Christian Science: universally available and appealing
Christiane West Little | from The Christian Science Journal
“Good morning!” the pilot announces. “We’ll be landing in Rio in an hour.”
The young man next to me stirs. He works for the airlines out of Miami. “I often visit my father and sister and my little nephew,” he’d explained the night before. “I love my family and I like to help them.”
Now, as he wakes, he winces, and asks: “Do you have a headache pill? I have the most terrible headache!” I tell him that because I rely on spirituality for healing, I’m sorry I don’t have any pills. He walks over to someone else and is soon back in his seat. We eat our breakfast silently, both deep in thought.
Sickness is not God’s will for anyone.
Then suddenly, he asks earnestly: “But what do you do when you have a headache?” “I pray,” I answer, and tell him something about how I pray. That mostly I listen quietly to God, who reminds me that there is something higher than individual human effort caring for all people everywhere; that divine Love is all-powerful and present everywhere. Sickness is not God’s will for anyone. I can reject it. Prayer lifts my thought to a spiritual level where I can accept health as God’s law for me and for everyone.
I pull out my copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. We read some passages together and talk about the ideas.
Then he wants to know: “This Christian Science, is it also in Rio?”
“Oh yes,” I say. “God’s love is everywhere!” I show him a copy of O Arauto da Christian Science (The Herald of Christian Science), a magazine that contains articles about Christian Science as well as a directory of Christian Science practitioners in Brazil. These individuals are available to anyone who is seeking healing, even to people who have just learned about Christian Science. There is also a list of Reading Rooms that sell this magazine and Science and Health.
He asks: “May I have this magazine?”
“Of course!” I say.
As the plane lands, I offer him my copy of Science and Health. He accepts it, genuinely thrilled. I wish him well on his spiritual journey and his family visit.
Christian Science embraces humanity everywhere, without exception.
Just as the sun reaches humanity with its light and warmth, so Christian Science,—the “divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love” (Science and Health, p. 107)—embraces humanity everywhere, without exception. All people can feel this healing embrace.
Yearning to discover the Science of spiritual healing, Mary Baker Eddy studied the Scriptures for years. She found in Jesus’ healing method a universal divine Science. God is its Principle, working through divine laws of Life, Truth, Love, which maintain the harmony of God’s creation. Through her inspired ideas and her healing work, Mrs. Eddy proved that these divine laws are universal. They are as available and practicable now as they were when Jesus was proving their ability to heal and save.
Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health (p. 494): “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.”
To understand and accept that Christian Science is universal is an important element in healing discord of any kind. I learned this several years ago on a visit to a country where living conditions were most distressing. Poverty, unemployment, homelessness, vagrancy, and disease were painfully evident everywhere. The evening before a speaking engagement that was scheduled for the next morning, I was suddenly overcome with extreme weakness and discomfort.
In my hotel room, I prayed with all my heart to understand and yield to God’s healing love. The word Godforsaken came to thought. I realized with a shock that I’d been thinking of this country and its people as Godforsaken. That was hardly in agreement with my understanding of God as universal divine Love, always at hand to heal and bless.
I had temporarily lost sight of the universality of God’s divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love. It was no surprise then that I felt separated from God’s presence, from the harmony and health that God continually expresses and maintains in His creation everywhere.
A passage from Science and Health (p. 304) helped me see the spiritual reality of my situation: “This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object ….”
No matter what the circumstances are, divine Love could never be kept from expressing its own beautiful creation.
It became so clear to me that no matter what the circumstances are, divine Love could never be kept from expressing its own beautiful creation nor from loving it and maintaining it. I felt that nothing could nullify the laws of Life, Truth, and Love that provide for every need. Christian Science—the divine laws that Jesus taught through his healing works—was as universal in this corner of the world as anywhere else.
As I prayed, I felt God’s loving care for all humanity, including me. I felt strong and well. I was healed. The next morning I was eager to share with others the universality of Christian Science Mind-healing.
It was interesting that during the remainder of my stay in that country a number of individuals told me of experiences they’d had where the universal laws of Life, Truth, and Love had lifted them out of dire circumstances into health, employment, good relationships, purpose, and peace.
Back to Rio. I noticed that first night that the city was dark. There was an energy crisis. But looking up to the mountain called Corcovado, I saw the famous Statue of Christ, the Redeemer, overlooking the city, fully lit up for all to see and gain strength and comfort from. The Christ, Truth, is universal and brings its healing light to darkened thought everywhere.
So it is with Christian Science—as fully explained in Science and Health—which holds universal humanity forever in the embrace of divine Love.
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