Lesson 285. My holiness shines bright and clear today.
Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to me. I
ask but them to come, and realize my invitation will be answered by the thoughts
to which it has been sent by me. And I will ask for only joyous things the
instant I accept my holiness. For what would be the use of pain to me, what
purpose would my suffering fulfill, and how would grief and loss avail me if
insanity departs from me today, and I accept my holiness instead?
Father, my holiness is Yours. Let me rejoice in it, and through forgiveness be
restored to sanity. Your Son is still as You created him. My holiness is part of
me, and also part of You. And what can alter Holiness Itself?
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Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey
Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the
following site: ~ M. Street.
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Lesson 285. "My holiness shines bright and clear today."
*Our unholiness brought to the holiness of Christ allows the radiant light of
truth to shine in our minds.*
(1:1-3) "Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to
me. I ask but them to come, and realize my invitation will be answered by the
thoughts to which it has been sent by me. And I will ask for only joyous things
the instant I accept my holiness."
*We should awaken every morning in joy because of the happy things we will learn
that day -- different forms of forgiveness. The aim of A Course in Miracles is
thus to teach us that our daily joy comes from knowing we can take a few more
steps toward our goal of awakening from the dream and returning home. If this is
our orientation, nothing that happens during the day will dissuade us from being
faithful to our goal. In cheerful confidence we begin our day because "All
things are lessons God would have me learn," regardless of their seeming form --
happy or unhappy (W-p1.193). We are thus glad because we can once again learn
the lesson that the world is a dream and our holy Self rests within, beyond all
illusion. Our shared truth here reflects the truth of our unified state as
Christ. Could anything be more joyful?*
(1:4) "For what would be the use of pain to me, what purpose would my suffering
fulfill, and how would grief and loss avail me if insanity departs from me
today, and I accept my holiness instead?"
*Jesus underscores the purposive nature of our suffering, grief, and loss in the
terms he used in the previous lesson. He informs us these are purposely chosen
to reinforce the seeming reality of the separated self. However, when we choose
the holiness of our Self instead, and joyfully anticipate the lessons this day
will bring, pain has no further use; its purpose gone, replaced by the Holy
Spirit's forgiveness. Remember that life is our dream, and if we are in pain, it
is to fulfill our wish to prove that the separation is real. Freud's theory of
wish fulfillment was the key to his understanding dreams, and to Jesus, our
lives are also a dream that fulfill a wish; not the wish that Freud identified,
to be sure, but a wish nonetheless -- to preserve our identity as separated
entities, and then hold someone else responsible for it. Pain persuasively
fulfills that purpose, for it establishes the reality of our physical and
psychological selves, but that someone or something external to us is the cause
of our distress. We thus need to go through our day striving to identify the
specific purpose our unhappiness serves, needing to keep in focus that pain is
never caused by anything outside, but only by the mind's decision to be
separate.*
(2) "Father, my holiness is Yours. Let me rejoice in it, and through forgiveness
be restored to sanity. Your Son is still as You created him. My holiness is part
of me, and also part of You. And what can alter Holiness Itself?"
*Thus we choose the light of holiness to be our reality instead of the darkness
of sin, for we wish only to look upon the forgiven face of Christ and recognize
that its holiness is our own:
"Only that can give rememberance of immortality, which is the gift of
holiness and love. Forgiveness must be given by a mind which understands that it
must overlook all shadows on the holy face of Christ. ..." (S-3.1.3:2-3).*
