Health is more than a smoothly functioning physical body. Health is spiritual. "Health is the consciousness of the unreality of pain and disease; or, rather, the absolute consciousness of harmony and of nothing else," Rudimental Divine Science, p. 11. Mrs. Eddy writes.
To comprehend what health actually is requires a new outlook on our nature —one that is spiritually based and not physically based. In fact, a clear perception of the relationship of God and man provides the only lasting basis for health, and this new view is gained through spiritual regeneration. As we yield to the activity of the Christ, the true idea of God, in our consciousness, we prove, step by step, that man is perfectly created, sustained, and governed by God. Physical well-being is restored and maintained when we grow in "the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." See Eph. 4:13. As our lives increasingly conform to this ideal, we understand more of the power and presence of Truth; we discern the fact that Spirit and matter cannot both be real. And through Christian healing we prove by demonstration of divine laws that true health is spiritual and forever intact.
Christ Jesus' works illustrate the spiritual nature of health. He healed all kinds of sickness and disease—leprosy, paralysis, blindness, mental illness, and deformity, for example. And he healed them instantaneously. Remarkable? Yes, but understandable when we realize that his healing ministry was the practical demonstration of the ever-present Christ, Truth. Through his constant prayerful communion with the one Father-Mother God, he was keenly aware of God's presence and omnipotence and of man's identity as wholly spiritual, perfect, and good.
