“The holy relationship, a major step toward the perception of the real world, is learned. It is the old, unholy relationship, transformed and seen anew. The holy relationship is a phenomenal teaching accomplishment.” (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-17.V.2)
A holy relationship is a relationship with our brother that was once special. Special relationships have a lot of pain; holy ones, never pain. The holy relationship is the means that A Course in Miracles uses to save time for us in heading into salvation in its ultimate, Awakening. We are not encouraged to spend long periods in contemplation, as some spiritual teaching suggest. Jesus’s spiritual teaching now, in ACIM, is just to turn from egoic sight of one’s brother. Let go of wanting to praise his physical appearance, his superficial personality, his income. These physical attributes are not the real brother; your apprehension of his intangible qualities will open your vision to the holiness that can be yours. Your brother, in short, will lead you home to God.
Jesus is teaching us in A Course in Miracles, and his encouragement of a holy relationship with our brother is the most important aspect of his explanation of how to reach Awakening. We learn about the holy relationship in time, not immediately (normally). Note that the special relationships that have brought us both joy and pain are not to be taken away from us prematurely. We will gently transform the special. And in the transformation will come our own release to the real world. The real world dawns on our puzzled eyes just before Awakening comes. The time is brief between the real world and Awakening, but we don’t know from ACIM what the “brief” really means. Time means something more in eternity than we know.
So we do what we can to see the intangible, admirable qualities in our brother. We know that his attacks are a call for help, a call for love, and we don’t hold his attacks against him. We know that they are borne of insanity, and that they thrive in the illusion in which we find ourselves.
Only when we move into the real world will we move out of illusion into a perceptual Heaven. Then our holy relationships will bless us as almost nothing else can. We will be seeing God in our brother, and we will be seeing God in our Self.
There will be no further need to dwell on the superficialities of our brother’s personality.
MIRACLES EACH DAY 