ACIM The Atonement as Defense, P 7. The Atonement is a total commitment.
ACIM The Atonement as Defense, P 7
II. The Atonement as Defense, P 7
7 The Atonement is a total commitment. You may still think this is associated with loss, a mistake all the separated Sons of God make in one way or another. It is hard to believe a defense that cannot attack is the best defense. This is what is meant by “the meek shall inherit the earth.” They will literally take it over because of their strength. A two-way defense is inherently weak precisely because it has two edges, and can be turned against you very unexpectedly. This possibility cannot be controlled except by miracles. The miracle turns the defense of Atonement to your real protection, and as you become more and more secure you assume your natural talent of protecting others, knowing yourself as both a brother and a Son.
Like most people, I used to believe that forgiveness was a sacrifice. I thought it meant giving in and inviting people to walk on me. For instance, if I forgave my husband for some perceived mistake, then he would just do it again because now there would be no consequences for his actions. But really, he did anyway, so holding the grievance never helped me in any way. But since it was the only defense I knew, I thought I couldn’t afford to let it go.
The Reason the Atonement Is a Total Commitment
Then I began to learn, as I studied the Course, that my defense of making him guilty and making sure he knew he was guilty didn’t work. Not only that, it was actually hurting me as much as it did him. Every time I projected guilt on him, I reinforced the idea of guilt in my mind. It is not just a single thing that I want to forgive, a single act by any one person, but the idea of guilt itself. This is the reason the Atonement is a total commitment. If I hold anyone in guilt, the idea of guilt grows stronger in my mind rather than being healed.
Eventually, what has happened is that by letting go of many little and big grievances over a period of time, I have learned that grievances don’t really come in degrees. Either someone is guilty, or they are not. Either guilt is real, or it is not. If guilt is real, I will sometimes see myself as the guilty party. Even if I project guilt so thoroughly that I always see the other person as guilty, it will hurt me. I will be unconsciously aware of guilt in my mind, which seems to grow as I try to get rid of it.
Fear of Punishment
So, the cycle goes like this. I feel guilty. Even if I don’t yet have a reason for the guilt, I feel it because the belief in guilt is in my mind. It’s like an ugly stain or a nasty taste, and I want it gone. It’s worse than that because I believe that guilt calls for punishment. I might actually punish myself for the mistake and so feel safe from further fear of punishment.
In this way, I get to choose a punishment I can stand. And I avoid some imagined (or worse, unimaginable) punishment hanging over me. The ultimate being, death, or maybe hell, which punishes me even after death. But this doesn’t work either because now I have taken what I think of as God’s prerogative for myself. Thus, I feel or repress even more guilt.
In the meantime, I continue to do what never works. I project the guilt outward, and people show up, things happen. I decide that I now see the reason for the guilt and convince myself I am safe from it because someone else isn’t. Jesus will tell us that projection doesn’t work because ³Ideas leave not their source. (ACIM, W-132.5:3). So, blaming someone else and seeing them as the guilty party isn’t ever going to rid us of guilt.
A Vicious Cycle
What if I make enough proof to convince the whole world that the guilt is on someone else? I have not helped myself. I have simply reinforced, for myself and the whole world, the belief that guilt is real and deserves punishment. And no matter how deeply into denial I go, there is a part of my mind that knows what I am doing. It knows where the guilt actually came from, no matter where it seemed to land.
This is a vicious cycle with no way for me to win, and it seemed like there was no way out of it. The Holy Spirit is a very gentle teacher, though, and I moved through this process slowly, a step at a time. I would notice a guilty thought in my mind and ask the Holy Spirit to heal it.
Or I would notice a grievance and would tell the Holy Spirit I was willing to forgive it. And if it turned out that I was not quite ready to forgive it, I would be given another chance when I was ready to try again. Eventually, I knew that there was no grievance I wanted to keep and no reason to keep it. The process moved more quickly at that point.
A Call for Love
From my present perspective, I recognize that the appearance of guilty people in my life, myself or someone else, is just an out-picturing of the guilt in my mind. I forgive the person or situation as symbolic of forgiving the idea of guilt. That is why when my roofing material was stolen, it never occurred to me to make the thieves guilty.
This is what they did because they feel so far from Love that they must steal to get what they think they need. This is a clear cry for love. I gave them what they were unconsciously asking for. So instead of picturing the guilt outside of me to get rid of it, I pictured it outside of me so I can see it and forgive it.
Special Relationships
If my mind is not always so clear on this and I become confused about it, it is usually when I have not forgiven myself. Or when I feel threatened in some way that still holds meaning for me. The most profound healing was in my relationship with my children. This attachment to these special relationships took a long time to be released. That was because I thought still needed them, and so was afraid of losing that specialness. But I did, at last, accept the Atonement for this belief.
One year I finally saw the effect of the miracle when, after much forgiveness, I experienced a Mother’s Day that was not dedicated to specialness. Always before, I sat back and waited for gift-wrapped reassurance that I was, despite my fearful beliefs to the contrary, a good mother. Instead, I was grateful for the gifts and for the love that is represented by the gifts. I enjoyed the day very much, much more than before. The reason it was such a joyful day was that there is no longer a desperate need for the expressions of love. I am both loved and free of the need for proof that this is so.
To read my short article on Specialness to Holiness, CLICK HERE.