The Fulfillment of Joy

Evelyn F. Heywood

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says (p. 232): "The beliefs we commonly entertain about happiness and life afford no scatheless and permanent evidence of either. Security for the claims of harmonious and eternal being is found only in divine Science."

It was prophesied of the Messiah that he would be "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." Christ Jesus did not minimize the sacrifices he had been willing to make and that would be called for from his followers in taking up the cross, in living a life of service rather than selfindulgence; but as a result, he promised not sorrow but joy, and joy not in part, but in completeness—fullness of joy. As he talked to the disciples of the Father's love and their safe abidance therein, he assured them that the joy which was his would also be fulfilled in them, and that no one would be able to take it from them. "Ask," he exhorted them, "and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."

The sorrows which have fallen upon the human race have not been caused because the joy revealed and experienced by Christ Jesus has become inaccessible, but because the means of entering into possession of happiness has been set aside. The human race has sought for happiness as it has sought for life, where there is no safety, no continuity, no fulfillment.

Contingent on happiness, our Master made it very clear, was obedience, obedience to the divine commandments. Happiness is not brought about by circumstance, fortuitous or the outcome of our own human planning; it is not at the mercy of individuals, of good fortune, of popularity and success. Men think they are happy because things go well with them; they feel at peace with their neighbors and the world; prosperity, however moderate, shines upon them. On the other hand, they think they are unhappy if they are afraid, for themselves or others, of illness, of disaster, of loss; if their peace, individual or collective, is threatened or possibly invaded.

It is well to remember that the joy spoken of by Jesus, and which he prayed might remain in his disciples, was being experienced by him at a time when he was surrounded by the bitterest hatred; when men were already plotting his destruction; when he knew that shortly he would be facing the ignominy of a public trail and a felon's death. Certainly in that moment and near prospect there was no evidence of security for happiness and life. The Master, however, was not looking for them there. In his ascending thought, security was established independently of all human happenings, where our Leader has assured us it can alone be found, in divine Science.

As men come to see that happiness is the recognition of spiritual dominion over all that would oppose God, they understand why Jesus could speak of his fulfillment of joy. They see that this was the whole purpose of his lifework, as it must be theirs—to prove the powerlessness of evil to thwart and cripple the divine purpose. He had proved and was continuing to prove, in the words of Mrs. Eddy, that "all power and happiness are spiritual, and proceed from goodness" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 155).

To bring this fulfillment of joy to the world was the whole purpose of our Leader's lifework. She never rested, she knew no satisfaction, until by the discovery of divine Science there were revealed to her those laws which constitute the only "scatheless and permanent evidence" of the joy which is the Christly inheritance of all.

Recklessly or timidly men have spent their days, seeking for, taking possession of, and frequently being deprived of those things which they had regarded as essential to happiness. And all the time because of the very nature of that which they sought and held, their lives have been fraught with fear and uncertainty, with disappointment, with final unfulfillment. Yet the joy which no man can take from us is already ours for the seeking when it is sought and preserved in the way that Christ Jesus exemplified. Out of her own great experience our Leader has endowed us with these words of wisdom and of warning (Science and Health, p. 60): "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul."

Security, lasting happiness, these most assuredly the world has not found in paths which lead away from God. May those who in Christian Science have found where joy alone belongs, so bear witness to it in the steadfastness and radiance of their lives, that the day is speeded when all men shall recognize and lay hold of the ever-present consciousness of divine fulfillment!

Evelyn F. Heywood

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