Kenneth Wapnick - “IN CRUCIFIXION IS REDEMPTION LAID”. Jesus As a Fifth Column

8/13/2019 Kenneth Wapnick - IN CRUCIFIXION IS REDEMPTION LAID. Jesus As a Fifth Column

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Volume 18 Number 2 June 2007

IN CRUCIFIXION IS REDEMPTION LAID

Jesus As a Fi f t h Co l u m n

K e n n e t h W a p n i ck , Ph . D .

[A fifth columnrefers to a secret group of subversives who strive to undermine the established

order from within. The term originated during the Spanish Civil War when, as four of his army columns

marched on Madrid, a Nationalist general referred to his supporters within the capital as his fifth column.]

Introduction: The Conspiracy

One of the favorite books of Helen Schucman, scribe ofA Course in Miracles,was G. K. Chestertons The Man Who Was Thursday.Chesterton, famous for hisFather Brown mystery stories, was a very fine Christian writer of the early

twentieth century, and the first part of this, perhaps his finest work, reads like agripping spy story, focusing on a global conspiracy of anarchists. Each of theconspirators is known by a different day of the week, with the leader appropriatelycalled Sunday. The books protagonist, a poet/police detective who is recruited forhis position, is called Thursday, hence the books title. The mysterious Sunday,alternately feared and hated, is revealed at the end to be Jesus, the greatestconspirator of all.

I have thought of this book often over the years, not only because it was thefirst thing Helen gave me to read afterA Course in Miracles,but because in manyways it mirrors the deceptive quality of the Course, which appears to be saying one

thing while it teaches another. Moreover, its anarchic view of the worldthereisnt anybelies its transforming vision for it. On the other handJesus alwayslikes to have things both waysA Course in Miraclesis indeed deceptive in its useof language. Thus, for example, there are passages suggesting that the Holy Spiritor Jesus do specific things for us in the world, responding to our specific needs andanswering our special requests:

The Holy Spirit will answer every specific problem as long as you believe that problems

are specific. His answer is both many and one, as long as you believe that the one is many (T-

11.VIII.5:5-6).

And then this very strange passage from the workbook, in which we are told

to ask God very specifically:

What would You have me do?

Where would You have me go?

What would You have me say, and to whom? (W-pI.71. 9:3-5; italics omitted)

This kind of language has us believe that the world is somehow real, despitethe Courses repeated assertions to the contrary. Or if not actuallyreal, then theworld is nonetheless treated as if it were, by virtue of passages that suggest howinvolved Jesus and the Holy Spirit, if not God Himself, are in our daily lives. It thusmakes it seem as if the Creator and His Henchmen are somehow conspiring with us

againstThemselves in the attempt to prove that the physical universe were actuallyhere, thereby committing what would be the Courses cardinal sin, if it believed insin. This is described in The Song of Prayeras making the error real: Do not seeerror.Do not make it real (S-2.I.3:3-4). This reflects the third law of chaos,wherein God must believe what His Son tells Him to be the truth about his


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sinfulness:

Here is a principle that would define what the Creator ... must think and what He must

believe. ... It is not seen as even necessary that He be asked about the truth of what has been

established for His belief. His Son can tell Him this ... [and] He must accept His Sons belief in

what he is ... (T-23.II.6:2-4,6).

However, the reality is that Jesus is a double agent if there ever were one, a

fifth columnthat burrows into the world, gaining our trust, disguised as one of usby speaking our language. Yet, like Sunday, the chief anarchist in Chestertonsstory, he is really Heaven-bent on our salvation; here, dissolving our belief in theworld that we may awaken from its hellish nightmare and return home.

The Deceptive Language of Duality: Another Purpose for the World

Jesus is so good at his conspiratorial role that most students ofA Course inMiraclesdo not even realize that it is not their friend. Its purpose is most certainlynot to make them happier here, though the words can cleverly seem to mean that(e.g., Gods Will for me is perfect happiness [W-pI.101]), but rather to help them

realize that they can never behappy here. Thus we read that the Holy Spiritteaches us through contrastand wants us to recognize the differences between ourmisery and His happiness:

You who are steadfastly devoted to misery must first recognize that you are miserable

and not happy. The Holy Spirit cannot teach without this contrast, for you believe that misery

ishappiness (T-14.II.1:2-3).

