On a number of occasions when I have introduced Christian Science to someone through Mrs. Eddy's definitive book on the subject, Science and Health, the person has later commented, often with some awe in his or her voice, "Do you people realize what you have?"
Sometimes I wonder, Do we? Do we, as Christian Scientists, really appreciate the tremendous gift—and responsibility—our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, has entrusted to us? Frankly, this is a question I have been asking of myself quite a bit lately. It's not that I'm ungrateful for Christian Science. I am grateful, as no doubt every sincere Christian Scientist is.
But haven't you felt that the remarkable challenges of these times, both to us personally and to our Church, are demanding something more of us? Something extraordinary? A need for greater dedication? A need for more genuine self-purification and devotion to God? Many Christian Scientists are feeling an urgency in their metaphysical work. More than ever they are seeing that the spirituality of what they think and do counts immensely, not only in their own lives but in promoting the spiritual welfare of mankind. This recognition has brought about a renewed dedication to the healing practice and is revitalizing many branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, Christian Science Societies, and Christian Science college organizations.
These encouraging "signs of the times" point to what many see as a quiet spiritual renaissance going on in our Cause. It may be modest; it may be small as "a grain of mustard seed." But it can be felt. And it's growing, irresistibly. Spiritual healing, which has always been the rock of the Church of Christ, Scientist, is going forward regardless of the world's resistance and persecution, and something wonderful is being built on this rock. Through trials and "furnace fires," individual regeneration is building up our Church, and "the gates of hell" will not overcome it.
At the same time, something old and outworn is breaking down. As our Leader puts it, "Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away." Science and Health, p. vii Not only is this happening in the world, it's happening in our movement. The "cold conventionality" that would have one accept and live Christian Science superficially, at the level of mere belief, is crumbling away. Why? Because this bland form of materialism is proving utterly powerless to save us from the accumulating woes of human life. Christian Scientists are being impelled to rediscover, so to speak, Mrs. Eddy's discovery.
Not long ago a friend and I were talking about these things, and she remarked to me, "You know, I've been in Science for over thirty years, but I realize now I've mostly been asleep. Oh, I know the letter of Science, and I've been relatively sincere in my study. I've had some nice healings in the past. But I wasn't really on fire about Christian Science. It's only now, because of some pretty tough challenges, that I've begun to see just how radical and spiritual Christian Science is—and how much I need to grow spiritually!" She commented that the struggle was hard at times, like having a baby. But she also said that what was being born was worth every bit of suffering and that the "new birth" was literally forming her anew.
We all know that the things of Spirit don't come cheap. They cost us something—even the loss of our faith in material pleasures, hopes, and dreams. As our Leader explains: "Not by the hearing of the ear is spiritual truth learned and loved; nor cometh this apprehension from the experiences of others. We glean spiritual harvests from our own material losses. In this consuming heat false images are effaced from the canvas of mortal mind; and thus does the material pigment beneath fade into invisibility." Retrospection and Introspection, p. 79
Although sometimes we may weep over our "material losses," they do wean us from materialism. They teach us that the things of the world aren't permanent. They teach us to seek happiness in spiritual things, in the unseen things of Spirit that give human existence the only real meaning and purpose it has. Material losses eventually make us so hungry for spirituality— for the good that cannot pass away—that we seek it above all else. In this way, through material loss and spiritual gain, we finally attain the kingdom of heaven, the consciousness of life in and of infinite Spirit. Then we find, in deathless, spiritual forms, all the good we may seem to have lost.
Isn't spiritual awakening what Christian Science
is all about? How can we possibly be apathetic
about the most exciting, revolutionary thing
to occur in almost two thousand years—
the appearing of the promised Comforter?
Of course, we do not reach this goal overnight. The attainment of spiritual good is progressive, and it's not all "struggle and gloom."
The path does brighten as we move upward, and there are many graces along the way that give us hints of heaven. But to reach our final goal, we do have to reorient all our affections Spiritward. God and His Christ, the spiritual idea of Life that Jesus presented, must become our first and great love.
This reorientation of affections is radical. Just how radical can be seen in these words of Christ Jesus—words that all these centuries later still challenge conventional views of love and commitment: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Matt. 10:37-39
The key to spiritual progress is to love and cherish the spiritual idea of Life so deeply that Christ imbues us with a more spiritual conception of being and the power to demonstrate it. This spiritual conception gives birth to "the new man," and Christ increasingly becomes the inspiration and animus of our life.
The convention-shattering radicalness of Jesus' statements indicates that commitment to Christ, the spiritual idea of Life, goes infinitely beyond having the outward appearance of being a good Christian Scientist. The Christ is a living idea—and we must live it and love it above all things in the world. We prove ourselves worthy of Christ only as we love the divine message of life in Spirit so much that we allow it to change fundamentally the way we think and act. Knowing the letter of Christian Science is not enough. Knowing how to argue metaphysically is not enough. Mere belief in Science is not enough. To be saved from the self-destructive belief of life in matter our entire sense of self must constantly be "born again."
