Rise up in ... reflection!
Holding to our true nature as God’s children, reflecting His harmony, empowers us to rebel against illness and experience healing.
These days it seems like across the globe human thought is in a constant stir and uprising – a rebellion, if you will. Throughout the ages there have been individuals who have bravely and selflessly fought some injustice, inspired by a deep love for humanity and for what is right.
Above all, there’s Christ Jesus, who revolutionized the world through his teachings and healings. He certainly rose up against whatever would limit and imprison human thought, including hypocrisy and oppression. Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science and a follower of Jesus’ teachings, wrote in her main book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” “Jesus acted boldly, against the accredited evidence of the senses, against Pharisaical creeds and practices, and he refuted all opponents with his healing power” (p. 18).
Here it is clear that Jesus’ “rebellion” wasn’t personal or fueled by anger. He was not waging war against others or in danger of losing his stability and peace even as he “acted boldly.” He was bringing the healing power of God, good, to counter “the accredited evidence of the senses.”
One way Jesus characterized and summed up his actions was, as God’s Word translation renders it, “I can guarantee this truth: The Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing. Indeed, the Son does exactly what the Father does” (John 5:19).
Jesus didn’t hesitate to speak – or prove – the truth about his oneness with God, the only true creator, the Father of us all. It was this heavenly Father, divine Love and Spirit, that guided and governed Jesus’ every word and action. This enabled Jesus to take a spiritual stand against all false concepts about God and man – that is, perceptions that are based on the material senses and that would deny the authority of God.
This would include the notion that we are mortals vulnerable to problems. Jesus’ healings showed that divine Spirit is supreme and created each of us in God’s image, spiritual and flawless. His understanding of spiritual reality destroyed the pretense to power, presence, and reality of these false concepts – and healing resulted.
The teachings of Christian Science bring out with shining light that it was Christ – Jesus’ “divine nature, the godliness which animated him” (Science and Health, p. 26) – that impelled all the Master did. Christ reveals that everyone’s true nature is the reflection of God, in perfect spiritual quality and expression. The essence of reflection means absolute obedience to God, or reflecting His nature with complete consistency. Through prayer in Christian Science, we can grasp that spiritual law holds us in perfect obedience to God’s goodness – and increasingly bear witness to this unwavering truth through healing and transformed lives.
There’s a chapter titled “Fruitage” at the end of Science and Health, which is filled with testimonies from individuals who were healed of all kinds of diseases and other evils simply through reading the book. One individual shared how she was healed of yellow fever, poor vision, and severe headaches, among other physical problems. She wrote, “Mrs. Eddy has made Scripture reading a never-failing well of comfort to me. By her interpretation ‘the way of the Lord’ is made straight to me and mine. It aids us in our daily overcoming of the tyranny of the flesh and its rebellion against the blessed leading of Christ, Truth” (p. 666).
This “blessed leading” is at hand in this moment (and every moment) to gently guide our every thought and action to safety and serenity. For instance, claiming our true nature as reflecting divine Love brings out the powerlessness and illegitimacy of aggressive behavior and naturally brings greater compassion, tenderness, and gentleness to our actions. Holding to the truth that we all express the integrity and purity of divine Spirit reveals illness, dishonesty, and deceit to be without foundation.
So when we’re confronted with something that runs counter to our God-given freedom, we can “rise up in reflection,” so to speak, to subdue and destroy that element of carnal mind thinking – which the Bible calls “enmity against God” (Romans 8:7). Then we see that this carnal mind is not a powerful force we must bitterly fight back against, but wholly without substance. And we are empowered to prove that, step by step, and experience healing.