11 Fear is a symptom of your deep sense of loss. If when you perceive it in others you learn to
supply the loss, the basic
cause of fear is removed. Thereby you teach yourself that fear does not exist
in you, for you have
in yourself the means for removing it and have demonstrated this by
giving it. Fear and love are the only emotions of which you are capable. One is false, for it was made out of denial, and denial depends on the real belief in what is denied for its
own existence.
12 By interpreting fear correctly
as a positive affirmation of the underlying belief it masks, you are undermining its perceived usefulness by rendering it useless. Defenses which do not work at all are
automatically discarded. If you raise what fear conceals to
clear-cut, unequivocal predominance, fear becomes meaningless. You have denied its power to conceal love, which was its only purpose. The mask which
you have drawn across the face of love has disappeared.
13 If you would look upon love, which
is the world's reality, how could you do better than to recognize in every defense
against it the underlying appeal
for it? And how could you better learn of its reality than by answering the appeal for it by
giving it? The Holy Spirit's interpretation of fear
does dispel it, for the
awareness of truth cannot
be denied. Thus does the Holy Spirit replace fear with love and translate error into truth. And thus will
you learn of Him how to replace your dream of separation with the fact of unity. For the separation is only the
denial of union and, correctly interpreted, attests to your eternal knowledge that union is true.
14 Miracles are merely the translation of denial into truth. If to love oneself is to
heal oneself, those who are sick do
not love themselves. Therefore, they are asking for the love that would heal them but which they are denying to themselves. If they knew the truth about themselves, they could not
be sick. The task of the miracle-worker thus becomes
to deny the denial of truth. The sick must heal
themselves, for the truth is in them. Yet, having
obscured it, the light in
another mind must shine into theirs because that light
is theirs.
15 The light in them shines as brightly,
regardless of the density of the fog that obscures it. If
you give no power to the fog to obscure the light, it
has none, for it has power only because the Son of God gave power to it. He must
himself withdraw that power, remembering that
all power is of God.
You can remember this for all the Sonship. Do not allow your brother not to remember, for his forgetfulness is
yours. But
your remembering is
his, for God cannot be remembered alone.
This is what you have forgotten. To perceive the healing of your brother as the healing of yourself is thus the way to remember God. For you forgot your brothers
with Him, and God's answer to your forgetting is but the way to remember.
16 Perceive in sickness but another call for love and offer your brother what he believes he cannot offer himself. Whatever the sickness, there is but
one remedy. You will be made whole as you
make whole, for to perceive in sickness the appeal for health is to recognize in hatred the call for love. And to give a brother what he
really wants is to offer it unto yourself, for your Father wills you to know your brother
as yourself. Answer
his call for love and
yours is answered. Healing is the love of Christ for His Father and for
Himself.
17 Remember what we said about the frightening perceptions of little children which terrify them because they do not understand them. If they ask for enlightenment and
accept it, their fears vanish, but if they
hide their nightmares, they will
keep them. It is easy to help an uncertain child, for he recognizes that he does not know what his perceptions mean. Yet you believe that you
do know. Little children, you are hiding your heads under the covers of the heavy blankets you have laid upon yourselves. You are hiding your nightmares in the darkness of your own certainty and refusing to open your eyes
and look at them.
18 Let us not save nightmares, for they are not fitting offerings for Christ, and so they are not fit gifts for
you. Take off the covers and look at what you are afraid of. Only the
anticipation will frighten you, for the reality of nothingness cannot
be frightening. Let us not delay this, for your dream of hatred will not leave you without help, and help is here. Learn to be quiet in the midst of turmoil, for quietness is the end of strife and this is the journey to peace. Look straight at every image that rises to delay you, for the goal is inevitable because it is eternal. The goal of love is but your right, and it belongs to you
despite your preference.
19
You still want what God wills, and no nightmare can defeat a Child of God in his purpose. For your purpose was given you by God, and you must accomplish it
because it is His Will. Awake and remember your purpose, for it is
your will to do so. What has been accomplished for you
must be yours. Do not let your hatred stand in the way of love, for
nothing can withstand the love of Christ for His Father or His Father's love for Him.
20 A little while and you
will see me, for I am not hidden because
you are hiding. I will awaken you as surely as I awakened myself, for I awoke
for you. In
my resurrection is
your release. Our mission is to escape
crucifixion, not redemption. Trust in my help, for I did not walk alone, and I will walk with you as our Father walked with me. Did you not know that I walked with Him in peace? And does not that mean that peace goes with
us on the journey?
21 There is no fear in perfect love. We will but be making perfect to you what is
already perfect
in you. You do not fear the
unknown, but the
known. You will not fail in your mission because I failed not in mine. Give me but a little trust in the name of the
complete trust I have in you, and we will easily accomplish the goal of perfection together. For perfection
is and cannot
be denied. To deny the denial of perfection is not so difficult as the denial of truth, and what we can accomplish together
must be believed when you
see it as accomplished.
22 You who have tried to banish love have not succeeded, but you who choose to banish fear
will succeed. The Lord is with you, but you know it not. Yet your Redeemer liveth and abideth in you in the peace out of which He was created. Would you not exchange
this awareness for the awareness of your fear? When we have overcome fear—not by hiding it, not by minimizing it, not by denying its full import in any way—this
is what you will really see. You cannot lay aside the obstacle to real vision without looking upon it, for to lay aside means to judge
against. If
you will look, the Holy Spirit will judge and will judge truly. He cannot shine away what
you keep hidden, for you have not offered it to Him, and He cannot take it
from you.
23 We are therefore embarking on an organized, well-structured, and carefully planned program aimed at learning how to offer to the Holy Spirit everything you do
not want.
He knows what to do with it. You do
not know how to use what He knows. Whatever is revealed to Him that is not of God is gone. Yet you must reveal it to
yourself in perfect willingness, for otherwise His knowledge remains useless to you. Surely He will not fail to help you, since help is His
only purpose. Do you not have greater reason for fearing the world as
you perceive it than for looking at the cause of fear and letting it go forever?
