“Now” has no meaning to the ego. ²The present merely reminds it of past hurts, and it reacts to the present as if it were the past.… ⁴It dictates your reactions to those you meet in the present from a past reference point, obscuring their present reality. ⁵In effect, if you follow the ego’s dictates you will react to your brother as though he were someone else, and this will surely prevent you from recognizing him as he is.
⁵Unless you learn that past pain is an illusion, you are choosing a future of illusions and losing the many opportunities you could find for release in the present.… ⁹The Holy Spirit teaches that you always meet yourself, and the encounter is holy because you are.
⁴He regards the function of time as temporary, serving only His teaching function, which is temporary by definition. ⁵His emphasis is therefore on the only aspect of time that can extend to the infinite, for now is the closest approximation of eternity that this world offers. ⁶It is in the reality of “now,” without past or future, that the beginning of the appreciation of eternity lies. ⁷For only “now” is here, and only “now” presents the opportunities for the holy encounters in which salvation can be found.
³Healing cannot be accomplished in the past. ⁴It must be accomplished in the present to release the future. ⁵This interpretation ties the future to the present, and extends the present rather than the past. (A Course in Miracles, T-13.IV.5:1-2,4-5;6:5,9;7:4-7;9:3-5. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)
To see our brother truly is to see him as Love and nothing else. We cannot see him as he is if we use memories of the past as our reference to decide what he represents to us. This is what the ego does to give “meaning” to our world. Yet the past is an illusion, a dream of past hurts which never occurred in truth.
Because only Love is real and It never changes, we can only know in the present moment. Today we ask the Holy Spirit to help us let go of the past. With His help, we can see the present with the forgiving eyes of Christ’s vision. And our encounters will be holy. We will see reflections of our holiness in everyone.
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