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Lesson 192

I have a function God would have me fill.

1. It is your Father’s holy Will that you complete Himself, and that your Self shall be His sacred Son, forever pure as He, of love created and in love preserved, extending love, creating in its name, forever one with God and with your Self. ²Yet what can such a function mean within a world of envy, hatred and attack?

2. Therefore, you have a function in the world in its own terms. ²For who can understand a language far beyond his simple grasp? ³Forgiveness represents your function here. ⁴It is not God’s creation, for it is the means by which untruth can be undone. ⁵And who would pardon Heaven? ⁶Yet on earth, you need the means to let illusions go. ⁷Creation merely waits for your return to be acknowledged, not to be complete.

3. Creation cannot even be conceived of in the world. ²It has no meaning here. ³Forgiveness is the closest it can come to earth. ⁴For being Heaven-born, it has no form at all. ⁵Yet God created One Who has the power to translate in form the wholly formless. ⁶What He makes are dreams, but of a kind so close to waking that the light of day already shines in them, and eyes already opening behold the joyful sights their offerings contain.

4. Forgiveness gently looks upon all things unknown in Heaven, sees them disappear, and leaves the world a clean and unmarked slate on which the Word of God can now replace the senseless symbols written there before. ²Forgiveness is the means by which the fear of death is overcome, because it holds no fierce attraction now and guilt is gone. ³Forgiveness lets the body be perceived as what it is; a simple teaching aid, to be laid by when learning is complete, but hardly changing him who learns at all.

5. The mind without the body cannot make mistakes. ²It cannot think that it will die, nor be the prey of merciless attack. ³Anger becomes impossible, and where is terror then? ⁴What fears could still assail those who have lost the source of all attack, the core of anguish and the seat of fear? ⁵Only forgiveness can relieve the mind of thinking that the body is its home. ⁶Only forgiveness can restore the peace that God intended for His holy Son. ⁷Only forgiveness can persuade the Son to look again upon his holiness.

6. With anger gone, you will indeed perceive that, for Christ’s vision and the gift of sight, no sacrifice was asked, and only pain was lifted from a sick and tortured mind. ²Is this unwelcome? ³Is it to be feared? ⁴Or is it to be hoped for, met with thanks and joyously accepted? ⁵We are one, and therefore give up nothing. ⁶But we have indeed been given everything by God.

7. Yet do we need forgiveness to perceive that this is so. ²Without its kindly light we grope in darkness, using reason but to justify our rage and our attack. ³Our understanding is so limited that what we think we understand is but confusion born of error. ⁴We are lost in mists of shifting dreams and fearful thoughts, our eyes shut tight against the light; our minds engaged in worshipping what is not there.

8. Who can be born again in Christ but him who has forgiven everyone he sees or thinks of or imagines? ²Who could be set free while he imprisons anyone? ³A jailer is not free, for he is bound together with his prisoner. ⁴He must be sure that he does not escape, and so he spends his time in keeping watch on him. ⁵The bars that limit him become the world in which his jailer lives, along with him. ⁶And it is on his freedom that the way to liberty depends for both of them.

9. Therefore, hold no one prisoner. ²Release instead of bind, for thus are you made free. ³The way is simple. ⁴Every time you feel a stab of anger, realize you hold a sword above your head. ⁵And it will fall or be averted as you choose to be condemned or free. ⁶Thus does each one who seems to tempt you to be angry represent your savior from the prison house of death. ⁷And so you owe him thanks instead of pain.

10. Be merciful today. ²The Son of God deserves your mercy. ³It is he who asks that you accept the way to freedom now. ⁴Deny him not. ⁵His Father’s Love for him belongs to you. ⁶Your function here on earth is only to forgive him, that you may accept him back as your Identity. ⁷He is as God created him. ⁸And you are what he is. ⁹Forgive him now his sins, and you will see that you are one with him.

(ACIM, W-192.1:1–10:9)

Posted in ACIM Lessons

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