Surely not as a fragile, temporary vessel in which we seem briefly imprisoned. The nobility and freedom of true being are seen in Paul's words to the Corinthians: "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ." I Cor. 12:12. Mary Baker Eddy, in an interview with a reporter, gave this description of the Christ, "If we say that the sun stands for God, then all his rays collectively stand for Christ, and each separate ray for men and women." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 344.
We have one body, man's spiritual identity. It is incorporeal and exists as God's individual expression. Through the lens of Christian Science we find our true selfhood; our understanding advances, and identity individualizing the Christ-idea in its spiritual essence, form, nature, and substance comes gradually into focus. The constituents of true being appear, and the human sense of identity as matter, a flawed image of mortal thought, responds to the divine influence.
To unenlightened material belief the corporeal sense of one's self as body may seem undeniable, but Christ, Truth, can illumine human consciousness. Then more of one's true selfhood, made in the image of God, appears. The book of Hebrews (11:1, 3) tells us that faith makes us certain of realities we do not see, and the word "faith" as used here can be taken to imply constancy, conviction. Jesus gave proof of man's spiritual selfhood when, at his ascension, he rose above the last vestige of corporeal belief into the full understanding of his divine sonship. He must have understood his real body to be spiritual individuality, for there was left in consciousness no remaining material belief to be objectified as matter.
Does our body seem burdensome? A burdened sense of body is a material misconception of the real body, man's spiritual identity. We can truthfully affirm for ourselves, "My real body is not encumbering me. It is not paining me, or tempting me, or defeating me." That which would seem burdensome is only an imperfect sense of what our body truly is; but to see that our real body is the reflection of God, the conscious embodiment of spiritual qualities, relieves and corrects a weighted, suffering, exhausting sense of body.
Does the body weigh too much? How can you weigh a spiritual idea? Let us pray earnestly, patiently, to see ourselves as the reflection of Mind, as God's perfect, spiritual ideal; for God's flawless concept of us is all there really is of us. It is the only being we have. Weigh yourself in the scale of spiritual understanding, and you'll find more accurately the substance that constitutes your real being as God's reflection. Man is not fashioned of insubordinate flesh that defies intelligent control. The beauty, grace, and symmetry of God's man are natural and ageless, for God is the universal cause, forever causing man to reflect His perfect qualities. This reflection is our true selfhood. Discerning this, Mrs. Eddy writes in the textbook, Science and Health, "Immortal men and women are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness which transcend all material sense." Science and Health, p. 247.
At another point the textbook says of man, "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas ...." Ibid., p. 475. So we see that the constituents of our real body are spiritual ideas of Mind and are divinely related. The suppositional material concept of body seems to comprise many physical members simply because it is a poor counterfeit of our real body, which is the compound idea, including all right ideas. Every part of the material body is a mental misconception or belief that counterfeits a divine idea. Explaining the contrast between material beliefs and spiritual ideas, Mrs. Eddy says again, "Every material belief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that material belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be found the type and representative of verities priceless, eternal, and just at hand." Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 60–61. Every so-called physical organ, large or small, is a counterfeit—but not a counterpart—of an idea of Mind that performs its useful function in obedience to Mind.
If we are afraid that any organ does not or may not perform properly, if we are afraid it will malfunction, or fail, or obstruct the performance of other organs, then we are entertaining an imperfect sense of man's real body. On the other hand, by recognizing every element of our identity as an idea of God, we entrust it unreservedly to God's control. It exists in Mind and is always tributary to God's law. The Psalmist must have caught an inspired glimpse of his spiritual identity as the compound idea of God when he sang: "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!" Ps. 139:16, 17.
There are not many, capricious, independent organic functions. There is only one kind of function, spiritual and not organic, the infinite function of divine intelligence coordinating all ideas in accord with God's perfect law. Every apparent cell, every nerve and tissue, every organ, gland, fiber, and muscle, every bone and joint, counterfeits an invisible spiritual idea. This is not to say, however, that man has spiritual organs, for he does not. As Mrs. Eddy writes, "Life is inorganic, infinite Spirit; if Life, or Spirit, were organic, disorganization would destroy Spirit and annihilate man." Mis., p. 56.
God has given every spiritual idea substance and purpose, and we may be sure each idea is always subordinate to God alone. Ideas function in obedience to Mind to express unique qualities essential to their purpose. To mortal belief this perfect activity might seem reversed as inertia, morbidity, insubordination, or deterioration, arising from ignorance of spiritual reality. But this ignorance is only the suppositional absence of spiritual understanding in which true activity, spiritual vitality, wholesomeness, lawfulness, and perfection are reflected in man. Fear, criticism, ingratitude, hate, cannot darken human consciousness to obscure the perfection of being when God is understood to be the one perfect Mind of man. The textbook says, "Immortal man was and is God's image or idea, even the infinite expression of infinite Mind, and immortal man is coexistent and coeternal with that Mind." Science and Health, p. 336. From this it is plain that all man has, sees, or feels, he must derive from God, his parent Mind. No element of discord or error is any part of the divine consciousness; therefore, man, God's individual reflection, is Godlike. Mortal belief inverts this and accentuates matter through self-indulgence, sensuality, and pain; spiritual understanding liberates and heals through demonstrating man's unity with God.
