For 3-days the apostles had to wait to understand what was happening for Jesus. Only some of them were witness to the crucifixion, the others fled and hid in the top room where Jesus had held the last supper. Afraid of retribution for being “a follower” and dismayed by the sudden turn of events that befell their beloved messiah, the disciples struggled to understand, and their trust wavered. But Mary of Magdalene’s faith never faltered, being a woman and most likely not having the same access to the constant fraternity the apostles would have enjoyed, she had already begun to rely on His Presence, rather than needing to be at His side, and so she was the first one to behold the risen Christ.
We each Answer our Calling with a previously naive understanding of religion and comprehension of the story and purpose of Jesus. We each assign our spiritual path a purpose other than peace. Often times we seek pardon for perceived sins, we quest for the alleviation of guilt, or wish to adhere to a strict moral code so we can be seen to “do the right thing.” Even our thirst for righteousness may be a cover to justify making others wrong. Sometimes we simply desire to atone for the unrelenting shame of being a person in this world, because the suffering is overwhelming. As a result we have mostly been drawn to herd together in church communities for conviviality, succor and comfort.
Whatever your initial draw, this spiritual groove got you here—you have been funneled for Love!
That was the difference for the first followers, they had been bathed in the certainty and lavished in the Love of Christ that Jesus demonstrated first. For them it was an intimate and interpersonal relationship. So the contrast experience that they felt in His seeming absence would have been extreme.
It is a striking consistency I’ve noticed in every religious retelling—more than any other bible “fact,” that the apostles were shocked and confused during the three days after the crucifixion, before the resurrection.
MUSIC LINK: “Were You There?” In the early 1960s, Cash toured with the Carter Family, which by this time regularly included Mother Maybelle’s daughters, Anita, (solo) June, and Helen.
Johnny Cash & The Carter Family tremble, “Were you there when the stone was rolled away?”
“Were you there when they crucified my lord?” is a gospel hymn, originally termed a “negro spiritual” because it was made famous by the enslaved African-Americans of the south during the antebellum time of extreme persecution. This deeply intimate song bares witness both to perceived injustice and to faith beyond understanding. It is a redemption song because despite the eye witness account of crucifixion it also contains the metaphor of “rolling the rock away” that revealed the resurrected Christ and justified the Spirit of transcendence and presence with which the hymn is sung.
When our own 3-days arrive will we be able to transcend the doubt? When our fantasies of wish fulfillment and fables of family and fraternity fail to give us the self-concept reassurance we have relied on will our faith in our identity as Christ be sufficiently reCalled to sustain us?
Well the only way to learn to trust—is by trusting! And so we are blessed if we have lived a life peppered with disillusionment during which we have learned to question our mixed motivations and beliefs. Doubt is a symbol of false reliance. Yet once it it is revealed it can be relinquished in favor of the Real.
Let’s talk more about this “period of unsettling” as A Course in Miracles calls it. It first recognizes that all other traits of God’s teachers rest on trust: honesty, tolerance, gentleness, joy, defenselessness, generosity, patience, faithfulness, open-mindedness. “Once that has been achieved, the others cannot fail to follow.”
Many ACIM students try to pin themselves somewhere on the six stages of trust, yet it is really a cyclical experience until it is an Instant! Like a maturing in faith, it is the deepening of this trust and in The Holy Spirit to Guide us through our experience of space and time that really yields the ultimate reward; where we don’t even think to worry by attempting to “plan the future, activate the past, or organize the present” as we wish.
Before this development of trust we mistakenly we operate from the belief that we must protect ourselves from “what is” seemingly happening because it must contain a threat. “A sense of threat is an acknowledgment of an inherent weakness; a belief that there is danger which has power to call on you to make appropriate defense. The world is based on this insane belief.” (W-pI.135.2. ) So if you are a prepper and want to be ready for the unknown—then harness that desire for the development of trust! Alignment with our true Source transcends false cause and effect in form, because it accepts that the world is merely a mirror reflecting “the mind’s” beliefs and desires. These fluctuating reflections can be alarming until we begin to stabilize perception with mind training.
