Aspects of Forgiveness, Part 3

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

What about all the evil that is in the world? All the hatred, destruction, malice? sin, disease, death? How can these evils possibly be forgiven? How can you expect to forgive someone who's hurt you? Or do good to someone who taken advantage of you? Or love someone who is a just plain evil?

Again, you must look to Jesus for your answer. He proved by his life what true Love is - and the power it has over evil. He never ignored hatred. He never tolerated evil. Just the opposite, he destroyed evil and its effects wherever he went. How? Because Jesus understood something extremely powerful: God, good, is real. And evil is God's opposite: unreal.

Hear his words of rebuke to evil-doers: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."

Mrs. Eddy put it this way: "The notion that both evil and good are real is a delusion of material sense, which Science anihilates. Evil is nothing, no thing, mind, nor power. As manifested by mankind it stands for a lie, nothing claiming to be something,--for lust, dishonesty, selfishness, envy, hypocrisy, slander, hate, theft, adultery, murder, dementia, insanity, inanity, devil, hell, with all the etceteras that word includes."

Saint John gives us this perspective: "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

To truly overcome evil, you must start from the right vantage point. You must start from understanding the reality and power of God, good, and the unreality and impotence of evil. You must see that God is Light - reality - and evil is darkness - absence of reality, the lie. And light always overcomes darkness. Always.

To demonstrate this however means to see with new eyes, a new perspective, the perspective Jesus had. It means witnessing for the Light - for the Truth of being, not witnessing for the darkness - not worshipping, bowing down, obeying evil - the liar and the father of lies.

That is why this verse of our Lord's prayer has such a strong connection to the 9th Commandment: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

Look at a spectacular example of how this verse - and its relation to the 9th Commandment - played out in this remarkable story from John's Gospel:

"And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

The mob had what they thought was the right perspective - a moral perspective - and so no doubt felt justified in condemning this woman to death. But Jesus had a much different perspective. He had a spiritual point of view. He saw things the way God sees things. As it says in Genesis: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Good, like Him, like His image and likeness.

The mob thought to kill the sin of adultery by killing the adulterous sinner. It was the way things had always been done. In fact the Old Testament is full of such examples. The woman was caught in the act of adultery! How much more obvious an open-and-shut case could there be? The woman (like the mob) no doubt also thought of herself as a sinner - because she believed (like the mob did) in the reality of evil. She might have even thought she deserved to be stoned. The mob certainly did.

But the problem - as Jesus clearly knew - was that they had all believed a lie.

Jesus knew that the woman's true God-given spiritual identity was completely separate from any lying claim of evil. Instead of seeing her as doomed to live in original sin, he saw her true birthright of original wholeness, holiness. When he looked at her, he saw "God's own likeness" and this correct view forgave her, redeemed her, literally saved her.

Jesus was always the true witness. He always saw through the lie, because he knew the Truth, the Truth that God's creation is intact, pure, holy. And in this situation, he so perfectly fulfilled the Divine Love underlying the 9th Commandment by witnessing what was spiritually true. His seeing was literally the "light of life" for everyone involved - both the woman - and her accusers! His simple loving Word not only redeemed the woman from breaking the 7th Commandment "Thou shalt not commit adultery, " it saved the crowd as well from breaking the 6th Commandment "Thou shalt not kill."

This is a turning point in spiritual history. The whole of the Old Testament is full of examples of killing sinners to kill the sin. But Jesus came with a new testament, a new promise from God: to save sinners, not kill them, to save them from the lie of evil, to awaken them to their true being, their true likeness to God. Jesus destroyed the sin, not the sinner. This is a radical change.

And he demonstrated something even more fundamentally important: spirituality must always come first. If morality comes first, the letter of the law would trample on the spirit of the law. The letter kills. The spirit saves. Morality - without spirituality coming first - is always wrong. It is exactly what tried to stone the woman. But the spiritual Truth is always saving. And it must always come first. Without the Spirit, there is no real morality. There is only the cultural mores, traditions, and opinions of fickle fallible people - and most of those are fatal to anyone not sharing them.

