ACIM Christmas

In A Course in Miracles (ACIM), all reactions of people are either love or a call for love. Love is very rare because we are 99.9% of the time wrapped in anger, fear, doubt, etc. Little annoyances are anger as surely as huge blowups. There is no metaphysical difference. The response of the ACIM students is to practice "Christ Vision." Christ is not Jesus-as-we-know-him-in-Christianity, or the Bible. Christ is the truth of your being which is devine, the Son of God, a thought of God, and idea of God. As such, Christ is totally different than the ordinary consciousness which we use to exist in this world. It is beyond. Christ vision looks beyond the apparent body to the Christ in that other person. Seeing Chirst, all is quiet and utterly at peace; no matter what seems to be going on in the illusion we think is the world.

So, my epiphany last night and today was to give my annoyance with Christmas to God. And coincedently, I read the below quoted material in the ACIM text this morning. It gives me a peaceful framework with which to attend the Son of God in others for the next few days.

Christmas, with all its annoyances people talk about, it a radical call for love. To give love, it is only necessary to look with the eyes of Christ and see beyond this world of illusion to the truth of God.

The body is hardened fear.

There is one life and that I share with God.

I am entrusted with the gifts of God. That is, I have been taught Christ Vision. So I just have to use it.

Today, I am totally at peace. I ran 3 miles in the pouring rain. Then I finished off the workout with 20 min on the elliptical. I passed 2 accidents on the way to work. I have a green smoothie for breakfast. I am going to lunch with my female professional colleagues.

The ACIM text is the most beautiful prose I can imagine. Having studied it for 4.5 years and read it 6 times, I can say it is a deep treasure trove which can be mined for life. Everyday I receive a gift of God's presence.

From ACIM Text 15.X:

"...This is the season when you would celebrate my birth into the world. Yet you know not how to do it. Let the Holy Spirit teach you, and let me celebrate your birth through Him. The only gift I can accept of you is the gift I gave to you. Release me as I choose your own release. The time of Christ we celebrate together, for it has no meaning if we are apart.

The holy instant is truly the time of Christ. For in this liberating instant no guilt is laid upon the Son of God, and his unlimited power is thus restored to him. What other gift can you offer me, when only this I choose to offer you? And to see me is to see me in everyone, and offer everyone the gift you offer me. I am as incapable of receiving sacrifice as God is, and every sacrifice you ask of yourself you ask of me. Learn now that sacrifice of any kind is nothing but a limitation imposed on giving. And by this limitation you have limited acceptance of the gift I offer you.

We who are one cannot give separately. When you are willing to accept our relationship as real, guilt will hold no attraction for you. For in our union you will accept all of our brothers. The gift of union is the only gift that I was born to give. Give it to me, that you may have it. The time of Christ is the time appointed for the gift of freedom, offered to everyone. And by your acceptance of it, you offer it to everyone.

It is in your power to make this season holy, for it is in your power to make the time of Christ be now. It is possible to do this all at once because there is but one shift in perception that is necessary, for you made but one mistake. It seems like many, but it is all the same. For though the ego takes many forms, it is always the same idea. What is not love is always fear, and nothing else."

15.IX: "...The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come. He comes demanding nothing. No sacrifice of any kind, of anyone, is asked by Him. In His Presence the whole idea of sacrifice loses all meaning. For He is Host to God. And you need but invite Him in Who is there already, by recognizing that His Host is One, and no thought alien to His Oneness can abide with Him there. Love must be total to give Him welcome, for the Presence of holiness creates the holiness that surrounds it. No fear can touch the Host Who cradles God in the time of Christ, for the Host is as holy as the Perfect Innocence which He protects, and Whose power protects Him.

This Christmas give the Holy Spirit everything that would hurt you. Let yourself be healed completely that you may join with Him in healing, and let us celebrate our release together by releasing everyone with us. Leave nothing behind, for release is total, and when you have accepted it with me you will give it with me. All pain and sacrifice and littleness will disappear in our relationship, which is as innocent as our relationship with our Father, and as powerful. Pain will be brought to us and disappear in our presence, and without pain there can be no sacrifice. And without sacrifice there love must be..."