November 12, 2019
We all have differing ideas of what justice is. Most of us believe that we want justice, but perhaps we are not willing to give anything up for justice to be carried out. Perhaps our idea of justice is just a bit conditional. We want justice our way. Perhaps it’s time to look at justice differently. If all that is real is love ad if we share all that is real with all of creation, then justice must be all good and no one can lose anything in the presence of justice. What keeps us from accepting justice in our lives? Usually it’s because we are unwilling to let go of some idea or thing we are afraid to lose and will cause us to be in a state of lack.
The Holy Spirit can use all that you give to Spirit for your salvation. But Spirit cannot use what you withhold, for Spirit cannot take it from you without your willingness. For if Spirit did, you would believe Spirit wrested it from you against your will. And so you would not learn it is your will to be without it. You need not give it to Spirit wholly willingly, for if you could you had no need of Spirit. But this Spirit needs; that you prefer Spirit take it than that you keep it for yourself alone, and recognize that what brings loss to no one you would not know. This much is necessary to add to the idea no one can lose for you to gain. And nothing more. T-25.VIII.1:1-8
Again, the Course tells us we need only a little willingness, just a little willingness for salvation to rise in our minds. Salvation is allowing ourselves to enter into the awareness of Oneness we already are. It involves releasing our attachment to the world we think we see and the beliefs we hold about it. It involves opening our minds just a little to a different interpretation – a different perception – of all we hold dear. We want a different world than we are seeing, yet we cling to the idea of that world so tightly we leave no room for the possibility of anything better.
What does the justice we think we know consist of? It probably is some combination of truth, fairness and vengeance. Yes, vengeance! We believe there is a price to be paid for justice. We believe we must give something up, perhaps even something dear. We believe we must “pay” for our shortcomings. We only hope that we will pay less than others who have also sinned. And there it is. We believe we must sacrifice something for justice. Where is fairness in this brand of justice? Where is love and peace in this view of justice? Is this real justice? This is not the justice the Course is talking about.
Can this be justice? God knows not of this. But justice does God know, and knows it well. For God is wholly fair to everyone. Vengeance is alien to God’s Mind because God knows of justice. To be just is to be fair, and not be vengeful. Fairness and vengeance are impossible, for each one contradicts the other and denies that it is real. It is impossible for you to share the Holy Spirit’s justice with a mind that can conceive of specialness at all. Yet how could God be just if God condemns a sinner for the crimes they did not do, but think they did? And where would justice be if God demanded of the ones obsessed with the idea of punishment that they lay it aside, unaided, and perceive it is not true? T-25.VIII.5:1-10
Here again we are taught that what we give to Spirit can be reinterpreted for us. This reinterpretation brings us a new perception, a new understanding of whatever ideas we allow Spirit access to. There is no dramatic sacrifice to make. Can we summon a bit of curiosity for a better world? Can we open our minds to the mere possibility that real justice will reconnect us with love and peace? Our holy Self has never been corrupted. We are still as we are created by God. God makes only perfect and so we are still perfect. We have simply blocked our awareness of our holiness. Be willing then, just a little willing, to let Spirit begin to show us a new interpretation of justice. That new interpretation will be the reconnection to the love and peace we truly are. Say yes to this new perception now and see a new, but familiar world.
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