This is the meaning of the statement from which the articles title was taken:In crucifixion is redemption laid, for healing is not needed where there is no painor suffering (T-26. VII.17:1). In this one sentence is encapsulated the Courses

philosophy of how we are to live meaningfully in a dry and dusty world, wherestarved and thirsty creatures come to die (W-pII.13.5:1). In the heart of this egodesert, we can yet find soil in which our lilies of forgiveness grow and flourish. Thisis stated in many ways, as seen in these two examples from the text:

The body was not made by love. Yet love does not condemn it and can use it lovingly,

respecting what the Son of God has made and using it to save him from illusions (T-18.VI.4:7-

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Such is the Holy Spirits kind perception of specialness; His use of what you made, to

heal instead of harm (T-25.VI.4:1).

Therefore, while the world was made as an attack on God (W-pII.3.2:1),being a projection of the fundamental attack thought of the ego that supplantedGods place on creations throne, it can still be used by the Holy Spirit as aclassroom in which we learn that both the world and its underlying thought areillusory. Indeed, without transforming the worlds purpose from attack toforgiveness there would be no way of awakening from the egos nightmare thatmade our self a substitute reality.

Another issue is relevant here, crucial to understanding the dynamics offorgiveness: to whom does Jesus really speak? As he says earlier in the text:

Who is the you who are living in this world? Spirit is immortal, and immortality is a

constant state. It is as true now as it ever was or ever will be, because it implies no change atall (T-4.II. 11:8-10).

In truth, our Identity is Christ, our real Self. Within the dream, however, theyouthat lives in the world is our decisionmaking self that has projected itsidentity from the mind to the body. Yet since ideas leave not their source,this self


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remains within the mind, though it is now experienced as a physical being that isexternal to it. This projected self has as its purpose the concealment of the mind,so the original decision for the ego will forever remain intact. Yet, since we knowonly this self, Jesus teachings of forgiveness must be expressed in terms we canunderstand:

All this [forgiveness] takes note of time and place as if they were discrete, for while you

think that part of you is separate, the concept of a Oneness joined as One is meaningless. It isapparent that a mind so split could never be the Teacher of a Oneness which unites all things

within Itself. And so What is within this mind, and does unite all things together, must be its

Teacher. Yet must It use the language that this mind can understand, in the condition in

which it thinks it is.And It must use all learning to transfer illusions to the truth, taking all

false ideas of what you are, and leading you beyond them to the truth that is beyond them

(T-25.I.7:1-5; italics mine).

Thus Jesus adopts the role of a fifth column, infiltrating, as it were, ourthought system of separation (the condition in which we think we exist), winningour friendship. Bending the formof his words and teaching to express a content

that we would otherwise be too afraid to hear, he exemplifies the principle he setsforth for us:

The value of the Atonement does not lie in the manner in which it is expressed. In fact,

if it is used truly, it will inevitably be expressed in whatever way is most helpful to the

receiver. This means that a miracle, to attain its full efficacy, must be expressed in a language

that the recipient can understand without fear. This does not necessarily mean that this is the

highest level of communication of which he is capable. It does mean, however, that it is the

highest level of communication of which he is capable now(T-2.IV.5:1-5).

Since we have identified with the egos false ideas of separation and

specialness, it is that language Jesus must speak. Otherwise our fear would deafenus to his authoritative voice, however gentle and kind it might be. To say thisanother way, we cannot waken from nightmares to reality:

So fearful is the dream, so seeming real, he could not waken to reality without the

sweat of terror and a scream of mortal fear, unless a gentler dream preceded his awaking,

and allowed his calmer mind to welcome, not to fear, the Voice that calls with love to waken

him; a gentler dream, in which his suffering was healed and where his brother was his friend.

God willed he waken gently and with joy, and gave him means to waken without fear (T-27.

VIII.13:4-5).

These gentler or happy dreams of the miracle can be characterized as indirectapproaches, wherein the perfect Love of God is reflectedindirectlyin theopportunities for forgiveness offered by our special relationships. This, again,establishes the need for Jesus as a fifth column; at the same time he speaks ourdualistic language, he undermines its very foundation of separation. Thus we read:

Indirect proof of truth is needed in a world made of denial and without direction ....

The Holy Spirit, therefore, must begin His teaching by showing you what you can never

learn. His message is not indirect, but He must introduce the simple truth into a thought

system which has become so twisted and so complex you cannot see that it means nothing

(T-14.I.2:1; 5:1-2).