So look at the miraculous result of the good and just perspective of Jesus: his perfect spiritual view of the woman shone so brightly that it exposed that dark moralistic self-righteousness - that evil false witnessing - of the mob.

And his potent question not only exposed the hypocricy of that false witnessing, it made that hypocricy felt. His quiet true witnessing fell like righteous rain on the just and the unjust - with equal potency. And the eldest - perhaps the ones with the least stomach for yet another religiously sanctioned murder - felt it first. Then the rest, one by one had that light of Jesus' word dawn in their conscience so they too saw their almost fatal mistake.

As it says in Science & Health (p. 476:32):
"Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortalman appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy."

Jesus bore true witness of God's creation wherever he went - and this correct view of people, helped them, healed them, raised them, forgave them, awakened them, and saved them.

This true witnessing is Love reflected in love. It is God, Love, being reflected in love to your neighbor. It is God's view of His creation being witnessed to by you in every encounter you have with humanity. It is Divine Love unconditional shining on the evil and the good, the just and the unjust - because those labels mean nothing when viewed from the divine perspective.

To the extent you put aside a personal sense of "ego" in favor of recognizing your role as the reflection of the Great I Am, you will be following Jesus' example of true witnessing.

To the extent you put aside the dream of debts, failure, the mortal-minded personal sense of yourself or others is to take even just a step in awakening to who you really are: God's witness.

To that extent forgiveness washes over you, washes you clean of the dream of a personal ego, of being the personal author of evil, the privileged originator of heart-break and hurtfulness. And you awake to demonstrating that all real being is actually already the emanation of the Great I Am - of Love itself, of God.

And you behold in Science the perfect person where sinning mortal people appear to mortal minded ways of thinking, seeing, and being.

And in this perfect Christ-like view, you witness Divine Love at work. You see Love, reflected in love.

This is the ultimate of forgiveness - for in the Allness of the Light of Love, there is no lie of evil, there is no darkness, there really is nothing left to forgive.

Aspects of Forgiveness, Part 2

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors"
And Love is reflected in love.

Jesus prayer requires something more of you than just generic "forgiveness." He requires you not to just forgive, but to actually love your enemies. To bless them that curse you. To do good to them that hate you and pray for those who would dispitefully use you and persecute you. (See Matthew 5: 43 - 45)

This may seem like a very difficult teaching. It's one thing to forgive, but another to actually love someone who hurts you, curses you, hates your, dispitefully uses you. It may even seem more difficult if it's you yourself who needs forgiveness.

But consider this: forgiveness never really happens until there is love. Forgiveness without love is not forgiveness. It is just one personal ego saying "I forgive you" to some other supposed personal ego. Maybe your saying is heartfelt and sincere. Maybe not.

But without love, even that heartfelt forgiveness leaves a taint. And that's because you still harbor the belief that the evil happened to you (or them) in the first place. And as long as that belief remains, the dream remains, and so the forgiveness is not yet complete. The dream of good and evil, of human wills, of multiple minds, of more than one power, more than one God, still goes on.

Mrs. Eddy had this startling insight into how Jesus was able to break that dream: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy."

Jesus saw things differently. He had a Christly view. Jesus knew what others did not: that the human view of reality - with its sinning, sick, dying, evil, mortals - was incorrect. That in the Christly, true, spiritually scientific view - God's view - things are very different. Jesus saw wholeness, holiness, and Life where everyone else saw just the opposite. Jesus saw divine Love at work. Where everyone else saw sick and sinful humanity, Jesus saw healthiness, wholeness, holiness. That's because Jesus had a higher - spiritual - perspective. Jesus looked out on the world with the loving eyes of God.

And the result was always healing. It was always forgiving. It was always Love-made-manifest. The result was a demonstration of what is really spiritually true. What is always really going on: God's will being done in earth just as it is already done in heaven.

That is why this verse of Jesus' prayer is so important to study and understand. Mrs Eddy's spiritual sense of its Christly meaning alerts you to the complete healing of all sense of being wronged that Jesus is offering you when you pray this verse.

