How do you love: conditionally or unconditionally?

I inspire all miracles, which are really intercessions. They intercede for your holiness and make your perceptions holy. By placing you beyond the physical laws they raise you into the sphere of celestial order. In this order you are perfect. T-1.1.32:1-4

The “I” in this principle is the Jesus of A Course In Miracles. Jesus tells us that the miracle, the shift in perception from the world of conditional love to unconditional love, is an inspiration of our and other peoples’ holiness. This holiness is beyond the physical world and resides in the Transcendent Source of which we are a part.

In Alcoholic Anonymous we are encouraged in step elven to  improve our conscious contact with God. In this step it is suggested we do this through prayer and meditation. In A Course In Miracles it is suggested that we can also do this by working a miracle, that is: shifting our perception from the world of conditional love to unconditional love which is inspired by Jesus’ example. Jesus told his disciples that the way to the kingdom is “to love as I have loved.” Jesus isn’t talking about special conditional love but unconditional love where we forgive even our enemies.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Seeing this inherent worth and dignity as Jesus did is a miracle. 

Jerry was a client of mine in psychotherapy. He is an avowed white supremacist and uses the n word freely as he describes the inferiority of black people as compared to white. I told him I don’t agree with his views but I understand how he has come to the conclusions which he so freely, at least, with me professes.

Jerry is a difficult client for me to love. After a 2 year year relationship Jerry says to me one day, “You know Dave, I know you don’t agree with my beliefs but this is the one place I can say what I think and feel. Jerry had tears in his eyes as he said this almost in an apologetic way as his racist thinking subsided. Freud said something along the line of “You can talk it out or act it out.” I wonder whether having a safe place to express his racist thoughts and feelings even in an atmosphere of disagreement coupled with unconditional love made it less likely that Jerry would act out his racist beliefs?

Today, it is suggested that we reflect on the idea that Jesus’ unconditional love is an inspiration for the miracle based on the shift in perception from the world of the ego, conditional love, to the world of the Spirit which is unconditional love.