ACIM I. The Message of the Crucifixion, P 6, 7. As I have said before, “As you teach so shall you learn.” If you react as if you are persecuted, you are teaching persecution.
ACIM Chapter 6. I. The Message of the Crucifixion, P 6, 7
I. The Message of the Crucifixion, P 6
6 As I have said before, “As you teach so shall you learn.” If you react as if you are persecuted, you are teaching persecution. This is not a lesson a Son of God should want to teach if he is to realize his own salvation. Rather, teach your own perfect immunity, which is the truth in you, and realize that it cannot be assailed. Do not try to protect it yourself, or you are believing that it is assailable. You are not asked to be crucified, which was part of my own teaching contribution. You are merely asked to follow my example in the face of much less extreme temptations to misperceive, and not to accept them as false justifications for anger. There can be no justification for the unjustifiable. Do not believe there is, and do not teach that there is. Remember always that what you believe you will teach. Believe with me, and we will become equal as teachers.
Teaching What I Believe and Believing What I Teach
I will always teach what I believe, and what I teach will be reinforced as a belief. And I am always teaching. I don’t want to teach that I can be persecuted, so I must stop believing in persecution. I do this by being vigilant for thoughts of persecution and looking at that belief with the Holy Spirit. Then, I ask for healing and accept the healing.
It is very simple and easy to do, and I do it all the time, except when I get hooked by some situation that still seems real to me. These are the times when I choose to justify an exception to the rule. When I believe I have been attacked and then try to protect myself, I teach myself and everyone else that I am vulnerable. It is not God’s Will that I be vulnerable, so it can’t be true. But if I protect myself, that is what I teach myself. That is what I will learn and what will be real for me.
To Get the Shot or Not to Get It
For a while, every time I turned around, I would see an ad recommending that I rush out and get a shot to protect me from shingles. I saw it in magazines and at the pharmacy. My friend got shingles and did a good job of scaring me with his tale of woe. Each time I saw a reminder to get immunized against shingles, I felt afraid and wanted to do it. Then, I would feel safe and peaceful about the whole thing, and I remembered that my safety lies in my defenselessness. My mind was conflicted because I listened first to the ego voice and then to the Voice for God.
I was so confused. I could get the shot if I wanted to. And I assured myself that getting the shot would not make me guilty. However, my mind argued getting the shot would teach me that I am vulnerable. Is this what I want to learn and to teach? Lots of conflict was going on in my mind. I watched these thoughts about it, watching as fear spoke to me and as I turned from fear to hear the Holy Spirit. I asked for the Atonement in this situation.
My Purpose
This is my job, my part in the Atonement. I look with the Holy Spirit, ask for healing, and accept the Atonement. I do this as I can and continue to do it when it becomes obvious my willingness is still weak. And I trust that the Holy Spirit will do His part as I do my part. Avoiding shingles through a shot or through mind healing is not the purpose; allowing my mind to be healed as I look at my fears and doubts is the purpose. Being a teacher equal to Jesus is my purpose, so I gave my willingness to believe as Jesus believes.
In the end, I got the shot, but I also let go of the guilt I was feeling. Letting go of guilt is more important than taking a shot or not taking it. Maybe one day, I will be so certain of my invulnerability that all this will just be a funny episode on my way to awakening. Right now, it is an opportunity for me to watch my mind for beliefs, such as thinking I am guilty for anything done in the illusion.
I. The Message of the Crucifixion, P 7
7 Your resurrection is your reawakening. I am the model for rebirth, but rebirth itself is merely the dawning on your mind of what is already in it. God placed it there Himself, and so it is true forever. I believed in it, and therefore accepted it as true for me. Help me to teach it to our brothers in the name of the Kingdom of God, but first believe that it is true for you, or you will teach amiss. My brothers slept during the so-called “agony in the garden,” but I could not be angry with them because I knew I could not be abandoned.
I almost overlooked the message in that first sentence. Jesus says that my resurrection is my reawakening. Jesus was resurrected from what seemed like death to show that there is no death and the Son of God cannot die. I will experience my own resurrection as I wake up from the dream. But wait! He says my resurrection is my reawakening. In another place in the Course, Jesus says that when he ascended, we were with him, and now it seems that when he resurrected, we were with him. We share the same mind.
It seems, though, that we must also experience the resurrection from our own point of view as well, and Jesus experiences it with us, just as we experienced his with him. Jesus has awakened from the dream, but it is not complete until he awakens through all of us. This seems odd to us, who still dream we are separate, but again, we share the same mind.
Jesus Needs Our Help
Awakening should be easy since we are reborn as we remember what is already in our minds, but to do so, we must accept what is there. We must believe it. Jesus wants our help. He wants us to teach what is true, but we must believe it ourselves to teach it. We are innocent, every one of us, and in every case, we are innocent. We are invulnerable and so cannot be hurt. Nor can we be betrayed or abandoned. We are as God created us. This is true regardless of the stories we tell ourselves.
It seems so easy when Jesus puts it like this. We are, simply, as God created us. All we have to do is turn away from everything we think we know and everything we think we see, feel, and experience in any way. We only have to stop believing our eyes, ears, and minds. We have to give up all our favorite victim stories. Easy peasy, right?
As it turns out, it’s not so easy to do. Even those following Jesus found it impossible to believe that no one was guilty. They felt guilty for falling asleep in the Garden. They felt guilty for abandoning and betraying Jesus, even as he taught them that he cannot be betrayed or abandoned. But this is the lesson. This is the way we wake up. We simply accept as true that we are as God created us.
Really, How Hard Can This Be?
Surely, it is harder to maintain the illusion that we can be different than we are created. I am not making a literal story of being crucified, but I do crucify myself in little ways all the time to prove that I am separate and a victim and not at all like the Divine being God created in His Own image.
Sunday, my car started acting up, and I had to take it for repair. The dealership can’t even look at it until Thursday. Then my ceiling fan broke, and now I must find someone to replace it. Other little things around the house will also have to be fixed. I can’t do these things myself, and the ego thinks these are all disasters.
It also thinks I am a victim, and these problems prove it. The ego says I will never see myself any other way, and I am guilty for that. But the Holy Spirit speaks, too. He says that these are no big deal, that they are simply effects of the vestiges of the belief in victimization. “Let the belief in guilt and victimhood be healed,” He says. “Just another opportunity to heal the mind for the Sonship, that’s all.”
He tells me that these effects are meaningless, but He will use them to heal my mind, and then I can teach perfection for Him. I feel kind of sheepish as I get down from the cross. I still forget the truth and need a gentle reminder from time to time. The Holy Spirit doesn’t mind. That is His function.
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