Article March 25, 2019 Issue

To move past sorrow, let God light the way

Mary Kuhl

Two words in Christ Jesus’ statement, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted,” (Matthew 5:4) confused me: blessed and comforted. When someone is in the throes of mourning, especially when a loved one has just passed on, how can they feel blessed? How can the individual who is left behind be comforted? These are questions I’ve grappled with, and I’ve found some answers through studying Christian Science.

Christian Science has been a strong foundation for me, giving me the spiritual understanding that lifts me above the sense that death is a powerful and substantial reality. Christian Science teaches that the one, infinite God is Life, without beginning and without end, having no opposite called death; God’s children reflect Him and cannot cease to exist. We coexist with God, Spirit, and are inseparable from Him. As God, our Father-Mother, is eternal, so are His sons and daughters. This means that our true, spiritual individuality or selfhood always lives, intact and whole, untouched by mortality.

The weekly Bible Lessons from the Christian Science Quarterly often include an account of Jesus raising someone back to life. Jesus even resurrected himself after his enemies tried to kill him on the cross. Jesus knew that death wasn’t to be acquiesced with or given in to; it was an enemy to be challenged with the knowledge of God’s supremacy. He overcame both death and the grave. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Mary Baker Eddy writes, “His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demonstrating within the narrow tomb the power of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense” (p. 44).