The twenty-first chapter of John's Gospel gives a vivid account of Christ Jesus' meeting with his disciples after the resurrection, on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias. Seven of his disciples had gone fishing in a boat and had fished all night, yet without results. In the morning they saw Jesus standing on the shore. He called to them, "Have ye any meat?" When they replied in the negative, Jesus said unto them, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find." They did so, and the net was filled.

When he learned that it was the Master who had spoken, Peter acted quickly. He immediately "girt his fisher's coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea." When Jesus asked for some of the fish that had been caught, Peter took hold of the net and drew it to the shore. Then the disciples came and ate with their great Teacher and Master.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, gives a beautiful interpretation of this scene. In a paragraph entitled "The last breakfast" she writes (pp. 34,35): "What a contrast between our Lord's last supper and his last spiritual breakfast with his disciples in the bright morning hours at the joyful meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom had passed into glory, and his disciples' grief into repentance,—hearts chastened and pride rebuked. Convinced of the fruitlessness of their toil in the dark and wakened by their Master's voice, they changed their methods, turned away from material things, and cast their net on the right side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore of time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal sensuousness, or the burial of mind in matter, into newness of life as Spirit."

Humanity, in the darkness of so-called mortal existence, accumulates nothing of consequence or value. The weary seeker, tired of earthly weights and frustrating cares, discerns, though faintly at first, the dawning rays of spiritual light. This light comes from the waiting Christ. Heeding the call of the Christ, the seeker begins, like Peter, to put on the fisher's coat, the garment of receptivity, purity, consecration, and unselfed love.

The faithful disciple of today, the earnest student of Christian Science, learns the meaning of casting his net on the right side of the ship. He quickly learns through the study of Christian Science that self-seeking does not bring happiness but that "it is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). The joy of life is in sharing the wondrous truths of Christian Science with others. The great happiness of rescuing one's fellow beings from the throes of sin and sickness, poverty and grief, and helping to lift them up into the realm of faith and the sweet peace of righteous living, is the reward of such effort.

The awakening from the nakedness, the poverty, of mortal sense begins when the dawn of spiritual light reveals to the receptive thought the healing Christ just as unlaboredly as the morning's sunlight filters through the leaves of the sheltering treetops into a room's darkness. When one has thus become awakened to the spiritual reality of life and being, growth in the understanding of God and His Christ need not be slow in coming.

Hearing the call of the Christ to come out from material things into the great peace and joy of spiritual living, one no longer listens to the whispering suggestion of a so-called mortal mind. He can ask himself: Am I willing to dedicate my life to the imperious call of God to come up higher into the holy realm of righteous thinking and a more absolute consecration in His service? Am I striving each day to help make this earth a fairer, holier place in which to live?

If one can answer these questions in the affirmative, he is well on the way toward preparing himself for the discipleship of healing. This ministry of healing requires that state of thought referred to by Christ Jesus when he said (John 12:32), "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." It is the Christ, Truth, to which suffering and sinful humanity is drawn for help and healing.

If one has prepared himself for the highest of all work, Christian healing, he need not be afraid or falter should there sometime come a challenge or a difficulty in this high endeavor, for God gives strength, courage, and protection to the disciple who is imbued with purity and righteousness and unselfed love. The Christian Science practitioner seeks to reflect purity and consecration in every thought and act, to have a character unstained by even a hint of lust or hypocrisy. He prays constantly to have that "mind... which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5), the Mind that is God.

Our beloved Leader gives us this comforting assurance (Science and Health, p. 271): "Those, who are willing to leave their nets or to cast them on the right side for Truth, have the opportunity now, as aforetime, to learn and to practise Christian healing. The Scriptures contain it. The spiritual import of the Word imparts this power."