Editorial August 19, 1967 Issue

Triumph or Tragedy?

William Milford Correll

Is religion the road of joy or the path of suffering? Was Christ Jesus' experience one of triumph or tragedy? These questions have faced the individual from the beginning of the Christian era. And they face each one of us anew as we contemplate the life and message of the great Exemplar.

Another way of putting the same question might be to ask. Is the significant event of Jesus' life his crucifixion or his resurrection? In many religious teachings the emphasis has been upon the crucifixion, and the suffering and death of Jesus have been the main theme. Through the revelation of Christian Science an altogether new light has been thrown upon Jesus' experience, and we can see it as one of triumph and glory. He overcame all the trials and temptations of the flesh and showed humanity the way out of suffering. The direction of his life was upward all the way, and the climax is in his complete victory over evil. He attained what is known as heaven.

This Science teaches that evil is unreal, that it is neither created by God nor sent by God. It teaches that this was one of the central facts of Jesus' instructions and was inherent in his examples of healing and regeneration. Jesus showed that suffering is part of the false belief that life and intelligence are in and of matter. He showed that each one must come to understand the way out of the flesh. He must come to understand the presence, power, and reality of Spirit. The errors of belief are uncovered through suffering. That is the way one wakes up to reality.

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