ACIM Chapter 13. X. Release from Guilt, 12-14

X. Release from Guilt, P 12

12 No illusion that you have ever held against him has touched his innocence in any way. His shining purity, wholly untouched by guilt and wholly loving, is bright within you. Let us look upon him together and love him. For in love of him is your guiltlessness. But look upon yourself, and gladness and appreciation for what you see will banish guilt forever. I thank You, Father, for the purity of Your most holy Son, whom You have created guiltless forever.

When someone’s behavior seems to threaten me, it can be hard to accept that person’s innocence. For instance, when I was working, there were people, coworkers, and customers who I had to learn to see differently. Sometimes, it is a relative that I seem to resent and seem unable to forgive, even one I love very much. But understanding that the reason it is harder is because it feels threatening helps me to become willing to see differently.

What is really happening in these cases is that I am fearful, so I am trying to defend myself. It really isn’t about the other person; it is about me. Isn’t that always the case? It is always about me. I don’t forgive others; I just forgive my projections onto them, or I defend those projections. I have one of those situations right now, and I know that rather than forgiving, I am defending. But I really want to stop doing that.

I love this paragraph because it helps me forgive and return to peace.

Jesus is letting me know that my projections on my relative are not affecting him in any way. He is still innocent and as God created him, no matter how I see him right now. And, despite my distorted vision, I can still find him because his “shining purity, wholly untouched by guilt and wholly loving, is bright within” me. Jesus says that we can look together, and I am taking him up on this offer.

I am not alone in this, and that is the point. I will not heal my mind on my own, but my desire for a healed mind will allow my mind to be healed. So together, Jesus and I will look on my guiltless brother, and in doing so, my own guiltlessness will be revealed to me. I close my eyes, and I place my fear on the altar so there will be nothing blocking my vision.

Then, holding hands with Jesus, I “look” at my brother, not trying to see him differently, just allowing myself to see what was always there behind my fear. I am not making anything happen but only allowing the truth to be shown to me. I wonder how this will unfold in my story of this person and our interactions, and I look forward to finding out.

X. Release from Guilt, P 13

13 Like you, my faith and my belief are centered on what I treasure. The difference is that I love only what God loves with me, and because of this I treasure you beyond the value that you set on yourself, even unto the worth that God has placed upon you. I love all that He created, and all my faith and my belief I offer unto it. My faith in you is as strong as all the love I give my Father. My trust in you is without limit, and without the fear that you will hear me not. I thank the Father for your loveliness, and for the many gifts that you will let me offer to the Kingdom in honor of its wholeness that is of God.

What a wonderful paragraph this is! Like you, my faith and my belief are centered on what I treasure. This is how it works for Jesus and how it works for us. What do I treasure? I decide the answer to that question each moment. I would like to tell you that right now, I always treasure peace, but that is not true. This morning, I woke up with anxiety about someone I love. But I have learned not to settle for that.

I remind myself that this is just thought, and thought is the veil that hides reality from my awareness. Lesson 10 tells me the thoughts I think I think are meaningless. I will not treasure the meaningless, and thus, I will not put my faith in them. I let forgiveness heal my mind as I am still and quietly do nothing. And I stopped fighting the thoughts and let them disappear due to a lack of interest.

The difference is that I love only what God loves with me…

I appreciate this phrase. It touches my heart and my mind. If Jesus can do this, so can we all and I attain to it. God loves my dear friend, and love is not anxious. The ego insists that I worry about him because I love him. Because this is the ego’s belief, I know it must be backward. It must be that if I love my friend, I will trust him to find his path home.

The rest of that sentence says, …and because of this I treasure you beyond the value that you set on yourself, even unto the worth that God has placed upon you. Thank you, Brother, for your faith and your patience and for your certainty in me. I sometimes fail to treasure myself, and sometimes, I lose faith that God has established my worth. But when I share my doubts with you, I am comforted and healed. I am learning from your example how to live as I am meant to.

I love all of God’s Creation because He loves His Creation.

And when I fail to do this, I change my mind and forgive myself. God created all that is, and so I am learning to love all without exception. I am learning that to love is to have faith and belief in my brothers, even when the ego says it is not warranted. I have faith in who they really are. And I support them and love their efforts to move forward on their path, even when it seems they are not, just as Jesus does for me. Minds are one, so it matters. It helps.

My faith in you is as strong as all the love I give my Father. My trust in you is without limit, and without the fear that you will hear me not. I cannot say that my faith in myself is this strong. Nor is my faith in my dear friend and others this strong. But I know that it can and will be strengthened as I remind myself of the truth and as I practice forgiveness. I appreciate Jesus’ trust in me so much! It upholds me when I feel weak, and I am lifted out of my confusion. As I am healed, I will do this for others. Jesus says he is grateful to us, and I express my gratitude to him by following his lead.

X. Release from Guilt, P 14

14 Praise be to you who make the Father one with His Own Son. Alone we are all lowly, but together we shine with brightness so intense that none of us alone can even think of it. Before the glorious radiance of the Kingdom guilt melts away, and transformed into kindness will never more be what it was. Every reaction you experience will be so purified that it is fitting as a hymn of praise unto your Father. See only praise of Him in what He has created, for He will never cease His praise of you. United in this praise we stand before the gates of Heaven where we will surely enter in our sinlessness. God loves you. Could I, then, lack faith in you and love Him perfectly?

Here is what I think when I read this. God knows me as He created me. He knows nothing that is out of alignment with that creation. He loves me. Jesus says that he would not love God perfectly if he lacked faith in me. So, this would be true for me, too. To love God perfectly, I must have faith in my brothers because God created them. So, how does this unfold in my life?

Mostly, at this point, I observe when I fail to have faith.

I see the judgmental thoughts in my mind. I look at my justifications for my faithlessness. Then, I ask that my mind be corrected. I ask that I might see my brother differently. I trust that this prayer will be answered, and I will accept the answer as quickly and completely as possible.

Before the glorious radiance of the Kingdom guilt melts away, and transformed into kindness will never more be what it was. I do my part to bring awareness of this to us all as I forgive. When I, once again, get distracted by my projections and start to think someone is guilty, I remind myself that this cannot be true. I remind myself that this one is part of God’s most holy Son, created in His image, and could only ever be that perfect creation. If I see guilt, then it must be a false image I am looking at, a projection of false thoughts I have left unhealed in my mind. And so I forgive them.

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