Lesson 63: The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness.
One of the things that most confused me when I first started reading the Course is its use of terms that come from my Christian background. Words such as “redemption,” “forgiveness,” “atonement,” “purification,” “crucifixion,” “resurrection,” and even “heaven” and “hell” figure prominently in the text and workbook. Yet, they are all redefined by the Course – made into positive things that do not require any sacrifice on my part, but are turned into tools to help me navigate my path back to the Joy and Love that I was created to be.
This lesson mentions another of those distinctly Christian words – but gives it a twist: Salvation.
To my Southern Baptist ears, that word speaks of a very specific thing: Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. My tradition teaches that salvation comes about by Jesus dying on the cross for my sins – making himself a sacrificial lamb to take away the sins of the world.
This is not what the Course means by “salvation.” No one has to die, no one has to sacrifice and, indeed, no one has to do anything but accept that salvation and it will bring peace to every mind. Salvation isn’t an act by one man giving his life to save the world – instead it is an undoing of illusion. Salvation peels back the veil we have set before us when we believed in separation and created this ego world of confusion and suffering.
We accept salvation by remembering who we truly are: We are the light of the world and forgiveness is our function, and when we embrace our function and learn how to forgive, then we bring peace to everyone, since all minds are joined.
Again, that forgiveness we offer isn’t the overlooking of perceived slights, but the realization that nothing in this world can harm us – the true, Divine Self that we have been created to be. When we are tempted to be unforgiving, we must step back, remember who we are: We are the light of the world – and so is the person we perceive to be attacking us. When we can see through the illusion that they are separate from us, we accept salvation for us both and can bring Love into the situation to defuse the ego’s insistence that we’ve been wronged.
We must, of course, deal with whatever situation is before us – but if we can remember our unity instead of the illusion of separation, we can bring a spirit of love and forgiveness to situations that the ego would tell us is egregious and unforgivable.
Our role in this world is important and the ego wants us to ignore it – calling us arrogant for believing that we have any power to bring Love into this world. This lesson reminds us, though, that we “are being asked to accept salvation” so that we can give it to others. Without our forgiveness, our brothers and sisters remain in hell – because we put them there.
When we finally embrace our function as the light of the world, meant to bring salvation through forgiveness, Hafiz says we will become whole.
“When was the last time you felt complete,
so complete, nothing dared approach you?
“Nothing like a yesterday, or a tomorrow.
Nothing that could speak.
“Nothing that could ever point to something
that would ever need to be done.
“Nothing that could not do anything,
but adore you. Adore you. Adore you.”
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