Do we enjoy challenges? Do we welcome each opportunity to prove that our Principle is God? To face fearlessly the anger and hatred of the carnal mind for Truth, and to demonstrate Truth in spite of opposition? Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, did. In her poem "Christ My Refuge" she says, "I kiss the cross, and wake to know/A world more bright." Poems, p. 12. How contrary these words are to the usual reaction to a cross, a burden or an injustice! No tears of despair. No angry or rebellious cry of "Why me, Lord?" or "It's not fair that I carry this or endure this indignity!"
One dictionary definition of cross is "anything that thwarts or frustrates." Is a cross, then, an unjust trial? an emblem of victimization? Or does it have a higher, more spiritual significance?
Indeed it does! The significance of any cross experience is that it impels a laying down of materiality, a rising above the suggestion of opposition to God, good, and a recognition of the creator's spiritual creation. Spiritual healing is based on an understanding of man's perfection as the spiritual idea of the one perfect God, who is Spirit, Mind. With every healing, therefore, comes some lessening of the belief in matter and mortality. Our goal is to see their utter nothingness on the basis that all is Spirit and its spiritual creation.
