Corresponding Manual for Teachers Section
Chapter 2: Characteristics of the Teachers of the Divine
9. Faithfulness
The extent of the Teacher of the Divine’s faithfulness is the measure of their advancement of their own learning in the Curriculum of awakening. Do they still select some aspects of their life to bring to their learning, while keeping others apart? If so, their trust is not yet firmly established, and their progress toward awakening will be limited.
Faithfulness is the total trust of the Teacher of the Divine in the Word of the Divine to set all things right, not just some. Generally, their faithfulness begins by resting on just some problems, remaining carefully limited for a time. To give all problems to one Answer is to wholly reverse the thinking of the world. And that alone is Faithfulness. Nothing but that really deserves the name. Yet each degree, however small, is worth achieving. Readiness, as the Text of this Course notes, does not imply that the Goal of Truth’s Curriculum has been achieved. But readiness is necessary for this achievement to be accomplished.
True Faithfulness, however, does not deviate. Being unswerving It is full of Trust. Being reliable It is wholly honest. Being confident It is accepting. Being based on fearlessness It is gentle. And being certain It is joyous. Defenselessness attends It naturally, and Generosity and Patience are It Conditions.
Faithfulness, then, combines in Itself the other attributes of the Divine’s Teachers who have advanced in their own learning. It implies acceptance of the Word of the Divine and the Meaning It has given Its Children. It is to the Creator and Its Children that Faithfulness in the true sense is always directed. Toward Them It turns, seeking until It finds. And having found, It rests in quiet Certainty on That alone to which all Faithfulness is due.