Article April 28, 1923 Issue

Resentment

FREDERICK R. FRANCKE

RESENTMENT has been defined as "a feeling of indignant displeasure because of something regarded as a wrong." The word is closely akin to anger, displeasure, hatred, malice. The entertaining of any thought of resentment carries with it many possibilities of evil. It provides many apparent channels for its operation. The root meaning comes from the Latin words re, meaning "again," and sentire, "to feel." Moreover, the entertaining of resentment in our thought makes it possible for us to suffer from that erroneous thinking which we are condemning in others.

Mrs. Eddy says on page 19 of her Message to The Mother Church for 1902, "The Christian Scientist cherishes no resentment; he knows that that would harm him more than all the malice of his foes." It would seem, therefore, that if only from a desire for self-preservation, regardless of higher motives, resentful thoughts should be instantly dismissed. If permitted to remain, the seeds of malice quickly take root, and develop their supposititious insidious poison. Resentment is partially dependent for its existence upon one's readiness to sit in judgment upon the speech and action of one's fellow-men; therefore, if we train ourselves to refrain from unjust judgment of others, we shall be less apt to entertain resentful thoughts.

The enslavement of material existence is dependent upon the extent to which sensual thoughts are entertained. And no thoughts are quicker in their destructive element, more deadening to spiritual progress, or more obstructive to the attainment of harmony than those of resentment. It barbs the arrows of materiality directed against us. Love is the shield which deflects their course; for where divine Love is reflected, there is no room for resentment.

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