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January-March, 2021

COVID-19 from the Perspective of A Course in Miracles

by Rev. Jennifer McSween, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

In March of this year, life as we’ve come to know it came to a screeching halt for most of us in the greater part of the world. The sudden worldwide outbreak and rapidly increasing spread of COVID-19 led to a complete lockdown of schools, businesses, and services. All forms of physical and social interaction with each other were asked to be stopped in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus.

Both the onset of COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdown led to massive changes and losses of our livelihood, loved ones, and our basic social freedoms. This brought up feelings of fear, pain, and/or uncertainty for many, if not most of us. I say “us” because I, too, have experienced the effects of COVID and the challenges of the ensuing lockdown, personally and professionally. Let me tell you how.

Officiating weddings is not only a big part of my ministry but also the part that I enjoy the most. For me, marriage is one of the ways we can join most lovingly, intimately and authentically with another on the level of form. And “I,” in the role of the officiant, “get” to be instrumental in helping this joining to take place. How cool is that?

I usually have a steady flow of ceremonies booked especially between the months of May and October, and this year was no different. This year, however, I officiated my last wedding ceremony on Saturday March 14th. On Monday the 16th we went into lockdown. By the end of the month, all the ceremonies I had booked all the way to October were either canceled, postponed, or simply “put on hold.”

On April 28th, five days after coming down with symptoms of COVID-19, my mother passed away. She was living in a senior’s residence at the time so, due to the lockdown, I had not visited her for six weeks. Two days before she came down with the symptoms of COVID we saw each other from a distance for the first time in six weeks. I called her to come to the window so she could see me where I stood at the quiet street on her side of the building, about 500 yards away. That would also be the last time we saw each other.

I wrote about my experience in an article titled, “Peace in the Midst of Pain,” in the summer issue of Miracles News. I shared about my feelings of pain over the loss of my mother’s physical presence in my life, and facing them from the perspective of the Course.

Now I’d like to share how A Course in Miracles would have us look at COVID without feeling fearful or victimized, neither by the virus nor the limitations and challenges of being in lockdown. I’ve been asked the question of how A Course in Miracles would have us look at COVID quite a few times over the past seven months and at the time of this writing, November, 2020, we have entered into a second lockdown. Both COVID cases and related deaths are once again rising.

How do we look at COVID from the perspective of the Course, and why look at it from the Course’s perspective? Well, the first thing we need to be aware of is that, whether it’s COVID, some major catastrophe, or the common cold, A Course in Miracles does not look at any of these in terms of something specific.

Instead, the Course looks at the world and everything that seems to take place in it as the projection or reflection of the idea of separation that’s in the mind. The underlying premises that give rise to the Course’s perspective of the world and what takes place in it are as follows:

1) Mind is all there is. 2) Everything happens in the mind. 3) All that is ever taking place — with everything you see and experience — is nothing but your experiencing the contents of the mind in different forms.

These premises lead to perspective that will keep you from feeling fearful of or threatened by those things you see, encounter, or experience in your life or in the world. This is a radically different perspective than the one we generally hold of the world and it leads us to think that our feelings are caused by the things we see, encounter, and experience in our lives and in the world.

Looking at the world and everything that takes place in it from the perspective of A Course in Miracles is about understanding the true cause of your feelings. It means that you realize that it’s never what happens, what comes into your experience, or the form in which something appears that determines the way you feel. It is always and only “the way you’re looking at it, your perception” that is the cause of your feelings.

“Forgiveness” is remembering this and being willing to look past the form as being the cause of your feelings. You pay attention to the way you’re looking at it — the story you’re telling yourself about what it is, what it means, and most importantly, that you are being victimized by it.

So, the way the Course would have us look at COVID is as a way of telling us what’s taking place in our minds and seeing it as an opportunity to “practice forgiveness.” Feelings of fear, worry, and uncertainty related to COVID and/or its accompanying challenges, are to be looked at as nothing but information.

We’re being informed that we are looking at COVID as something specific and telling ourselves a story about what it is and what it means, based on its form. With this awareness we can then choose to look past the form and recognize the truth that lies behind and see it for what it really is. It is nothing but a reflection of the misperception that the world and everything that takes place in it is real and we are victims of it.

When we practice forgiveness, we correct that misperception and we look at everything, not according to the form in which it appears, but as the reflection of the idea of separation. We realize that nothing we see, encounter, or experience in any form can cause us to feel anything, nor cause us any pain.

This enables us to entertain the perspective that’s shared in the title of Workbook Lesson 31: “I am not the victim of the world I see.” When we look at COVID and the lockdown from this perspective, we feel peaceful, even if we experience the loss of a loved one, loss of our livelihood, or limitations in our way of life.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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