As many students of Christian Science have found, it is possible to feel comfort and release from sorrow when someone we love has died. Through the inspired understanding of the Apostle Paul's words "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh," II Cor. 5:16; we can learn that although those who have gone on are no longer visible to us, the true spiritual qualities that constitute real being are still here. Remembering people in this way can help to lift us above loss. Mrs. Eddy's own experiences of bereavement give authority to her statement: "When the light of one friendship after another passes from earth to heaven, we kindle in place thereof the glow of some deathless reality." Pulpit and Press, p. 5;
Although in another state of consciousness, those who are no longer with us are still living and being tenderly cared for by the loving Father-Mother God, who fills all space with His ever-presence. Inevitably each one will progress step by step toward the perfect understanding of the radiance of true spiritual being. Spiritual being has never been separated from God, has never left Spirit for matter.
We can be grateful for these assurances of God's omnipresence and of His continuing care for His children. But we have work to do. We must press on beyond the limited mortal vision of ourselves and others as coming-and-going mortals. Only as we grow spiritually beyond the belief of being corporeal personalities can we gain the true view of our real identity as individual spiritual consciousness. Gaining progressively a more spiritual view involves the renunciation of a false, material sense of self—the sense of self that includes the material view of God's creation.
