The light has come.
1. The light has come.
²You have been healed, and you can heal.
³The light has come.
⁴You have been saved, and you can save.
⁵You are at peace, and you bring peace with you wherever you go.
⁶Darkness, conflict, and death have disappeared.
⁷The light has come.
2. Today we celebrate the happy ending to your long dream of disaster.
²No more dark dreams will now be yours.
³The light has come.
⁴Today begins the era of light for you and for everyone.
⁵It is a new era, in which a new world is born.
⁶The old one has left no trace upon it.
⁷Today we see a different world, because the light has come.
3. Our exercises for today will be joyous ones, in which we give thanks for the fading of the old and the beginning of the new.
²There are no shadows from the past to cloud our sight or hide the world forgiveness offers us.
³Today we will accept the new world as we want to see it.
⁴What we desire will be given us.
⁵It is our will to see the light.
⁶The light has come.
4. We will devote our longer practice periods today to looking at the world that our forgiveness shows us.
²That is what we want to see, and only that.
³Our single purpose makes our goal inevitable.
⁴Today the real world rises before us in gladness, to be seen at last.
⁵Vision is given us now that the light has come.
⁶Today we do not see the shadow of the ego upon the world.
⁷We see the light, and in it Heaven’s reflection shining on the world. I
5. Begin the longer practice periods by telling yourself the glad tidings of your release: II
²The light has come.
³I have forgiven the world.
6. Do not dwell on the past today.
²Keep a completely open mind, washed of all past ideas and cleared of every concept you have made.
³You have forgiven the world today.
⁴You can now look upon it as if you had never seen it before.
⁵You do not yet know what it looks like.
⁶You merely wait to have it shown to you.
⁷As you wait, say this several times, slowly and with great patience:
⁸The light has come.
⁹I have forgiven the world.
7. Realize that your forgiveness entitles you to vision.
²Understand that the Holy Spirit never fails to give the gift of sight to those who forgive.
³Trust that He will not fail you now.
⁴You have forgiven the world.
⁵The Holy Spirit will be with you as you watch and wait. III
⁶He will show you what true vision sees.
⁷This is His Will, and you have joined with Him.
8. Wait patiently for Him.
²He will be there.
³The light has come.
⁴You have forgiven the world.
⁵Tell Him you know you cannot fail because you trust in Him.
⁶And tell yourself you wait in certainty to look upon the world He promised you.
⁷From this time on, you will see differently.
⁸The light has come today,
⁹And you will see the world that has been promised since the beginning of time and in which time itself will end.
9. The shorter practice periods will be joyful reminders of your release.
²Remind yourself about every fifteen minutes that today is a time for special celebration.
³Give thanks for God’s Mercy and His Love.
⁴Be glad you have the power to release your vision completely through forgiveness. IV
⁵Be confident that today marks a new beginning.
⁶Without the darkness of the past upon your eyes, you cannot fail to see today.
⁷And what you see will be so welcome that you will gladly extend today forever.
10. Then say:
²The light has come.
³I have forgiven the world.
⁴If you are tempted, say to anyone who seems to pull you back into darkness:
⁵The light has come.
⁶I have forgiven you.
11. Let us devote this day to the serenity in which God would have us be.
²Keep it in your awareness of yourself, and see it everywhere.
³Today we celebrate the beginning of your vision of the real world, which has come to take the place of the one you made and thought was real.
I It is quite possible that the statement in today’s Lesson may at first seem to you an abstraction—a lovely affirmation describing a somewhat fanciful experience filled with good intentions. It may give the impression that Jesus is an idealist who expresses Himself poetically to encourage you toward the achievement of something that, deep down, you consider impossible.
Nothing could be further from the truth. His statement is absolutely precise, completely true, and unfailingly fulfilled. The problem is that you have not read it carefully. You have not noticed what Jesus is actually saying. Read again the first line of this paragraph. Notice that it says we will see “…the world that our forgiveness shows us.” The key to everything is “our forgiveness.”
It is impossible to see the light of Heaven shining upon the world unless you forgive it—but it is also impossible not to see it if you do.
Then read carefully the next line: “That is what we want to see, and only that.” If that is indeed your will, remember that your will is always perfectly fulfilled. You are the Son of God, and such is your power.
If you choose to believe that you are a fragile and vulnerable human being, condemned to die, that is what you will believe you see, for that is the power of your beliefs. But if you assume your true identity, you will work miracles within the dream of the world, and while your eyes are not yet fully open, you will behold a world upon which the light of Heaven shines.
It is still a dream, but through your forgiveness the light has entered your nightmare and transformed it completely; now it is a happy dream. That is what Jesus calls “the real world.” It is certainly not real, but it had to be given a name. In it you still see changing forms and contrasts, yet now the light is reflected in everything, and all begins to taste of Heaven, where all is one.
Understand well that this Course is very simple. It offers you only one idea: place all your will in forgiving absolutely everything, and place it only there. And you can be sure that the third line of this same paragraph is completely true: “Our single purpose makes our goal inevitable.” And then the light comes.
This Lesson is the logical conclusion of the preceding ones: W-pI.72: “I want to forgive, and I do forgive”; W-pI.73: “I want there to be light”; W-pI.74: “God wants there to be light”; W-pI.75: “The light has come.” Today’s Lesson is cause for celebration—the natural result of having forgiven illusions and aligned the mind with truth.
II Luke 1:19 “And the angel answered and said to him, ‘I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.’”
III You may think that forgiving from the heart is very difficult, but that is the opinion of your egoic mind, which is completely irrational and utterly false. Your ego is deceiving you. You are deceiving yourself.
The situation is exactly this: imagine a person who, with his right hand, is squeezing his own throat while crying out with tears in his eyes, “Help! I’m choking!” Well, that is precisely your situation. Of course you are choking! You are choking yourself!
You say that forgiving is very difficult. You are aware that your judgments are embittering your life. You know perfectly well that your own judgments depend solely on you.
What is happening there? Look closely, for there lies the key to your liberation.
IV Notice once again that the key to your salvation lies in your hands—in your own forgiveness.