Editorial April 24, 1976 Issue

Our Indestructible Identity

Peter J. Henniker-Heaton

Man's identity and individuality are definite, distinct, indestructible. Men and women are not like transient bubbles in a vast indistinguishable ocean of life; they do not rise briefly to the surface, as some believe, momentarily reflect the colored spectrum of sunlight, and then get absorbed again into the whole. The indestructibility of individual man is basic Christian Science.

This correct view of identity and individuality is not of mere philosophical or theoretic interest. It is of immediate practical concern to us all. It helps maintain our health and give direction to our lives. It sustains in us a steady rational expectancy of good, that vital hope grouped by Paul with faith and love as among the three abiding qualities of spiritual living. It steers us safely past two opposite pitfalls: the intense pressure of trying to compress all experience into a mortal life-span or the apathetic vagueness that asks, "What's the good of doing anything anyway?"

Identity and individuality both derive from God's nature as I am , the divine Ego. This was how Moses recognized God at the moment of his transformation from an apparent failure, a prince of Egypt reduced to a backcountry shepherd, into the great liberator and lawgiver. This perception of the divine Ego enabled Christ Jesus to identify at all times with his divine origin and God's purposes for him. And it enabled Mary Baker Eddy to recognize that in receiving and sharing the revelation of scientific Christianity she was acting directly under divine orders.

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