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Study of Text, C 14: V. The Circle of Atonement, P 10 4-26-17

V. The Circle of Atonement, P 10

Journal

Jesus uses the symbol of crucifixion to help us see that we are crucifying ourselves and each other with guilt. When I think I am guilty, I am crucifying myself, that is, I am suffering at my own hand. When I choose guilt, it is a choice for death. It is a little harder to see how it is that I am crucifying someone else with guilt.

I do understand how I condemn another when I find that one guilty. In my mind, perhaps with my words, I condemn. But how is it that I restore guiltlessness to someone? How does my change of mind affect another? How could it be that my belief in your innocence will restore you? I honestly don’t know how to explain this, but I have experienced it. I suppose it must be true because we are one spirit, and we really cannot have private thoughts.

The Holy Spirit sees only guiltlessness, and I have the Holy Spirit in my mind. Therefore, I can see only guiltlessness. I need only choose to look with that mind. Yes, I am aware of my brother’s confusion and its effects in his life, but his confusion does not condemn him. I can know that he is guiltless because the Holy Spirit in me knows he is guiltless.

The way this has worked for me is that I give my desire to see with my holy mind rather than with my ego mind. If my desire for guiltlessness is what I want, that is what I will see because it is there for me to see. As guilt falls away, fear falls with it. My desire to love and my devotion to the Atonement grows each day. Each day, my sense of purpose becomes stronger.

I eagerly release guilt thoughts. I notice that I feel guilty or that I have projected guilt onto someone, and I let that thought die. I choose not to enliven it with my attention. Love overcomes fear and guilt falls away. There are still times when I have to work at this when the belief in guilt is compelling, but the process remains the same.

I have discovered that if I set the story aside and only look at the belief in guilt that the story represents, then the struggle wanes. For instance, there was a person in my life with whom I was uncomfortable. I projected this onto her and believed she was the problem.

Believing that she was the problem is the same thing as saying that she was to blame for my discomfort and so was guilty. She did so many things that seemed to prove my point, and the more I looked at our relationship, the harder it was to see that guilt wasn’t warranted. What I did, was to look past the story of this young woman and me.

I looked at what the story represented, and I saw that I found value in guilt. Seeing her as guilty in this story provided a way to avoid looking within where I thought guilt resided. That was the whole purpose of the story. Once I saw that this was not about her actions or my reactions, but that it was about guilt, I was able to allow healing. I returned to love and guilt fell away. Then there was no story.

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