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Chapter 26: Divine Justice

9. Miracles as Means of Just Problem Solving

What can it be but arrogance to think that your mistakes, whether judged as little or enormous, cannot be undone by Heaven’s Justice? And what could this mean except you secretly believe that they must be sins and not mistakes, forever uncorrectable, and to be met with retribution, not with Justice?

Are you willing to be released forever from all effects of the belief in separation and guilt? You cannot rightfully answer this until you understand all that the answer must entail. For if you answer “yes,” this means you will relinquish all values of this world in favor of the Peace of Heaven. It means that not one illusion would you retain. And not one doubt that this is possible will you hold dear, that guilt be kept in place. It means that Truth has greater value now for you than all illusions. And you recognize that Truth must be revealed to you because you don’t yet remember what It is.

To give reluctantly means not to gain the gift you offer, because you are reluctant to receive it. It is saved for you until reluctance to receive it disappears, and you are willing that it be given you. The Divine’s Justice warrants gratitude, not fear. Nothing you truly give is lost to you or anyone, but cherished and preserved for you in Heaven, where all Treasures given to the Divine’s Children are kept safe for them, and offered anyone who holds out their hand in willingness that they be received. Nor are these Treasures decreased as they are given out. Each gift received and shared only adds to the Treasure House. For the Divine is fair. It does not fight against Its Children’s reluctance to perceive awakening as a Gift from It. Yet would Its Justice not be satisfied until It is received by everyone.

Be certain that any Answer to a problem the Holy Spirit solves will always be One in which no one loses. And this must be true because the Divine gives Everything and therefore asks no sacrifice of anyone. An answer that demands the slightest loss to anyone has not resolved the problem but added to it, and made it more unfair and seemingly harder to resolve. It is impossible that the Holy Spirit could see unfairness as a resolution to any problem. To It, what is unfair must be corrected because it is untrue. And every error is a perception in which at least one Child of the Divine is perceived unfairly, or not as they truly are. When loss is demanded of anyone in any situation, condemnation and guilt will be experienced, and rejection or retribution instead of Justice will seem to be what’s due. And Justice will not be accorded to the Children of the Divine.

The Vision of Divine Essence makes guilt and punishment impossible and Justice sure. The Holy Spirit’s Perception leaves no grounds for attack. Only loss could seem to justify attack, and loss of any kind It cannot see, for It sees the Totality of Creation.

The world solves problems in another way. It perceives resolution as a state in which it is decided who shall win and who shall lose, how much the one shall take, and how much the other can still defend. Yet in this “resolution” does the problem still remain unsolved, for only Justice can set up a state in which there is no loser, no one left unfairly treated and deprived, and thus no grounds for rejection or retribution. True solutions to problems cannot be experienced as injustice, which at best can bring another problem added to the first, in which the attack is not obvious.

The Holy Spirit’s Problem Solving is the Way in which problems dissolve because they have been resolved. They become resolved because they are met with Justice. And until they are, they will recur because they have not yet been solved.

The Principle that Justice means no one can lose is crucial to this Course. For miracles depend on Justice, not as It is perceived through this world’s eyes, but as the Divine knows It, and as this knowing is reflected in Sight the Holy Spirit gives. No one deserves to lose or be deprived of anything, and what would be unjust to anyone cannot occur in the Real World. Healing must be for everyone because no one merits an attack of any kind. What levels or orders of magnitude of difficulty can there be in the performance of miracles unless someone is judged to deserve to suffer less and others more? And could such be Justice to the wholly Innocent?

A miracle is an expression of Justice. It is not a special gift given only to some, to be withheld from others who are less worthy, and thus apart from healing. Who is there who can be separate from awakening if its Purpose is the end of separation? Where is awakening’s Justice if some errors are unforgivable and warrant rejection or retribution in place of healing and the return of Peace?

Awakening cannot be used to help the Divine’s Children be more unfair than they have sought to be. If the Holy Spirit’s Gift of miracles were given specifically to an elect and special group, and kept apart from others as less deserving, then would they be ally to specialness. Spirit bears no witness to what cannot be seen. Because Spirit cannot see separation, everyone is equally entitled to Its Gifts of Healing and Deliverance and Peace.

To give a problem to the Holy Spirit to solve for you means that you want it solved. To keep it for yourself to solve without Spirit’s Help is to decide that it should remain unresolved, and lasting in its apparent power of injustice and attack.

No one can be unjust to you unless you have decided first to be unjust. And then must problems rise to block your way, and Peace be scattered by the winds of hate. Unless you understand that all your sisters and brothers have an equal right to miracles with you, you will not receive your right to them, because this would mean to be unjust to one with equal rights. Seek to deny, and you will feel denied. Seek to deprive, and you will believe yourself to be deprived.

A miracle can never be received by another because the one it was created for could receive it not. Only forgiveness offers miracles, and pardon must be just to everyone. The little problems that you keep and hide become your secret sins because you did not choose to let them be removed for you. And so they both gather dust and grow, until they cover everything that you perceive, and leave you believing that no one is just, including yourself. And then you will believe that not one right do you have. And bitterness, with retribution justified and mercy lost, will condemn you in your own eyes as unworthy of forgiveness. Those who believe themselves to be unforgiven have no mercy to bestow upon another. That is why your sole responsibility must be to accept forgiveness for yourself, given you for all mistakes, for all time, in the Atonement.

The miracles that you receive you will give. Each one becomes an illustration of the law on which awakening rests—that Justice must be done to all if anyone is to be healed. No one can lose, and everyone must benefit.

Each miracle is an example of what Justice can accomplish when It is offered to everyone alike, which it must be for it to be Justice. It is received and must be given equally. It is the awareness that giving and receiving are the same. Because Justice does not attempt to make what is the same different, It sees no differences where none exist. And thus It is the same for everyone, because It sees no differences in them. Its offering is universal, and It teaches only one Message:

What is the Divine’s belongs to everyone, and is their due.