Article September 21, 1935 Issue

Overcoming Resentment

LOUIS J. ELIAS

At a Wednesday evening testimony meeting in a Christian Science church a student of this new-old religion expressed sincere gratitude for a healing of resentment through the ministrations of the Christ, Truth. To some of those who listened to these joyful words of praise to God there must have come inquiries such as: What is the nature of this error from which the speaker is so glad to have been freed? Why is it so undesirable? How could it be overcome through Christian Science, and what would be the fruits of such a victory? To answer these questions to the satisfaction of all those who heard the testimony might be a difficult task, but investigation for his own enlightenment proved to be a profitable undertaking for one student.

What is resentment? A dictionary defines it thus: "Strong anger or displeasure; deep sense of injury." Here we find resentment linked with "strong anger," a mental state which cannot, of course, commend itself to anyone. The words "deep sense of injury" immediately challenge our thought as to what is meant by "sense." Is this sense a reality or merely a belief? An injury is connected with some sense of loss, such as of material things or property, or perhaps of reputation, social position, or a myriad of other so-called possessions of humanity. Without matter or mortal mind, its seeming creator, there could be no "sense of injury"; hence, no resentment. To anything real there can be no injury, for an injury implies destruction, in whole or in part, of that which is injured. Nothing real can be destroyed. Resentment, therefore, must arise from a false belief in an unreal or imaginary loss. If such be the nature of resentment, surely it cannot be a welcome visitor in our mental homes.

We need not accept this, or any other lie that may present itself at the door of our thought. The Bible and the writings of our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, teach us how to separate the wheat from the chaff, how to replace evil thoughts with good, how for anger to substitute love. We find, too, in reading the story of creation as told in the first chapter of Genesis, that God saw all that He had made and it was "very good." No room here for any resentment in God's kingdom. Its unreality can, therefore, be clearly understood.

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