Article March 15, 1969 Issue

How Great Am I?

DOUGLAS ROBERTS

"How great am I?" is an age-old question. Even Christ Jesus' disciples argued it. How fortunate we are to have Jesus' statements as to what constitutes true greatness! One of these is quoted by Mrs. Eddy under the heading "Significant Questions." She writes: "Who shall be greatest? Referring to John the Baptist, of whom he said none greater had been born of women, our Master declared: 'He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.'" ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 228;}

The question of one's true value, then, must depend on our answers when we ask ourselves these questions: "Am I awakening day by day to some understanding and demonstration of the kingdom of heaven? Am I continuing in the sense-dream, satisfied with material progress? Do I consider that my real selfhood is spiritual or corporeal, Godlike or mortal?" Christian Science shows that only as individuals approximate the divine idea of man are they great, because the divine idea alone can fully express God's attributes, such as wisdom, love, beauty, and holiness.

Therefore human beings achieve greatness only as they put off their false, mortal beliefs and awaken to the spiritual sense of existence. Embodying and living the divine attributes, they gradually overcome the temptation to sin or be sick. The carnal mind cannot achieve greatness, no matter how attractive, authoritative, or exalted it may appear to be, since it is only the counterfeit of divine Mind.

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