Lesson 352. Judgment and love are opposites.
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Lesson 352.
Judgment and love are opposites. From one
Come all the sorrows of the world. But from
The other comes the peace of God Himself.
Forgiveness looks on sinlessness alone, and judges not. Through this I come to
You. Judgment will bind my eyes and make me blind. Yet love, reflected in
forgiveness here, reminds me You have given me a way to find Your peace again. I
am redeemed when I elect to follow in this way. You have not left me
comfortless. I have within me both the memory of You, and One Who leads me to
it. Father, I would hear Your Voice and find Your peace today. For I would love
my own Identity, and find in It the memory of You.
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Commentary on this lesson is by Kenneth Wapnick, from his book set called:
"Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which may be purchased
at the following site: ~ M. Street.
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Lesson 352.
"Judgment and love are opposites. From one
Come all the sorrows of the world. But from
The other comes the peace of God Himself."
*As long as we are afraid of God's peace -- within which our individuality,
based on conflict and unhappiness, will disappear -- we will choose to defend
our self. Judgment -- perceiving someone else as sinful -- is the ego's perfect
way of carrying out this defense.*
(1:1) "Forgiveness looks on sinlessness alone, and judges not."
*We are asked first to recognize how we look on sinfulness in others and
ourselves, and then ask Jesus for help. He reinterprets our perceptions so that
we realize that acting sinfully comes from fear -- "frightened people can be
vicious" (T-3.I.4:2) -- behind which is the call for love we do not believe we
deserve. In that realization are sins forgiven, because they are looked at
differently. The key idea, as we have seen throughout our journey with the
workbook, is that when we look with Jesus at what goes on in the world and in
our relationships, we refrain from judging -- judgment is the problem;
forgiveness is the answer.*
(1:2) "Through this I come to You."
*It is through our forgiveness that we return to God. Remember that these
prayers are addressed to God as correction for our ego's prayers to its gods of
judgment and punishment.*
(1:3-4) "Judgment will bind my eyes and make me blind. Yet love, reflected in
forgiveness here, reminds me You have given me a way to find Your peace again."
*Again, the way to find God's peace, return home, and remember our Identity as
Christ is to forgive. When we hold on to grievances and withhold forgiveness, it
is because we do not want to awaken from the dream, losing our self to find our
Self.*
(1:5-6) "I am redeemed when I elect to follow in this way. You have not left me
comfortless."
*It is our decision alone to follow His way. In the very last words of the
workbook we will be reminded of this lovely thought -- we have not been left
comfortless.*
(1:7) "I have within me both the memory of You, and One Who leads me to it."
*As we have seen in other lessons, means and end are one. Thus I have within me
the end or goal, which is remembering Who I am as God's Son. I also have within
me, through the Holy Spirit, the means of remembering. Both means and end are
present in my mind, for the Idea of God's Son has never left Its Source.*
(1:8-9) "Father, I would hear Your Voice and find Your peace today. For I would
love my own Identity, and find in It the memory of You."
*This is the central idea. We do not love our own Identity as Christ because we
love our individual identity more. Crucial to our daily practicing, then, is
vigilance for how much we cherish this special and unique self. We would even go
so far as to kill in order to preserve it. Yet when we finally realize the loss
to <us>, we choose to listen to the Voice of sanity and return to our true love
-- our Self and our God.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
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