect my mind so that it can recognize wholeness and purity and light. In Jesus’ name, I offer this prayer. Amen.
Notes and Personal Application (2020): Another trip to work with James during our devotional this morning – here in central Pennsylvania, it is a blustery, cold, damp day, and I am chilled and a bit under the weather. The wind had riddled my night with troubling sounds and rumblings, interrupting my sleep, and disturbing my dreams. In Virginia, it is sunshine and blue skies. James had a good night’s sleep and sounds jubilant – today he is coming home, and tonight he’ll be back in his own bed with his wife – me! We are giddy about it, like two overgrown kids, which does not at all embarrass us or make us afraid. This is the way we are called to love one another. This other thing that happens in the world where we would grow bored and nonchalant towards one another and be afraid to express our joy – ashamed to share it, worried about ridicule or worse, it being snatched away? That is called fear, and in love, there is no place at all for that kind of thing.
Today we discussed how last year we were so afraid of holiness. When the Course lessons began to call forth our own holiness, we were so put off. None is holy, but God! That is what we have always been taught. We are the sinners. We are the ones who grovel before the big I AM and beg for His mercy. We could never call ourselves holy. And yet, until we accepted our holiness, we were serving the wrong idea of Who God is, for God, our Holy Father, would and could make nothing less than holy.
As long as we identify with sin, we are not going to get off the ego’s go-round of unworthiness, shame, guilt, and constant state of repentance, sacrifice, and forgiveness that so many Christians spend their life orbiting. This is an unhealthy, unproductive, go-nowhere cycle that harms our self-esteem and keeps us in a subservient, cringing state of continually trying to appease our Father for our fallen nature. Get over it, Jesus says. Forget about darkness and come to the Light. God created goodness and perfection. He has never commanded us to fear Him, only love Him, to remember Him. When we remember Him, we remember ourselves. When we remember Him, we remember who and what we are, and we are holy like Him.
Our holy books in the upside-down world of fear and death have purposefully led us to fear God and to come before Him with butchery and blood, wailing and flailing, prancing about with outlandish postures, silly rituals, ridiculous headdresses, self-mutilations, and denial. Can you really believe this is the God of Love Who calls to you and has placed within you natural piety and inclination to love from birth?
That which is within us is our salvation. We are saved from guilt because we know we are not of this world. Our body is not sinful, nor is it a saint; it is only a temple which houses the inner altar of God – our holiness, our perfect Holy Spirit, our perfect Holy Self. When we begin to identify with our Holy Self, we are identifying with Jesus, we are identifying with God, we are bringing God’s Kingdom to the world. This is the most natural and joyful expression of life. Babies have an awareness of their holiness; toddlers may still retain it; sometimes, it lasts until puberty; but for most of us, the world does its unrighteous best to knock it about, dent and mar it, scare the holiness of God straight out of our awareness. Jesus teaches us in the Course that we can never lose it – it is, after all, God’s Gift to everyone and for all time. Nothing we do in the body can ever make it go away, because God does not take His gifts away.
Today let us meditate upon our holiness. Let us dwell upon who and what we really are and stop allowing the world to tell us that we are anything less than what God has created. When we stop identifying with our bodies and start recognizing our reality in Christ, we are set free from the world of love and hate, birth and death, black and white, rich and poor, male and female, Greek and Jew. We are one. We are holy. We are whole. Let this be our reality today and always!
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 58…Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). pp. 96-97.
the friar patch 