November 19, 2019
The Course teaches us that love and justice are the same. We all have our own idea of what justice is. However, our perceived idea of justice is probably skewed by our belief in vengeance. We believe we have “sinned” and thus must pay some penance for our “sins.” The Course reminds us again and again that we are created holy and are incapable of “sin.” We have simply made up some fictional world that has taught us we are flawed and thus in trouble beyond any reasonable reconciliation. We have bought into the illusion of separation with all we think we have and thus believe we must be punished. And so we believe that punishment is part of justice.
But how is punishment part of love? Real love is unconditional. Yet we have come up with an idea called “tough love.” God knows nothing of this kind of justice that is not fair and is vengeful. Our mistaken concept of justice in this world is a great distortion of the justice God holds. God’s justice sees all sin vanish. God’s justice sees all punishment gone. God’s justice sees all darkness shifted to light. After all, we are created in the image of God. We are even more than an image. We are extensions of God.
Yet justice cannot punish those who ask for punishment, but have a Judge Who knows that they are wholly innocent in truth. In justice Spirit is bound to set them free, and give them all the honor they deserve and have denied themselves because they are not fair, and cannot understand that they are innocent. Love is not understandable to sinners because they think that justice is split off from love, and stands for something else. And thus is love perceived as weak, and vengeance strong. For love has lost when judgment left its side, and is too weak to save from punishment. But vengeance without love has gained in strength by being separate and apart from love. And what but vengeance now can help and save, while love stands feebly by with helpless hands, bereft of justice and vitality, and powerless to save? T-25.VIII.8:1-7
Remember, that when we choose vengeance, we have blocked love from our awareness. In a like manner, when we choose love all that is not love fades away into nothingness for that is what it is. The choice is ours. It is not a huge choice. Spirit does not ask us to make this shift alone. When we choose love, all of Creation is supporting us in our new choice. We are asked only to make a little room for a change to take place. A little willingness to open our mind is all Spirit needs to begin to guide us on our path of transformation. Once we begin the return journey, we will find a remembrance of who we really are that showers us in love and peace. We recognize the home in Heaven we never left, but couldn’t see around us.
What can Love ask of you who think that all of this is true? Could Love, in justice and in love, believe in your confusion you have much to give? You are not asked to trust Love far. No more than what you see Love offers you, and what you recognize you could not give yourself. In God’s Own justice does Love recognize all you deserve, but understands as well that you cannot accept it for yourself. It is Love’s special function to hold out to you the gifts the innocent deserve. And every one that you accept brings joy to God as well as you. God knows that Heaven is richer made by each one you accept. And God rejoices as the One Child receives what loving justice knows to be their due. For love and justice are not different. Because they are the same does mercy stand at God’s right Hand, and gives the Child of God the power to forgive themselves of sin. T-25.VIII.9:1-11
When all is done, Love returns us to justice and justice returns us to love. Nothing else is real. There is no sin, there is no punishment. There is no pain or suffering. We are holy and free, complete and whole as we are created. We are free to choose to return to that awareness whenever we are ready to choose to return. Love and peace will come flooding back, filling us and the world with great compassion and blessing. Make that choice today and begin the journey back to the awareness of who you really are.
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