The face of Christ. Themes from A Course in Miracles
This morning we're going to talk about the face of Christ. This is one of those phrases
that appears regularly in the Course and like many other terms or phrases in the Course
it's easily misunderstood. And the misunderstanding comes with—as a result of the more basic misunderstanding
that has plagued students of the Course right from the beginning, and this is the confusion
of form and content. So that when people see that phrase, "face of Christ," because we're
talking about something seemingly visual (at least that's the symbol), people think that
they're actually are supposed to see something in their brothers or sisters. If people equate
Christ with Jesus, as many Christians automatically do, then they will think they're supposed
to see the face of Jesus in someone. This was—is not what the Course is talking about
at all, and it is not talking about anything that is visual; it is talking about something
that is perceptual. And the Course's—and the distinction between the visual and the
perceptual is that visual denotes what our eyes see; perceptual is how our mind interprets
what our eyes see. So that in A Course in Miracles perception is always interpretation;
it's not what our eyes see or what our ears hear. It's not the sensory data that are brought
to the brain for analysis; it's what our mind—how our mind interprets what we see; what our
reactions are. And there are always two: either I react and interpret through the eyes of
my ego, which sees separation, differences, judgment, attack or through the eyes of Jesus
or the Holy Spirit that recognizes that despite the seeming differences that bodies present
to us or that the world presents to us, everyone here is the same because we all share the
same mind—the same split mind: the ego, Holy Spirit, and decision maker. So that the face
of Christ has nothing to do with what our eyes see. It doesn't mean that we literally
see someone differently. What it has to do with is an attitude. And the face of Christ
in A Course in Miracles is a synonym for the face of innocence; that's what "the face of
Christ" means. In that sense it's identical with forgiveness, that rather than look at
someone and see guilt and sin in them, which are but projections of our own unconscious
guilt; what we see is the face of innocence because we are looking at through our right
mind rather than through our wrong mind, and we—when we look right-mindedly we are looking
out from the perception—self-perception—of our innocence, which means we see innocence
all around us. So that the face of Christ is really the face of forgiveness, wherein
we transform our perception of someone from sin to innocence, from guilt to holiness.
Again, this has to do with content; it does not have to do with form. So when Lesson 181
says, "I trust my brothers who are one with me," it does not mean we trust their ego.
It means we trust that beyond their ego is the face of Christ; that beyond all their
perceptions of themselves as guilty sinners or all—despite our projections onto them,
seeing them as guilty sinners rather than ourselves there is that right-minded innocence.
There's that right-minded thought of Atonement that says sin has never happened. Whatever
you thought you did has not occurred. It might have occurred within the world of illusion.
It might have occurred within the world of dreams, but it has not occurred in the sense
of having any effect on me. No matter what your seeming sins are, the love and the peace
of God are still within me. That's the basis of my forgiveness of you. That's the basis
of my seeing the face of Christ in you and trusting that that face of innocence is in
you despite whatever things I'm accusing you of doing, the world's accusing you of having
done, or you have accused yourself of. None of these accusations or self-accusations have
anything to do with the truth of Atonement that says that the separation from God, the
separation from Love, the separation and fragmentation of the Sonship, none of this has happened.
We remain as God created us. So seeing the face of Christ in someone is recognizing that,
again, you are still as God created you; I am still as God created me, and that perfect
Love that has united us as spirit is totally unaffected by any of the feverish dreams of
the ego. So again, to see the face of Christ is saying that I forgive you for what you
have not done. You have not taken the peace and the Love of God away from us. And so our
function day in and day out is to see that face. My sight looks out on Christ's face
and to see nothing else, the workbook says. So I want to look on nothing else because
instead of seeing the projections of my own hidden hate and secret sin, I see the innocence
that Jesus holds for me in my right mind, and I see that all around me. So this all
comes down to what teacher do I wish to choose? Whose eyes do I want to look through as I
look upon the world, the eyes of judgment or the eyes of forgiveness, to see the face
of guilt or to see the face of innocence? That is the meaning of the symbol of the face
of Christ in the Course, is Jesus asking us to see, to see that shining face in everyone
and everything we look upon. Only then will we realize that our sins have been forgiven.