Article December 14, 1981 Issue

Untouched by mortality

MARY BARNES

In an arresting statement Paul says, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Col. 3:3. What is it that is already dead, and what is the life that is already hidden in God? Doesn't this declaration of the apostle point toward one of the leading truths in Christian Science, namely, the unreality of matter with all its ramifications and the present spirituality of man and the universe?

How blessed we are for even a glimpse of our present immortality. And what a wonderful hiding place we have in God, Spirit! How safe. How invulnerable. In truth, we are all hidden in divine Mind as that Mind's own precious ideas, where no evil can exist or touch us. As long as we accept the belief that we are mortals we cannot feel this security, since every aspect of mortality can only result in change and decay. There is no such thing as ultimate material stability or spiritual instability. If we believe ourselves to be physical beings residing in a material universe, we are liable to any of the various phases of evil this counterfeit universe includes—loss, grief, disease, accident. But through spiritual understanding we can begin moving beyond this fictitious realm and claim our true identity as the incorporeal sons and daughters of God. Then we progressively experience the continuing harmony and security naturally belonging to this genuine selfhood.

The realization of man's exemption from the mortal realm can be proved as we hold to the truth of man's spiritual status as the child of God. Man, who is wholly spiritual, cannot be affected by a belief that being is material. But we must prove this true by progressively overcoming sickness and sin and by recognizing that they have no connection with spiritual identity. Spirit, God, is the only real substance; and man, as Spirit's likeness, reflects his Maker. A hymn points to perfect man: "Thou treadest undefiled/In Christly paths apart." Christian Science Hymnal, No. 382. This utter apartness from matter and its multifarious claims is the basis for our ability to prove our exemption from material theories, including medical ones. Because of the entrenched nature of many of these beliefs and because they are so generally accepted as veritable and inescapable, we need to take a strong stand on the side of Spirit, Truth, to ensure our immunity from them.

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