A Course in Miracles
Chapter 28: The Undoing of Fear.
Section I: Introduction.
References: Original Edition P. 546, Sparkly Edition P. 645, Third Edition P. 589.
(February 19, 1968)
28:1 The miracle does nothing. All it does is to UN-do. And thus it cancels out the interference to what HAS BEEN done. It does not add, but merely takes away. And what it takes away is long since gone, but, being kept in memory, APPEARS to have immediate effects. This world was over long ago. The thoughts that made it are no longer in the mind that thought of them, and loved them for a while. The miracle but shows the past is gone, and what has truly gone HAS no effects. REMEMBERING a cause can but produce ILLUSIONS of its presence, NOT effects.
2 All the effects of guilt are here no more. For guilt is over. In its passing went its consequences, left without a cause. Why would you cling to it in memory, if you did not DESIRE its effects? Remembering is as selective as perception, being its past tense. It is perception of the past, as if it were occurring NOW and still were there to see. Memory, like perception, is a skill made up by you, to take the place of what God GAVE in your creation. And, like all the things you made, it can be used to serve ANOTHER purpose, and be means for something ELSE. It can be used to heal, and NOT to hurt, if you so wish.
3 Nothing employed for healing represents an effort to do anything at all. It is a recognition that you HAVE no needs which mean that something must be DONE. It is an unselective memory, which is NOT used to INTERFERE with truth. All things the Holy Spirit can employ for healing have been given Him WITHOUT the content and the purposes for which they had been made. They are but skills WITHOUT an application. They AWAIT their use. They have NO dedication and NO aim. The Holy Spirit can indeed make use of memory, for God Himself is there. But this is NOT a memory of past events, but ONLY of a PRESENT state.