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." And Love [God] is reflected in [your] love - your beholding in Science the perfect man (or woman, or situation, or circumstance) where sinning mortal man (or woman, or situation, or cirumstance) appears to mortals (personal egos, evil people, human history).

But moving from mere human forgiveness to actually loving your apparent enemies with the power of divine Love, takes some practice (to put it mildly!).

So look to Jesus' example.

To love as Jesus loved is to start with what is spiritually true about God, about you, about your so-called enemy, and about God's complete creation. It is to acknowledge that God is your Father - and the Father of your apparent enemy. "Our Father." That He is in complete control. That His name and nature are completely Good - and the only reality there is. "Hallowed be Thy name." That you - and everyone (including your "enemy") are perfectly made in His image and likeness - are His perfect creation right where "sinning mortal man" appears to you.

This higher, spiritual perspective has a powerful healing effect. When sincerely felt and acknoweldged, you can't help but rejoice that God's kingdom is here now - and that His presence is the only real presence there is. "Thy kingdom come."

His will is being done right here, right now, right where you are - and where your so-called enemy appears to be - just like His will is done in heaven. And God's will is always good - always a blessing for both you and what appears to you as your enemy. "Thy will be done in earth [right where evil appears to be] as it is in heaven [the true Christly view of God's creation].

This statement from Science & Health will help you understand how to move from forgiveness to Love: "Truth has no consciousness of error. Love has no sense of hatred. Life has no partnership with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because they declare nothing except God."

Rejoice that God's Love is a law of annihilation to everything unlike itself. This is not the good-and-evil dreamland of little egos trying to hurt each other - or forgive each other. This is the bright shining power of God filling the universe!

Just as light annihilates darkness, so Love annihilates all hate, spitefulness, manipulation, persecution, all evil. Why? Because Love is real, is light, is presence, and evil is actually unreal, is darkness, is absence. And where Love is present, there is no darkness at all.

Acknowledging this truth helps wake you up to actually experience it in reality, in your daily life.

Jesus could give us the command to love our enemies because he knew the power of divine Love. He knew that, though the human dream seems to see enemies everywhere, being awake to God - to Truth, Life, and Love - destroys that dream. Just like light destroys darkness.

When you practice living this powerful love of Love, you begin to "behold in Science" that there actually is only God's creation. You start to understand that Love's omnipotent goodness sees no enemies, that Love is real, that Love is the only real power there is. The sense of being hurt or hated is more than just eliminated. It is annihilated by the light of Love.

What seems like someone hating you, spitefully using you, manipulating you, persecuting you - is actually only an absence - a darkness - of thought that the light of Love annihilates. Love frees you from a personal sense of evil. Love is always - and only - reflected in love. When you yield to this possibility, you begin to see as Jesus did, to see your "enemy" in a new light, see "the perfect man where sinning mortal man" used to appear, and to love that perfect reflection of God.

Then you feel the bright fresh awakening of the holy Love that wipes clean any sense of hurt or pain or loss or evil. You're awake to Love. There is no dream of evil. There is no enemy.

"Forgive us our own dream of indebtedness as we forgive those who we think are in debt to us."
And Divine Love is always reflected in love that restores, fulfills, awakens.

Aspects of Forgiveness, Part 1

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

Jesus' prayer requires you to practice forgiveness.

But this is more than just a tit for tat kind of forgiveness. And it is not a "Get Out of Jail Free" brushing it all off kind of forgiveness. And it's certainly not a self-sacrificing "it's always all my fault" kind of forgiveness either. It is something much more than that.

Mrs. Eddy's spiritual sense of this verse is "Love is reflected in love." That gives you a strong sense that something much deeper is going on when true forgiveness really happens. There is a divine law at work. The law that Love, God, is always reflected in love - in love expressed, in love made manifest, in love that has an impact, in love that awakens.

OK so maybe you're asking if God, good, is the source of all being, then what is it that needs forgiveness? What is it that needs redemption? What is it that needs correction? Certainly not God's creation! but our view of it - and hence our experience of it - does.

