Article November 21, 1994 Issue

Blessed are the persecuted

Dorothy Dipuo Maubane

Are you experiencing persecution, slander, malicious criticism? If so, Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, gives a direct solution to this challenge: "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" (Matt. 5:10–12). Rejoicing, gladness, happiness, are God-derived qualities that give us power to handle and win out over all evil. They help us cultivate spiritual sense, which lifts us out of a belief in evil as power.

Following Jesus' lead, Christian Science offers a purely God-centered remedy for persecution. In Science and Health Mary Baker Eddy writes: "The power of Christian Science and divine Love is omnipotent. It is indeed adequate to unclasp the hold and to destroy disease, sin, and death" (p. 412). God, divine Love, is the key to the reversal of persecution. It is Love that gives us the strength and dignity not to become bitter, not to be pulled so low as to hate, not to succumb to the temptation of using violence in reaction to persecution. The Bible shows us that God is Love. He who loves is expressing God's allness. Through our prayer, let us magnify Love so fully in our thought and daily life that attempts of evil to humiliate or to destroy our character are neutralized. The power of Love overrules self-defeating retaliation or reaction and can, in the long run, even awaken the friendship and understanding of a persecutor.

In a biography, Mary Baker Eddy: Her Mission and Triumph, Julia Michael Johnston says of the Founder of Christian Science: "She declared the Science of Life, the Science of Christ, without doubt or timidity. She felt the waves of criticism beating against this Rock, but the power of Love going out to mankind was stronger than the tide of hate flowing in, and turned it back" (p. 83). Those who love start from the genesis of creation, where God, Spirit, creates and we, His children, reflect Him. We see that man is spiritual and cannot be the perpetrator, victim, or conveyer of evil.

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