For he has damned his body as his prison, and forgot that it is he who gave this role to it.
What he has done now must God’s Son undo. But not alone. For he has thrown away the prison’s key; his holy sinlessness and the remembrance of his Father’s Love. Yet help is given to him in the Voice his Father placed in him. The power to heal is now his Father’s gift, for through His Voice He still can reach His Son, reminding him the body may become his chosen home, but it will never be his home in truth.
Distinctions therefore must be made between true healing and its faulty counterpart. The world of opposites is healing’s place, for what in Heaven could there be to heal? As prayer within the world can ask amiss and seeming charity forgive to kill, so healing can be false as well as true; a witness to the power of the world or to the everlasting Love of God. (A Course in Miracles, S-3.I.3:5-5:3)
True forgiveness is the key to healing. It undoes the belief that we are a body, capable of separation, and guilty because of that perceived separation. Pain, fear and guilt are all signs that we have identified with a false, separate image of what we are. This identification imprisons us in a limited body with eyes made to see only illusions. Because of this identification, this belief cannot be undone without help. By the grace of God, we have been given the Help we need to be called upon in every present moment. It is God’s Voice, eternally in our mind, ready to help the moment we are willing to accept it.
If our body is in pain, it may be helpful to use a physical means to relieve the pain or “cure” the body’s illness. The Course acknowledges that we may need physical means to help the body because healing solely through a change of mind might be perceived as fearful. But we must recognize that this does not heal the cause. We still remain imprisoned in our mind by the mistaken belief that we are separate from God.
True healing comes as we turn away from belief in the body’s perceptions and give our attention to the vision of Christ which will show us our innocence. It will show us that nothing has really happened to change the eternal Love we were created to be. Rather than deny that the body experiences pain, we ask for help to forgive our decision to be separate from God, to see with Christ’s vision.
For most people this is a process with many steps that lead us to greater and greater confidence that we are Love. We give diminishing credence to experiences in the world. Our mind moves away from fear and guilt toward greater peace. We are freeing ourselves to accept our oneness with God and accept His gift of peace, joy and Love.
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