Article September 6, 1982 Issue

Healing grief

BEVERLY BEMIS HAWKS DeWINDT

What a tender moment it must have been when Jesus said to the widow of Nain whose son had died, "Weep not."^{ Luke 7:13.} But his words conveyed far more than human sympathy. They carried the assurance that there was nothing to weep about—that there is no death. And this is what Jesus proved by reviving the young man.

An example given in Science and Health helps us to understand that not death but belief in death brings the anguish. Mrs. Eddy writes: "A blundering despatch, mistakenly announcing the death of a friend, occasions the same grief that the friend's real death would bring. You think that your anguish is occasioned by your loss. Another despatch, correcting the mistake, heals your grief, and you learn that your suffering was merely the result of your belief." She concludes: "So, when our friends pass from our sight and we lament, that lamentation is needless and causeless. We shall perceive this to be true when we grow into the understanding of Life, and know that there is no death."^{ Science and Health, pp. 386-387.}

The work needed to overcome the world's belief in death isn't limited to the reviving of an individual who has passed on. The need is broader: it is for the gradual overcoming of the entire belief in mortality. And this comes through all kinds of experiences.

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