If we are criticized or unjustly wronged, what is our response? Resentment, self-justification, hurt feelings ...?

When we are not directly involved in such a situation, it is much easier for us to realize how fruitless such responses would prove to be. We know, for instance, that to be resentful toward someone who has wronged us is itself a wrong—eventually causing greater suffering and grief.

A more subtle human reaction to criticism and unjust wrongs may assume the form of a silent, mental reservation—holding out for some sort of compensation, waiting for restitution or repayment of the "debt" that one believes is owed him. This is also fruitless—and without healing.

Whenever a breach in human relations occurs, the demand is always for healing. The breach need never be widened by one's negative reactions or hostility. Can we not look at each circumstance of facing unwarranted criticism, of feeling wronged, as an opportunity to forgive? Through Christian Science we can always learn more about the method of Christlike love—loving those who love us and those who don't.

Christ Jesus taught the essential lesson in many ways. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preached: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."

One doesn't, however, love and forgive his neighbor or enemy with the expectation of receiving a personal reward or commendation in return. The joy in forgiving is its own reward. To forgive, without strings attached, demonstrates the pure love that is a hallmark of true Christianity. It means that we are seeing and actually experiencing something more of the man God created—in His exact likeness—and that we are relinquishing the false mortal concept of man as a helpless sinner. The blessing of forgiving is complete in itself, and we have the scriptural promise: "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." ^{V. 7 .}

Yet if one should feel that he cannot forgive someone (perhaps because the wrong just seems too great to allow forgiveness), he is in effect accepting the erroneous claim that man is not the image of God, that man is not the outcome of Love. This would tend to prop up a misconception of man as a wrongdoer and of life as separated from the universal harmony of divine Truth's creation. In a sense, one could be punishing himself for another's sin. Don't we each have enough to do in our own field of consciousness, enough need for progress, without putting on the extra burden of resentment and anger for someone else's mistakes?

This doesn't mean that we overlook mortal mind's pernicious design for malice or calumny. Our prayer is to eradicate sin where we encounter it—never to tolerate it. We need to prayerfully guard against naively ignoring the destructive efforts of personal enmity and to protect ourselves and others from succumbing to hatred's flood or being provoked into responding in kind. Through a recognition of man's true relationship to God, we can nullify the effects of such errors and discern the spiritual innocence of those we need to forgive.

Our appointed ministry as followers of Christ Jesus includes a readiness and a willingness to heal the sick and the sinner. But if we are not expressing a ready and willing forgiveness, how can we heal? What are we seeing about man if we haven't yet forgiven our neighbor? "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man," Mrs. Eddy writes, "who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." ^{Science and Health, pp. 476–477.} The one who may have slandered you or vilified someone dear to you needs to be loved as the child of God. Your love for him, manifesting the love of God, may soften the heart and open the door for that one to cast off the sin of slander and malice from his own thinking—to open his heart to Christ, Truth, which redeems and purifies human consciousness.

Another point to consider is that one's own life is actually strengthened and preserved by a willingness to forgive, for unconditional forgiveness stands as one of the truest signs of a spiritual capacity to love. And to love is to live. There is no real existence without Love expressed. An account of Mrs. Eddy's teaching on the subject of divine Love in her class of 1888 attributes these words to her: " 'God is Love; to love is to express God, and as God is eternal Life, if we always loved we should always express Life, and never have a belief of death. Hate is the opposite of Love, and leads to death; therefore never hate anything.' " ^{We Knew Mary Baker Eddy (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1979), p. 90 .}

Christ Jesus' life could not actually be destroyed by those who nailed him to the cross—he refused to hate them as enemies. Jesus did not react to hatred with hatred. He held no resentment. The Saviour knew that the aggressive lies which seemed to be directed against him were godless, powerless, and ignorant; that hatred and animosity have no substance nor basis in reality. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," ^{Luke 23:34.} he prayed from the cross. Jesus had himself already forgiven them. Mrs. Eddy writes, "The last act of the tragedy on Calvary rent the veil of matter, and unveiled Love's great legacy to mortals: Love forgiving its enemies. This grand act crowned and still crowns Christianity: ... it gives to suffering, inspiration; to patience, experience; to experience, hope; to hope, faith; to faith, understanding; and to understanding, Love triumphant!" ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 124.}

Those who are merciful will experience mercy, and God's infinite mercy is fully revealed to us in the promise of Life eternal. Jesus proved it. Following the Master, we too will encounter opportunities to express forgiveness. As we learn to forgive and love in the healing way Jesus did, conflicts will be resolved, and we will see more clearly the reality and harmony of the kingdom of God at hand.

WILLIAM E. MOODY

1 Matt. 5:43, 44.