Therefore, Jesus conspiratorial plot is to convince us of our misery here, sothat we would then go to him to learn that the source of our misery is the mindsdecision for the ego. His words suggesting that he helps us here can be construedto anthropomorphize the processas Jesus earning our trust so that his true


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teaching can begin. He lovingly lures us into his web of Atonement, and oncecaught up in his gifts of peace, love, and joy, we can never go back to the egosofferings of guilt, attack, and pain.

Because of Jesus purpose, it would be a serious mistake to confuse the wordsfor their meaning, the form for their content. As Jesus says of deathin the thirdobstacle to peace, cautioning his students about confusing these two levels:

Remember, then, that neither sign nor symbol should be confused with source, forthey must stand for something other than themselves. Their meaning cannot lie in them, but

must be sought in what they represent. And they may thus mean everything or nothing,

according to the truth or falsity of the idea which they reflect (T-19.IV-C, 11:2-4; italics mine).

In this context, Jesus refers to the bodys death (form) versus the thoughtsystem of death (content), and urges us not to be deluded by the egos cleverattempts to keep us focused on the mindless. After all, nothing so blinding asperception of form (T-22.III.6:7). And so he is continually asking us to go beyondthe symbols to what they reflect. Still he, and all of us, must use symbols in orderto communicate in the world of illusion. This teaching is the principal burden of

Lesson 184, where we are taught the following, implicitly being asked by Jesus touse him as an example:

It would indeed be strange if you were asked to go beyond all symbols of the world,

forgetting them forever; yet were asked to take a teaching function. You have need to use

the symbols of the world a while. But be you not deceived by them as well. They do not stand

for anything at all, and in your practicing it is this thought that will release you from them.

They become but means by which you can communicate in ways the world can understand,

but which you recognize is not the unity where true communication can be found (W-

pI.184.9).

We are therefore asked to use the symbols of the world of darkness, notbecause they are real, but only to proclaim [their] unreality in terms which stillhave meaning in the world that darkness rules (W-pI.184.10:3).

Without question, the most common experience for us all, since it is thesource of our world and bodily identity within it, is attack.And yet it is our veryattack thoughtsspecial hate and lovethat engender guilt and fear ofpunishment. We cannot then help but seek to avoid awareness by repressing thesethoughts, striving to get rid of them through the magic of projection. This self-hateour guiltis expressed in the special relationships we experience betweenbodies. Even though the source of all specialness remains in our decision-making

minds, our experiencemakes it appear that Jesus is meeting us in the illusion ofthese bodily relationships. Since there is no way we can return to the mind tochoose against guilt, because we are unaware of its existence, we need to lookdifferently at our external relationships, where Jesus seems to be joining us, askingus to look at them through non-judgmental eyeshis.

In September 1966, about a year into the Courses seven- year scribing,Jesus commented very specifically to Helen and William Thetford, her colleague andscribal collaborator, about their tumultuous special relationship. He wanted them toacknowledge that the very hatred that so characterized their relationship carriedwithin it the seeds for its and their own healing:

You have no idea of the intensity of your wish to get rid of each other. ... You do notrealize how much you hate each other. You will not get rid of this until you dorealize it. ...

Your hatred is not real, but it isreal to you. It hides what you really want.Surely you are

willing to look upon what you do notwant without fear, even if it frightens you, if you can


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thereby get rid of it? ... Be not afraid of this journey into fear, for it is not your destination.

And we will walk through it in safety, for peace is not far, and you will be led in its light.

Indeed, this journey into fearthrough hate to loveis impossible withoutfirst recognizing that the desert experienced outside is really inside. This centralteaching ofA Course in Miraclesis obviously meant not only for Helen and Bill, for itstrikes at the very heart of Jesus message to us all: that we be willing to look with

himat our ego thoughts without guilt, fear, or judgment. Only in this way can theirdarkness be brought to his light, and thus dispelled forever as he leads us home.Since we have made these thoughts of hate real, and then denied them, we mustfirst be able to look at what we have hidden before we can realize theirfundamental lack of reality, and thereby accept the love that alone is real and thuscomplete our journey.