The next stage is indeed “a period of unsettling.” Now must the teacher of God understand that he did not really know what was valuable and what was valueless. All that he really learned so far was that he did not want the valueless, and that he did want the valuable. Yet his own sorting out was meaningless in teaching him the difference. The idea of sacrifice, so central to his own thought system, had made it impossible for him to judge. He thought he learned willingness, but now he sees that he does not know what the willingness is for. And now he must attain a state that may remain impossible to reach for a long, long time. He must learn to lay all judgment aside, and ask only what he really wants in every circumstance. Were not each step in this direction so heavily reinforced, it would be hard indeed! —ACIM (M-4.I-A.7:1-9)
Ultimately we must transcend perception entirely and choose the Vision of the Spirit, because “… trust would settle every problem now.” (T-26.VIII.2:3)
It seems to be a process until it is an instant, and the presence of the Miracle in our lives keeps the invitation to that Holy Instant alive in our Awareness! That’s why this is “A Course in Miracles” and not a course in “mind training” as personal development. While we harness our little willingness in favor of total trust we are eased out of personal participation and into being “passers-by.” Here our great willingness is needed as we embrace our entitlement to Miracles and restore awareness of being completely God dependent. This reliance on Miracle mindedness undoes defense as our focus is solely on seeing we are mistaken should anything untoward seem to occur.
“All things work together for good” is a very high Calling and yet the obvious result of all our unlearning of the world. Under the Holy Spirit’s SuperVision this is a beneficent universe of Divine Providence: everything you need for Awakening freely Given!
When we do not resist “what is” showing up in our world view we can look beyond the maya and with the help of the Miracle focus on Acceptance of what is Real. All our defense is fear of self-concept annihilation anyway, so when you have nothing left to defend then: Nothing real can be threatened.
You are not wrong when you are fearful or doubt—you are simply confused about Whom You Are. The conditions we have place on feeling safe are threatened and our ability to maintain the status quo has been questioned or destroyed. Either way it is only through our decision to trust that we can again come into Trust with the Holy Spirit and allow ourselves to be comforted. “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” Together we can look at the conditions (beliefs and desires) that uphold this fear, and in questioning them banish doubt altogether.
In the section “II. Honesty” A Course in Miracles shares that:
All other traits of God’s teachers rest on trust. Once that has been achieved, the others cannot fail to follow. Only the trusting can afford honesty, for only they can see its value. Honesty does not apply only to what you say. The term actually means consistency. There is nothing you say that contradicts what you think or do; no thought opposes any other thought; no act belies your word; and no word lacks agreement with another. Such are the truly honest. At no level are they in conflict with themselves. Therefore it is impossible for them to be in conflict with anyone or anything. —ACIM (M-4.II.1)
The first step is noticing any obvious incongruities as they arise. Our developing trust with the Holy Spirit will allow us to safely expose these often shameful or embarrassing inconsistencies for Correction. Naturally this clarity about our innate Innocence filters down into more subtle mental ambivalence where we can passionately hold two conflicting desires simultaneously! For those of you new to A Course in Miracles the Good News is that when you look at these seeming conflicts with the Spirit it results in a win-win scenario, where the Spirit harness’s your true desire for happiness without any loss or sacrifice.
This “Course” is truly Miraculous. It is the end of compromise and the beginning of a sense of divine safety as we begin to mirror only eternal realities. Now when doubt arises rather than a personal failing it can be gently seen and harnessed as a desire for this certainty and Trust that Mary Magdalene demonstrated.
Once we call these incongruities into question and accept the full transfer of our training then:
What was seen as merely shadows before become solid gains, to be counted on in all “emergencies” as well as tranquil times. Indeed, the tranquility is their result; the outcome of honest learning, consistency of thought and full transfer. This is the stage of real peace, for here is Heaven’s state fully reflected. —A Course in Miracles (M-4.I.A.8)
In the early 1960s, Cash toured with the Carter Family, which by this time regularly included Mother Maybelle’s daughters, Anita, (solo) June, and Helen. June later recalled admiring him from afar during these tours. Much of Cash’s music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his career most notably his covers of “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails and “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed him to a tree?
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Were you there when the stone was rolled away?
Thank you to The Foundation for Inner Peace for providing this A Course in Miracles, ACIM search function visit ACIM.org to learn more!
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