What about heart? Heart is used repeatedly in the Bible to signify states of thought. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life," Prov. 4:23. we are told. As a type of true consciousness, heart obeys the rhythm of Life, the pulsation of Love, the spontaneity of Mind's intelligent, effortless action. The law of irrepressible Life is the compelling force controlling the performance of heart. Such terms as wicked heart, fearful heart, heavy heart, downhearted, describe false states of human consciousness, which often underlie chronic bodily ailments. These problems yield to higher and truer states of thought expressed, for example, as joyful heart, loving heart, grateful heart.
A grateful heart a garden is,
Where there is always room
For every lovely, Godlike grace
To come to perfect bloom. Christian Science Hymnal, No. 3.
Heart, in its true sense, needs no matter to fulfill its purpose; but our present human sense of it will be only as good as our understanding of the idea. As a type of true consciousness, heart is free to function, free of physiological restrictions of shape, size, structure, age. It needs no pacemaker, no aid from electrical impulses. The true idea of which a material heart is a counterfeit functions in obedience to Mind. The idea is intact, and so long as the original is intact in its substance and action, all must be well. This spiritual understanding governs what seems to be the human heart. So in the words of the Bible, "Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens" Lam. 3:41. and magnify Him who is the source of all volition and power.
What about action? Real action is Mind's action, one action, functioning in multitudinous ways throughout individual being. It is good action; strong and vital action; tireless, intelligent, perfect action. The action of the human system in all its functions will be more consistent and reliable as we understand divine Mind to be the source of true action. If action becomes disordered at any point, the remedy lies not in drugging or manipulating matter, but in identifying ourselves more fully with God, immortal Mind, as His idea. Considered in the light of spiritual understanding, circulation can be seen as truth's purifying flow of ideas in human consciousness, separating the false from the true and feeding thought with the substance of being.
What about digestion? Science explains that food affects the human body in the way the human mind believes it does; but Truth feeds man with the bread, the truth, of Life. Through spiritual understanding, individual consciousness accepts and assimilates Mind's impartations of truth, and they nourish the whole human system of thought. Because Mind is the source of volition and action, spiritual assimilation cannot be upset or interrupted; it is controlled by divine intelligence. The digestive action of the human system obeys our understanding of the divine action. As consciousness is habitually held in a state of receptivity to spiritual truth, it will be well nourished and digestion will be normal.
When this is understood, and practiced in temperance, the chemistry of food will have no more power to make a person ill than it has to disturb the refrigerator in which it is stored. Food that meets our human need can be gratefully viewed as representing the spiritual nourishment provided by divine Love, which can only bless. Then we will be in agreement with it; it cannot disagree with us.
People often fear what they think food will do to them. Can we imagine the children of Israel being afraid of the nutritional properties of manna, food they needed so desperately in the wilderness? Someone might say, "Well, that was different. The manna God provided in the wilderness was sent to meet their need, and it wouldn't make sense to believe God would make it harmful." Suppose the people had analyzed the manna clinically and decided that its chemical content was contrary to dietary specifications. Moses might have had an epidemic on his hands! Fortunately, the people hadn't been educated to fear what God had provided for them.
Disordered functions, indigestion, constipation, inaction, are often the phenomena of matter-centered thought, a sluggish state of fear and self-centeredness. But this cannot be the condition of the divine Life that man reflects. No element of man's true being can stubbornly refuse to perform its natural function in obedience to the gentle law of Love. God governs all. Truth flows, Love opens the way, Mind directs, and Spirit is the essence of being.
All the constituents of man's real identity and being are divinely related and coordinated in God's individual pattern. At the very point where the material body seems to be, there is the spiritual reality of our true body in its perfect form, function, and substance, to be recognized through our understanding of the Christ. This truth is a law to our human sense of body insofar as Christ governs consciousness. The harmony of spiritual being pervades human experience in the degree that our thought is Christlike. It is the purpose of Christian Science to elevate consciousness to be Christlike, and healing comes as thought humbly yields to the Christ, the true idea of God and man.
When the wind blows across the surface of a frozen lake, it doesn't make any ripples; but when the ice has melted, the water moves. So with human consciousness—it must be fluid to the touch of Truth. Wherever there is response to the corrective action of the Christ, consciousness is elevated to greater health and freedom. The truth that enlightens our thinking is the power of God that regenerates our thought of body. So the human sense of body is directly subordinate to the power of Truth. What appear to be material organs are formations of mortal thought; and as truth governs human consciousness it operates as a law of harmony to our thought of organs, or any part of the human system. One's concept of body will always respond to the Christ in consciousness. Christian Science, revealing our identity in the likeness of God, begins gently to dispel fear and correct our sense of body at the point where we are. First, it may correct a stubborn belief with an enlightened idea, which is one step toward greater freedom. As belief improves, tension relaxes and function improves. Belief changes to faith and faith to understanding until, under divine Love's tender guidance, the mortal sense of body is transformed, and spiritual identity appears as man's only true selfhood.
