A Course in Miracles Lesson 198 Only my condemnation injures me.
If you can condemn,
You can be injured.
What seems to be condemnation's influence and its effects have not occurred at all.
Yet must we deal with these a while,
As if they had occurred.
Condemn and you are made a prisoner,
Forgive and you are free.
Knowledge is the law that rules perception.
It is not a law that knowledge understands.
For freedom is a part of knowledge.
To condemn is thus impossible in truth.
Today we practice letting freedom come to make its home with us.
The truth bestows these words upon our mind,
That we may find the key to light and let the darkness end.
Say to yourself,
After me,
Only my condemnation injures me.
Only my own forgiveness sets me free.
Only my condemnation injures me.
Only my own forgiveness sets me free.
Do not forget today that there can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an unforgiving thought.
Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal.
Accept the one illusion which proclaims there is no condemnation in God's child and heaven will be then remembered instantly.
The world will be forgotten and all its weird beliefs forgotten with it,
As the face of Christ appears,
Unveiled,
At last,
In this one dream.
This is the gift the Holy Spirit holds for you,
From God,
Your Father.
Let the day be celebrated,
Both on earth and in your holy home as well.
Be kind to both as you forgive the trespasses you thought them guilty of.
See your innocence shining upon you from the face of Christ.
Now is there silence all around the world.
Now is there stillness,
Where before there was a frantic rush of thoughts that made no sense.
Now is there tranquil light across the face of earth,
Light made quiet in a dreamless sleep.
And now the Word of God alone remains upon it.
Only that can be perceived an instant longer.
Then are symbols done and everything you ever thought you made has completely vanished from the mind that God forever knows to be His only Son.
There is no condemnation in Him.
He is perfect in His holiness.
He needs no thoughts of mercy.
Who could give Him gifts when everything is His?
Who could dream of offering forgiveness to the Son of sinlessness itself?
So like Him,
Whose Son He is,
That to behold the Son is to perceive no more and only know the Father.
In this vision of the Son,
So brief,
That not an instant stands between this single sight and timelessness itself.
You see the vision of yourself and then you disappear forever into God.
Today we come still nearer to the end of everything that stands between this vision and our sight.
Only my condemnation injures me.
Only my own forgiveness sets me free.
Ponder on this.
Only my condemnation injures me.
Only my own forgiveness sets me free.
See the vision of yourself,
Then disappear forever into God.
We are glad that we have come this far.
We recognize that the One who brought us here will not forsake us,
For He would give to us the gift that God has given us through Him today.
Now is the time for your deliverance.
The time has come.
The time has come today.
Only my condemnation injures me.
Only my own forgiveness sets me free.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
