"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.
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