The Ladder Home

What, then, are we to make of the seemingly contradictory statements foundin the Course that, on the one hand, there is no world to change or save, it being

an illusion, and on the other, that we should call upon Jesus for specific help? Couldit be that Jesus forgets from one section to another, or is attempting to confuse us;or perhaps Helen heard incorrectly? Oris there method in Jesus madness, toborrow the famous line from Hamlet?

In order to understand this seeming paradox, we need to keep in mind theconspiratorial nature of Jesus and his course: joining us as a fifth columnmidst ourreigning kingdom of duality. Yet he does this only so he can adroitly lead us beyondit to the non-dualistic reality that is our home. Using the metaphor of the ladderfrom The Agreement to Join (T-28.III.1) and The Song of Prayer,Jesus joins uson the bottom rung in the world of specifics so he can gain our confidence. Thus he

appears to meet our specific needs and requests with specific answers and advice.However, as our fear begins to lessen, the focus slowly shifts from the worldoutside to the one insideThe world you see... is the outside picture of an inwardcondition (T-21.in.1:2,5)allowing us to recognize that our perceptions of theworld are projections of the minds decision for the ego or Holy Spirit, attack orforgiveness, separate or shared interests. Jesus helps us shift our attention fromthe distractions of the world to the true problem: the minds decision for the ego,which gave it its existence and, indeed, still sustains it. As that belief is graduallywithdrawn and placed in our new Teacher, the ego perforce weakens in its strength,allowing us to be kinder, gentler, and more forgiving as we ascend the ladder that

will return us to the Source we never left.It therefore seems as if Jesus operates within the world, for we cannot think

of him except as a body, a form we recognize and can accept without fear (T-18.VIII.1:5-7). This represents the bottom rung of the ladder that will take usthrough the body and world to the mind, and on to the real world, the top of theladder and penultimate step before God, metaphorically speaking, reaches downand raises us unto Himself (e.g., T-11.VIII.15:5). At this point the ladder disap-pears into the reality to which it has led us.

The aforementioned pamphlet, The Song of Prayer,tells us the following,indirectly invoking the image of a ladder to denote theprocessaspect of

forgiveness:

You have been told to ask the Holy Spirit for the answer to any specific problem, and

that you will receive a specific answer if such is your need. You have also been told that there

is only one problem and one answer. In prayer this is not contradictory. There are decisions


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to make here, and they must be made whether they be illusions or not. You cannot be asked

to accept answers which are beyond the level of need that you can recognize. Therefore, it is

not the form of the question that matters, nor how it is asked. The form of the answer, if

given by God, will suit your need as you see it. This is merely an echo of the reply of His

Voice. The real sound is always a song of thanksgiving and of Love (S-1.I.2).

And so Jesus asks us, after having enticed us with his comforting presence

within the dream, why would we choose to remain in an illusory world of specificswhen we can ascend the ladder and return to our Creators Love?

What could His answer be but your remembrance of Him? Can this be traded for a bit

of trifling advice about a problem of an instants duration? God answers only for eternity. But

still all little answers are contained in this (S-1.I.4:5-8).

Yet, because of our level of fear of awakening and losing our individualidentity, we are not ready to release the hold we have over a need-filled self andworld of specifics:

This is not a level of prayer that everyone can attain as yet (S-1.I.6:1).

Now we can understand our need to experience Jesus with us in form, for hismindful, formlesspresence of love is too threatening to us who still cling to ourbodily existence. This is why we need to think of forgiveness (or prayer) as a pro-cess, wherein we are slowly led through the world of form (the bottom rungs of theladder) to the content of oneness with our Creator (what lies beyond the ladderentirely):

Prayer ... does change in form, and grow with learning until it reaches its formless

state, and fuses into total communication with God (S-1.II.1:1,3).

In 1975, Jesus gave an important message to Helen, one I have cited beforein these pages as a caution to students who ask Jesus for specific help with specificproblems. This caution holds even when, as in Helens case, there is a sinceredesire to be of help to another. Helen had asked Jesus what she should say tosomeone dealing with a difficult situation, and this was his unexpected response:

Do not forget if you attempt to solve a problem, you have judged it for yourself and so

you have betrayed your proper role. ... Remember you need nothing, but you have an endless

store of loving gifts to give. But teach this lesson only to yourself. Your brother will not learn

it from your words or from the judgments you have laid on him. You need not even speak a

word to him. You cannot ask, What shall I say to him? and hear Gods answer. Rather ask

instead, Help me to see this brother through the eyes of truth and not of judgment, and the

help of God and all His angels will respond (Absence from Felicity,p. 381).And so we are gently led up the ladder from form to the formless, body to

mind, and on to Mind. As we make our way, we begin to recognize Jesus truepurpose in being our teacher. Working through our belief in specific needs, heappears to be meeting us in our world. There, while seeming to respond to them,he teaches us that our one needwhich answers them allis to learn forgiveness(e.g., .the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have beenforgiven have everything [T-3.V.6:3]). The experience of needs roots us in thebody, while our one need exists solely in the mind, where the choice for a differentthought system can be made. Thus is our only meaningful purpose of forgiveness

attained:Once you accept His plan as the one function that you would fulfill, there will be

nothing else the Holy Spirit will not arrange for you without your effort. ... Nothing you need

will be denied you. Not one seeming difficulty but will melt away before you reach it. You


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need take thought for nothing, careless of everything except the only purpose that you

would fulfill (T-20.IV.8:4,6-8).

The implications for our daily living are huge. Each and every moment of eachand every day, we are confronted by opportunities to look again at our egos needto judge and attack, cannibalize and condemn. Allowing Jesus to walk through ourlives with us means we consistently ask his help that we look at the world through

his eyes, which see only expressions of love or calls for it (T-14.X.7:1). Thus do wecorrect, in forms we can understand, the minds underlying error of having chosenthe egos thought system of separation and differences.

Blessed now with Jesus gift of vision, we recognize the inherent sameness ofGods seemingly separated and fragmented Sons: the split mind that consists of theegos wrong mind, the Holy Spirits right mind, and the power of our decision-making minds to choose between them. And so are our perceptions cleansed oferror, our minds gently transformed from wrong- to right-minded thinking: fromjudgment to vision, attack to forgiveness. The ladder is slowly ascended until wereach the ultimate transformation: self to Self.

Conclusion: The Ultimate Transformation

I close the article with one of Helens poems, Transformation, whichbeautifully expresses the shift from the harsh discordant sounds of a moribundworld that is too much with us, to the radiant realm of the real world wherein lovesgentle sounds reverberate throughout our minds now filled with light. It is the shiftfrom the egos content of guilt to Jesus content of forgiveness, and so it is not theworld of form that changes, but how we perceive it. In other words, our perspectiveshifts from the needy world of the bodys specialness to the minds classroom oflearning forgiveness. Thus we read below in the poem:

The trivial enlarge in magnitude, while what seemed large resumes the littleness that isits due.

And:

What was harsh before and seemed to speak of death now sings of life, and joins the

chorus to eternity.

Transformation was written during the Easter season; hence the referenceat the end to the biblical story of the bodys resurrection. The poem, however, callsus to share Jesus true resurrection of the minds awakening from the egos dreamof death. Having joined us as a fifth columnin the world of crucifixion where we

made plans for death, [he] led [us] gently to eternal life (W-pI.135.18:4). This isour ultimate transformation and the consummation of the journey, which led usfrom the mindless world of bodies to the mind-filled world of forgiveness. As ourperception of the world is transformed, so is our perception of Jesus, for we havebecome at last what he had planned for us at the beginning: remembering we areallwithout exceptionHeavens one Son.

It happens suddenly. There is a Voice

That speaks one Word, and everything is changed.

You understand an ancient parable

That seemed to be obscure. And yet it meant

Exactly what it said. The trivial

Enlarge in magnitude, while what seemed large


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Resumes the littleness that is its due.

The dim grow bright, and what was bright before

Flickers and fades and finally is gone.

All things assume the role that was assigned

Before time was, in ancient harmony

That sings of Heaven in compelling tonesWhich wipe away the doubting and the care

All other roles convey. For certainty

Must be of God.

It happens suddenly,

And all things change. The rhythm of the world

Shifts into concert. What was harsh before

And seemed to speak of death now sings of life,And joins the chorus to eternity.

Eyes that were blind begin to see, and ears

Long deaf to melody begin to hear.

Into the sudden stillness is reborn

The ancient singing of creations song,

Long silenced but remembered. By the tomb

The angel stands in shining hopefulness

To give salvations message: Be you free,And stay not here. Go on to Galilee.

(The Gifts of God, p. 64)

Kenneth Wapnick - “IN CRUCIFIXION IS REDEMPTION LAID”. Jesus As a Fifth Column

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