Lesson 342.
I let forgiveness rest upon all things,
For thus forgiveness will be given me.
I thank You, Father, for Your plan to save me from the hell I made. It is not
real. And You have given me the means to prove its unreality to me. The key is
in my hand, and I have reached the door beyond which lies the end of dreams. I
stand before the gate of Heaven, wondering if I should enter in and be at home.
Let me not wait again today. Let me forgive all things, and let creation be as
You would have it be and as it is. Let me remember that I am Your Son, and
opening the door at last, forget illusions in the blazing light of truth, as
memory of You returns to me.
Brother, forgive me now. I come to you to take you home with me. And as we go,
the world goes with us on our way to God.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on the lessons. It is taken from
his eight volume work: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles."
which can be purchased at the following site: ~ M. Street.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson 342.
"I let forgiveness rest upon all things,
For thus forgiveness will be given me."
*Lessons 342 through 345 revisit the theme of giving and receiving, so prominent
in the workbook, not to mention the text. The fact that giving and receiving are
the same undoes the ego's principle of < one or the other > -- if I give you
something, you have it and I do not; if I take it from you, you do not have it
and I do. Thus to the ego, giving and receiving are <not> the same. This is
patently true of the world of materiality, but not in thought, where the
equality of giving and receiving holds for both the ego and the Holy Spirit. If
I give you my guilt to you and attack, I still receive it. Likewise, when I undo
guilt and forgive, I teach myself I am forgiven too: "I let forgiveness rest
upon all things. For thus forgiveness will be given me." I therefore learn that
my sin of separating from God is undone through recognizing there is no sin in
my brother. I begin there because that is where my ego taught me I am -- the
attacking world of bodies -- at the bottom of its ladder of guilt and hate:
Asking Jesus to help me look differently on my perceptions of separate bodies in
relationship, I learn that what I perceived outside is simply what I made real
inside, a mistaken choice for separation I can now happily correct through
forgiveness -- the gift I both give and receive as one.*
(1:1-4) "I thank You, Father, for Your plan to save me from the hell I made. It
is not real. And You have given me the means to prove its unreality to me. The
key is in my hand, and I have reached the door beyond which lies the end of
dreams."
*The hell of the external world of suffering and death is not real, and neither
is the hell of the internal world of sin, guilt, and fear. Metaphorically
speaking, God gives us the means to prove this unreality through the Holy Spirit
in our minds. The "key" is not in Jesus' hand, God's Hands, or the Course's
hands, it is in <our> hands. It was our choice to leave Heaven, and it is now
our choice to return to it. "Forgiveness is the key to happiness" (W-pI.121),
but we can only turn the key when our hands are joined with Jesus'. We cannot do
it without him, and he cannot do it without us. Patiently, he awaits our
decision to have him help us.*
(1:5-8) "I stand before the gate of Heaven, wondering if I should enter in and
be at home. Let me not wait again today. Let me forgive all things, and let
creation be as You would have it be and as it is. Let me remember that I am Your
Son, and opening the door at last, forget illusions in the blazing light of
truth, as memory of You returns to me."
*As he is want to do, Jesus lets us know there is a part of us that is still
uncertain this is what we want, for we fear that if we do what he asks, we will
lose.*
(2) "Brother, forgive me now. I come to you to take you home with me. And as we
go, the world goes with us on our way to God."
*Jesus says to us, "I cannot help you return home if you still hold grievances
against me, thinking I am a tyrant who demands sacrifice of you, insisting you
do it my way instead of yours. You must realize these projections you have
placed on me, and have nothing to do with my love for you." Needless to say, as
we walk home with Jesus we walk with everyone else. God's Son is one, and
through our forgiveness of the one who represents the One, we remember the
Christ Who is our home.*
