Spirituality offends material-mindedness. Christ Jesus' persecution and crucifixion are history's primary examples of this. Yet spirituality, that God-given state of thought which perceives God, divine Spirit, and His immortal creation, is what continues to enable us to demonstrate the triumph of good over evil. It brings forth the expression of purity, unselfishness, and love for our fellowman that heals and cleanses. "Jesus was unselfish. His spirituality separated him from sensuousness, and caused the selfish materialist to hate him; but it was this spirituality which enabled Jesus to heal the sick, cast out evil, and raise the dead," Science and Health, p. 51. wrote Mrs. Eddy.
Does this mean that if someone dedicates his efforts to healing and loving, to serving God, to living life in accord with Christ Jesus' example, he will inevitably be confronted by the hatred of carnal-mindedness? Yes and no. Thinking anchored in materiality hates anything that suggests God or spiritual creation. As an advocate for divine Spirit, an individual—or even a church—will be what carnal-mindedness believes must be silenced.
Yet, even if materiality beats upon our thinking as persistently as a snare drum roll, there is a way we can think and pray that will render matter's commotion unable to affect us. It lies in identifying ourselves in a completely different way: We are not mortals outside of God, vulnerable to attack, hoping to live a life of spirituality. Rather, we are the expression of divine Spirit itself, therefore invulnerable. We are Spirit's immortal likeness. There is a chasm of difference, wider than Arizona's Grand Canyon, between identifying ourselves as a human with inclinations of spirituality and seeing ourselves as the very expression of Spirit.