Doesn't the belief in duality, the dream of life in matter (matter as limitation, separation, personal "ego", sin, sickness, death) constantly suggest that there are evil people? evil circumstances? fatal errors? terminal mistakes? lost hopes? horrible tragedies? a world full of evil and hatefulness needing to be corrected, redeemed, forgiven?

Yes.

And the kind of forgiveness that Jesus is asking you to experience does not ignore evil. But it does ask you to raise up your point of view. It does ask you to look at the world with a holier perspective. It does ask you to see the way Love, God, sees.

Mrs. Eddy expressed it this way:

"Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy."

The kingdom of God is intact? universal? and man is pure and holy? Huh?

Not to your limited human way of seeing things. But consider this: Suppose you are asleep and you have a dream. And in this dream a friend does something wrong, maybe even evil, to you. In the dream you might get upset, angry, maybe even try to get even.

But then your alarm goes off and you wake up.

Do you then start praying to forgive this dream of wrong-doing? No. You of course realize that it was just a dream. Your friend was completely innocent. And nothing had ever actually happened to offend or hurt you. You see the entire experience for what it is: a dream, an illusion, a misconception. You would never hold a grudge against your friend because of what happened in a dream. By waking up, you realize not only that you are safe, but also that your friend is innocent.

This hints at the healing way Jesus saw those around him. Where you may see a debtor, a tresspasser - an enemy, Jesus beheld in Science (in the spiritual Truth of Being) - what?

God's own likeness.

Right where you see someone (or maybe even yourself) needing to be forgiven, right there - in spiritual truth - is God's own likeness, God's own activity, God's own reality.

And in God's own reality, there is nothing to forgive.

This may seem at first to be counter-intuitive. It may seem like you're just trying to mask over the evil in the world, the hurtfulness others to do you - and that you do to yourself and to others. And yes, the world is constantly parading a showcase of evil being done everywhere in the world.

And here in his prayer, Jesus is asking you to forgive. Why?

Jesus saw all creation as God sees it: perfect. But he never shied away from calling a spade a spade - of denouncing evil whenever and wherever it showed it's hideous malicious face. What Jesus never did however was make evil a reality that could overpower him, that could manipulate him, that could cause him to act in turn like evil. He never strayed from acting like God's Likeness, like God's Son, like Christ.

And though in spiritual reality there is nothing to forgive, Jesus knew that for those deep in the human dream of good-and-evil, there is an enormous power in forgiveness. He knew that forgiveness is a spiritual alarm clock. It wakes you up. It stirs you to reconsider things. To ponder who it is that actually needs forgiveness. It prompts you to start loving the way God loves, unconditionally. And most importantly, it alerts you that you are dreaming. Dreaming of personal egos. Dreaming of multiple minds. Dreaming, instead of adoring the one infinite God, good, and His perfect spiritual creation.

And by just yielding to the idea of forgiveness you are forced to reconsider everything. Maybe you need as much forgiveness as the one you think is in the wrong! Maybe you begin to understand the value of the way Jesus beheld everyone. Maybe you become a little bit more like him. Begin to see the value of looking with new eyes. To open yourself to that intuitive sense that there is actually something more going on. That Love, God, is expecting to be reflected in the love you express.

There is an awakening spiritual Truth right where the dream of wrong seems to be. There is something Good right where evil seems to be. There is God's own likeness right where "sinning mortal man" seems to be. God's own likeness is actually all that's really there. And Jesus proved beyond any doubt that his correct view actually forgives - corrects, redeems, heals - you and anyone from any seemingly evil experience. God and God's likeness are Love and love expressed - nothing to forgive, but everything to rejoice in.

Jesus knew that God's creation is perfect, whole, healthy, holy. And he did more than just know it philosophically or intellectually. He knew it practically. He healed every instance of sin, sickness, and death that he encountered. His "correct view" is God's view - and the healing impact his view had on the world is still shaking and awakening and redeeming - claiming for God what is His. And that is all of creation.

Your part in this is to follow him, to shake up your own perspective, to wake up! and to forgive.

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive those we think are in debt to us." Love is always reflected in love because all is Love and its infinte manifestation, for Love is All-in-all.