But what do we do when inspiration seems lost? Haven't we all felt discouraged and worthless sometimes? Even felt that life isn't worth living? At times such as these our Saviour, God's message of hope and freedom, is always at hand to comfort us. In our heart of hearts, we can silently, importunately, commune with the Christ-idea, drinking in the spiritual sense of Life at the bosom of divine Love. Our Father-Mother is always communicating to us. In quiet, expectant listening and in our own silent affirmations of the presence of spiritual good, the Christ can always be heard. God's message of hope reassures us of our divine sonship and of God's great love for us. If we will humbly accept this simple message—despite all that the material senses may be saying to the contrary— and hold to it, the discouragement and gloom will pass. We will gain fresh inspiration for living. Our hearts, like the hearts of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, will once again "burn within us," See Luke 24:13-35 and we will rejoice in the glorious message of the risen Christ.
Of course, if our spiritual progress is stunted or has even ground to a halt, this does call for honest self-examination. Could it be that our original ardor for Christ, the spiritual idea of Life presented in Christian Science, has cooled because we are unwilling to undertake the denial of the mortal selfhood that Christ demands? Have we perhaps fallen asleep in material living and become spiritually anesthetized by the mesmeric, day-in, day-out illusion that life is simply what the material senses say it is? Or have we buried our spiritual sense under sins that we have ignored or excused for so long that we have lost sight of just how sinful they are and now comfortably make our bed with "devils"?
Because of the extreme materialism of our age, we have to be alert. Resistance to spirituality takes many seductive, self-justifying forms. To some this resistance comes as preoccupation with material success, making money, or having a beautiful home, clothing, and possessions. To others it comes as obsession with the body, health, and physical beauty—or perhaps obsession with another's personality and physicality. Or one may lose sight of Christ through total absorption in a job, academics, art, politics, entertainment, sports, marriage, even having a family.
Of course, many of these latter things are, in themselves, perfectly legitimate human pursuits and endeavors. And Christian Science can do so much to bless and redeem them. But we have our Master's word that if we love any of these human things more than Christ—if we love our job, our home, our bodies, our human goals, even our families and human relationships, more than the spiritual idea and way of Life our Master revealed—we are not worthy of Christ. We are actually losing sight of our real life, happiness, and goodness in the illusory swirl of conventional material living.
How genuinely committed are we to Christ? A simple test is to ask: What do I think about most of the time? What is typically on my mind? What are my main pursuits? Do I put spiritual growth and study first? Or the daily details, goals, objectives, and desires of material living? How much prayer and spiritual contemplation do I have in my life? Am I consistent in giving metaphysical treatment to material images presented to my thought? Or do I usually just accept the material picture as "the way things are"?
Our answers, if honest, will tell us much about where our affections lie and could well impel us to take the first steps in a decisive spiritual awakening, a getting back to our spiritual roots.
Isn't spiritual awakening what Christian Science is all about? How can we possibly be apathetic about the most exciting, revolutionary thing to occur in almost two thousand years —the appearing of the promised Comforter? Christian Science isn't dull or conventional. It's simply the most fully alive and meaningful way to live that there is. Christ lifts human life above the mundane to the inspirational, even to the divine. Materialism—living life at the material surface of things—that's what makes life dull, boring, lifeless, selfish, troubled, meaningless.
Even if our spiritual fire seems low, or to have flickered out, there's not one of us who can't rekindle and stoke it by rediscovering the joy and deep happiness that come of accepting into our hearts the spiritual idea of God and man. The "good news" of the resurrection is that you and I aren't meant to live and die in matter. Christ promises—and gives!—life eternal because Christ brings to light in human consciousness what man already is in truth: God's spiritual likeness, the individual expression of limitless, undying Spirit.
The beloved disciple, John, assures us that in Christ we are the sons and daughters of God. If we accept this "good news," it's our divine right to rejoice now in our spiritual sonship, even though this reality may at times seem hard to see or feel. It's our right to rejoice because as we come to know God more as He really is, we will come to know ourselves as we really are— His glorious, individual expression. Seeing God as He is, is not some far-off event. In Science every day we can see more of God—more of what Life, Truth, and Love really are. Every day this vision of God will transform us, bringing out His divine likeness. Seeing more of God and of ourselves as His image is the daily inspiration of Christian Science. It's proof of "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Col. 1:27
However big the human problem we may face, "Christ in you" is always bigger. It's the idea, the infinite reflection, of God Himself. This spiritual idea of sonship appearing in individual consciousness is eternal, infinite—always present to be understood, loved, demonstrated. Gloom and discouragement have no power over "the hope of glory" shining in our hearts. The message of God's allness and of man's eternal spiritual sonship is an all-conquering divine idea, before which all false belief and material consciousness must eventually fall.
Jesus said, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33 Through Christ, the spiritual idea of Life revealed in Christian Science, we too can overcome the world. If we resolutely, patiently, persistently keep our thoughts and desires set on Christ, Truth, our spiritual fire will never go out. The fire will grow, consuming the dross in human consciousness and refining the gold of our character. Christ will light our way to a brighter and happier day until at last the noontide radiance of absolute spiritual reality encompasses and permeates all conscious being. Then we will see and reflect our heavenly Father "face to face," and He will be to us our All-in-all. That "hope of glory" is inextinguishable inspiration for "on fire" spiritual living!
