If you are reading this article, you are a spiritual thinker. For well over a century, spiritual thinkers in The Church of Christ, Scientist, have been proving through their healing work that God, Spirit, and God’s creation is the only reality. In fact, this teaching is basic to the practice of Christian Science and to spiritual healing.
The urgent needs of our time call on all of us to be effective spiritual healers, not only for ourselves and our families but for the wider world. In my own experience, I find my healing work is most effective when I follow the teachings of Christ Jesus in the light of this Science in sacrificing a false sense of the reality of matter and evil for the true spiritual sense of God’s omnipotence and infinite goodness. This sacrifice lessens not only our own ills but the ills of humankind.
This sense of sacrifice is not the traditional concept, practiced for centuries, of sacrifice as a physical act of worship. The Bible records that men brought material offerings to God to obtain blessings and forgiveness for wrongdoing, even in Jesus’ time. But Jesus placed little importance on such material gestures, instead emphasizing inward repentance. Quoting Scripture, he said, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13).
