I am the light of the world.
Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.
Our function as the light of the world is related to truthfulness. Light reveals what is true – light shines on reality. It undoes what obscures – what darkens – reality. When we accept that our function is “lighting up the world” (W-pI.81.1:2) we are really declaring our intention to let only truth be true (T-14.II.2:1).
Like you, the Holy Spirit did not make truth. Like God, He knows it to be true. He brings the light of truth into the darkness, and lets it shine on you. And as it shines your brothers and sisters see it, and realizing that this light is not what you have made, they see in you more than you see (T-14.II.4:1-4).
This is the understanding that turns us into “happy learners” (e.g. T-14.II.7:1). Nor is our learning for us alone.
Behold your brothers and sisters in their freedom, and learn of them how to be free of darkness. The light in you will waken them, and they will not leave you here asleep (T-14.II.7:1-2).
This insistence on truth is related to our insistence that we will no longer be what we are not. We are going to live from the light of holiness and love, rather than fear.
This obligates us to practice forgiveness – which is not the perception of wrongs and a decision to overlook them (which is simply the ego’s transactional version of charity) but rather not seeing wrongdoing at all, which is the vision of Christ.
Christ’s eyes are open, and he will look upon whatever you see with love if you accept His vision as yours . . . The awakening of His Son begins with his investment in the real world, and by this he will learn to re-invest in himself (T-12.VI.4:4, 9).
This is not a question of doing but of accepting (e.g., W-pI.81.3:4). It is a question of trust (e.g., W-pI.81.3:5), specifically, trust and accepting that what we are in truth cannot now nor ever be excluded from the accomplishment of God’s perfect kingdom.
It is through accepting my function that I will see the light in me. And in this light will my function stand clear and perfectly unambiguous before my sight (W-pI.81.3:2-3).
Thus, Lesson 81 reinforces our fundamental commitment to an ACIM practice grounded on remembering what we are in truth, and knowing that our identity is not actually in doubt. Only our own light can teach us this.
