Yom Kippur and The Atonement
size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>It seems getting to God is a team sport.
The holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) is about to occur. I am re-reading a book I first read 30 years ago titled “A Course in Miracles.” size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>These two facts, from a formal, organized religious perspective are seemingly irreconcilable. size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>..mainly because the book is about God, Christ and the Holy Spirit and Yom Kippur is …well, you get the picture.
size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>Irreconcilable. I’m sure that’s what most would say.
But I think the messages of Yom Kippur and “A Course in Miracles” are exactly the same.
size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>The holiday and the book are about Atonement.
size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>As a Jew, I’ve always felt the gravity and opportunity of Yom Kippur… yet I don’t think I ever really understood Atonement until reading the book.
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Atonement is the undoing of what you thought occurred in your past. Well, at least the undoing of whatever occurred to you or by you that was not loving. It’s more than forgiveness, because to forgive there must have occurred something that needed to be forgiven…and whatever occurs that is not of Love never really occurs at all since only Love is real. size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>
Everything else is illusion.
size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>Hard to comprehend, right?
But really, if we’ve been created in the image and likeness of God….and God is Love…ever expanding outward energy with Its only intention being to give All to All for eternity and infinity…then how can we be anything other than That from which we came and which continues to sustain us? And if we are That, then We Too Are Love and everything that is not Love…is not real.
The Atonement is setting aside, putting down, walking away from all that is illusion and turning toward That Which Is Real. Turning toward Love. Turning toward Creator.
Having turned, we then surrender to Who We Really Are and commit to Being Love..to understanding Oneness…to gifting to every other human being the same Love and Grace we have received as a result of Atonement.
It’s an interesting discussion I’d like to have with a Rabbi and a Priest…in the same room at the same time.
I think the outcome would be One(1)ness.
Final Score:
Separate religions O
Spirituality 1