"Stranger on the Road" - Easter poem by Helen Schucman
Joe Jesseph
recognition of this week and its traditional significance, below is another
one of Helen Schucman's Easter poems. The Christian holidays were
meaningful to Helen. There are important sections in the Course where Jesus
recognizes both Christmas and Easter in a way that both respects their
significance to Helen (as well as all who have grown up in Christian
societies) and gives these holidays a different meaning.
The central theme of this poem has to do with forgiving Jesus, which he asks
us to do in the Course, but which was also an important personal issue with
Helen Schucman. One Easter season Kenneth Wapnick based a short workshop
on this poem. The workshop was entitled "Forgiving Jesus: 'Stranger on the
Road' " and is available in recorded form as a two-cassette tape set (see:
http://www.facim.org/cgi-bin/facimcart.cgi?prod&t-42 ).
Probably most who read the Course find it a puzzling notion to think that we
have to forgive Jesus. To understand his request of us, we have to
understand the Course teachings about specialness. Jesus asks us to forgive
him both for what he is and what he is not.
Most of us have grown up with the Christian teaching that Jesus is special:
the one Son of God who died to atone for our sins. But in the Course he
tells us that he is not special; sin and guilt are not real; he did not die
for our sins; and that, when we awaken to our true identity, we will find
that we are all the Son of God. We are not special, separate (therefore
guilty) individuals, and Jesus is not the special Son of God. So, to enter
into a relationship with Jesus (if one chooses to do that, though it is not
necessary), and then to grow in learning the ways of forgiveness, we have to
forgive our images of Jesus -- forgive him for what he is not. He is not
special and he is not a symbol of sin and guilt which had to be atoned for
through sacrifice.
Our ego fears what Jesus is, not only because he is not special (the ego
understands and worships specialness), but because he is a manifestation of
the Holy Spirit in our mind who represents the truth that separation from
the Love of God is not possible. That truth means that the ego is a lie and
that its entire world, including ourselves as bodies and separate
individuals, is just a bad dream based on a mistaken idea which the Son of
God took seriously. In other words, we have to forgive Jesus because he is
a symbol of Love and because his true Identity, which is also ours, means
that we, too, are not special.
"Let me be to you the symbol of the end of guilt, and look upon
your brother as you would look on me. Forgive me all the sins
you think the Son of God committed. And in the light of your
forgiveness he will remember who he is, and forget what never
was. I ask for your forgiveness, for if you are guilty, so must I
be. But if I surmounted guilt and overcame the world, you were
with me. Would you see in me the symbol of guilt or of the end
of guilt, remembering that what I signify to you you see within
yourself?" (T-19.IV(B).6)
"Forgive me, then, today. And you will know you have forgiven
me if you behold your brother in the light of holiness. He cannot
be less holy than can I, and you can not be holier than he"
(W-pII.288.2).
"Brother, forgive me now. I come to you to take you home with
me. And as we go, the world goes with us on our way to God"
(W-pII.342.2)
- Joe
______________________________
STRANGER ON THE ROAD
The dead are dead. They do not rise again.
And yet I see in You a look I knew
In One so recently destroyed and laid
Away to wither on a slab of stone.
I almost could believe - but I have seen
Your blue and bloodless hands and broken feet,
The way You crumpled when they took You down.
This is a stranger, and I know Him not.
The road is long. I will not lift my eyes,
For fear has gripped my heart, and fear I know -
The shield that keeps me safe from rising hope;
The friend that keeps You stranger still to me.
Why should You walk with me along the road,
An unknown whom I almost think I fear
Because You seem like someone in a dream
Of deathlessness, when death alone is real?
Do not disturb me now. I am content
With death, for grief is kinder now than hope.
While there was hope I suffered. Now I go
In certainty, for death has surely come.
Do not disturb the ending. What is done
Is done forever. Neither hope nor tears
Can touch finality. Do not arouse
The dead. Come, Stranger, let us say "Amen."
You said You would return, and I believed
Too long already. Now my eyes are sealed
Against the slender thread of hope that cuts
Into my calm despair. 0 let me go!
Your Word surrounds You like a golden light,
And I can scarcely see the road we walk
Because my eyes are veiled. Disturb me not,
I beg of You. I would not see You now.
Must I remember now? And yet the light
Seems even brighter, and the road becomes
A sudden splash of sunlight. Who are You
Who dares to enter into fear and death?
Your Voice reminds me of an ancient song
My lips be& to sing, although I hoped
It was forgotten. Now I hear again
A Word I thought had been forever dead,
As You had died. I cannot keep my eyes
From looking up. Perhaps I did not see
The things I thought. Perhaps this light has come
To heal my eyes and let them see again.
Lord, did You really keep Your lovely Word?
Was I mistaken? Did You rise again?
And was it I who failed, instead of You?
Are You returned to save me from the dead?
Dear Stranger, let me recognize Your face,
And all my doubts are answered. They are dead
If You are living. Let me see again,
And hope will be transformed to certainty.
The dead are dead, but they do rise again.
Let me remember only that. It was
The rest that was the dream. The light has come.
My eyes are opening to look on You.
By Helen Schucman,
April 2, 1977
From "The Gifts of God"©, pp. 103-105
Published by the Foundation for Inner Peace
(http://www.acim.org/catalog.html)
------------------------------------------------------
"This is Palm Sunday, the celebration of victory and the acceptance of the
truth. Let us not spend this holy week brooding on the crucifixion of God's
Son, but happily in the celebration of his release. For Easter is the sign
of peace, not pain. A slain Christ has no meaning. But a risen Christ
becomes the symbol of the Son of God's forgiveness on himself; the sign he
looks upon himself as healed and whole.
"This week begins with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy sign
the Son of God is innocent. Let no dark sign of crucifixion intervene
between the journey and its purpose; between the acceptance of the truth and
its expression. This week we celebrate life, not death. And we honor the
perfect purity of the Son of God, and not his sins. Offer your brother the
gift of lilies, not the crown of thorns; the gift of love and not the "gift"
of fear. You stand beside your brother, thorns in one hand and lilies in
the other, uncertain which to give. Join now with me and throw away the
thorns, offering the lilies to replace them. This Easter I would have the
gift of your forgiveness offered by you to me, and returned by me to you.
We cannot be united in crucifixion and in death. Nor can the resurrection
be complete till your forgiveness rests on Christ, along with mine."
(T-20.I.1; 2)
clark_kent
> Palm Sunday has just past so this is the traditional Christian Holy Week. In
> recognition of this week and its traditional significance, below is another
> one of Helen Schucman's Easter poems. The Christian holidays were
> meaningful to Helen
i wouldn't think the christian holidays would be meaningful to you Joe
considering how you and the wife don't believe in God and don't
believe that the Course has anything to do with a belief in
God....what was that stuff you told me....something about the word God
is just a symbol....
ck