LESSON 342
December 8
"I let forgiveness rest upon all things, For thus forgiveness will be given me."
PRACTICE SUMMARY
(See Part II Practice Summary, and also Part II Introduction)
COMMENTARY
As the fourth sentence says, "The key is in my hand." Forgiveness is the key. As I forgive, I receive forgiveness--not from God as a reward for my good deed (God has no need to forgive, never having condemned), but--from myself. Forgiveness really means no more than that I "let creation be as You would have it be and as it is" (1:7). In my ego mind, I am the only one who has overlaid an illusion of "sin" onto the world around me. When I look with condemnation on the world, I am not seeing reality as it is. There is nothing to condemn, and that fact is my own salvation. If what I think is so of the world is true, then I am damned with it. Only when I let creation be as God would have it be--innocent--can I be free of condemnation.
This is God's plan "to save me from the hell I made" (1:1). I made the hell; God gives me forgiveness as the way out. The hell I made is not real, thank God. In this Course I have come right up to the door to the end of dreams (1:4). I hold forgiveness, the key, in my hand. "I stand before the gate of Heaven, wondering if I should enter in and be at home" (1:5). In every instant today when I face the choice between judgment and forgiveness, between murder and a miracle, I am standing at that gate, holding the key in my hand, wondering if I should go in.
"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" (1:6-8). Forgiveness is the key; the choice to open the door is mine. To open it I must be willing to forget all illusions. I must be willing to let go of my investment in seeing my own sins in my brother and to release him.
"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" (2:1-3). Let me think of these lines with every person I meet today. "Forgive me now. I come to take you home with me." Oh, let that be the way I greet everyone in my mind! Let us all go home together!
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Arizona, USA.
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