Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles read excerpts from and talk about “Holy Week T-20.I – the first section from Chapter 20 (The Vision of Holiness) in the Text of A Course In Miracles – in this YouTube video. The importance of recognizing our needless inner metaphoric crucifixion – our ego’s pointless fiction that we take seriously and inflict torment on ourselves and each other– and asking our Inner Kindness Teacher for help in questioning … and ultimately releasing our investment in – thoughts of anger, attack and the whole spectrum from subtle to blatant persecution due to our mistaken identity … is at the heart of the Course’s gentle, persistent vigilance that releases our minds from the barriers to the real love beyond specialness, separation, and substitution. We learn to generalize all discomforts that disturb our peace as being needless crucifixion that merits no further investment for our shared identity. We needn’t inflict this on ourselves or anyone else via conscious or unconscious projection, with the resulting blame, denial, victimhood that seems to perpetuate an endless – but breakable! – cycle of sin, guilt, fear, attack, defense, and an incomplete self-concept of loneliness and uncertainty. The way we break the cycle of ego oblivion and remove the crown of thorns from our own metaphoric heads is to notice our unkind thoughts and choose against them, effectively removing all the thorny crowns our egos want to keep on everyone else’s heads. Since minds are joined, listening to our Inner Kindness Teacher thus replaces the haughty thorns of persecuting separation with the humbly happy lilies that let everyone off the hook, or off the cross, or wherever in our minds we’ve set up our “hang-ups.” We restore our real, inclusive innocence by allowing our perception to be healed so that we see the eternal innocence of everyone else.
Here are the first three paragraphs of the Holy Week section:
“1. This is Palm Sunday, the celebration of victory and the acceptance of the truth. ²Let us not spend this holy week brooding on the crucifixion of God’s Son, but happily in the celebration of his release. ³For Easter is the sign of peace, not pain. ⁴A slain Christ has no meaning. ⁵But a risen Christ becomes the symbol of the Son of God’s forgiveness on himself; the sign he looks upon himself as healed and whole.
2. This week begins with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy sign the Son of God is innocent. ²Let no dark sign of crucifixion intervene between the journey and its purpose; between the acceptance of the truth and its expression. ³This week we celebrate life, not death. ⁴And we honor the perfect purity of the Son of God, and not his sins. ⁵Offer your brother the gift of lilies, not the crown of thorns; the gift of love and not the “gift” of fear. ⁶You stand beside your brother, thorns in one hand and lilies in the other, uncertain which to give. ⁷Join now with me and throw away the thorns, offering the lilies to replace them. ⁸This Easter I would have the gift of your forgiveness offered by you to me, and returned by me to you. ⁹We cannot be united in crucifixion and in death. ¹⁰Nor can the resurrection be complete till your forgiveness rests on Christ, along with mine.
3. A week is short, and yet this holy week is the symbol of the whole journey the Son of God has undertaken. ²He started with the sign of victory, the promise of the resurrection, already given him. ³Let him not wander into the temptation of crucifixion, and delay him there. ⁴Help him to go in peace beyond it, with the light of his own innocence lighting his way to his redemption and release. ⁵Hold him not back with thorns and nails when his redemption is so near. ⁶But let the whiteness of your shining gift of lilies speed him on his way to resurrection.” (T-20.I.1:1–3:6)
We concluded our conversation with some excerpts from the section in the text – The Lifting of the Veil – which concludes the chapter that details how we overcome the obstacles to peace:
“Together we will disappear into the Presence beyond the veil, not to be lost but found; not to be seen but known. ²And knowing, nothing in the plan God has established for salvation will be left undone. ³This is the journey’s purpose, without which is the journey meaningless. ⁴Here is the peace of God, given to you eternally by Him. ⁵Here is the rest and quiet that you seek, the reason for the journey from its beginning. ⁶Heaven is the gift you owe your brother, the debt of gratitude you offer to the Son of God in thanks for what he is, and what his Father created him to be.” (T-19.IV-D.19:1-6)
“You came this far because the journey was your choice. ²And no one undertakes to do what he believes is meaningless. ³What you had faith in still is faithful, and watches over you in faith so gentle yet so strong that it would lift you far beyond the veil, and place the Son of God safely within the sure protection of his Father. ⁴Here is the only purpose that gives this world, and the long journey through this world, whatever meaning lies in them. ⁵Beyond this, they are meaningless. ⁶You and your brother stand together, still without conviction they have a purpose. ⁷Yet it is given you to see this purpose in your holy Friend, and recognize it as your own.” (T-19.IV-D.21:1-7)
(This video was recorded on March 26, 2021.)
If you have questions or comments about this video, prior videos in this ACIM-related video series or other Course-related topics, please email them via the ACIMblog.com contact form. Susan and Bruce will review and try to respond to questions and suggestions for future conversations. We look forward to extending the conversation with you!
Here are some prior ACIM-related conversations with Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles.