"The divine must overcome the human"

HERSCHEL P. NUNN

How often we hear a remark somewhat to this effect: "I like that chap; he is so human." Do we as Christian Scientists like people because they are "so human" or because they express beautiful, Christlike qualities of character which outshine the human?

What constitutes the common conception of being human? Is it not often an acceptance and a tolerance of human frailties— so-called righteous indignation, flare-ups of anger, displays of stubborn self-assertion, idolatrous personal worship with its attendant jealousies, envies, human loves and hates? Little wonder our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 43), so positively warns us that "the divine must overcome the human at every point." To think of the human as real and God-created is to place an insurmountable object in our path of spiritual growth and progress. Certainly if the human were real, the divine would not have to overcome it.

In our present human sense of existence, transitional qualities of thought such as honesty, compassion, humanity, which may sometimes be thought of as human goodness, are actually evidence of the divine—the divine outshining the mist of mortal thought. However, if we look upon such goodness as the absolute good which is God, we are deceiving ourselves, opening thought to a subtle, mistaken phase of belief which would rob us of clarity of thought by depriving us of the ability to discern and demonstrate the absolute truth of being. That which may be thought of as mere human goodness—these valuable transitional, unselfed qualities—is always derived from the good which is eternal, real, divine, though as yet imperfectly and incompletely expressed in our human experience. There is no real good but that which is spiritual.

How positively and unequivocally our Leader shows us in her discussion of the human mind on page 126 of our textbook that this mind does not of itself express one iota of positive good. In her ringing words of rebuke to its claims of innate intelligence she leaves it not a shred of reality in itself. In the light of her clear teaching of the nothingness of the human, how illumined her words become on page 25 of "Unity of Good," where, in denying the illusion that mind can be in matter, she says: "This denial enlarges the human intellect by removing its evidence from sense to Soul, and from finiteness into infinity. It honors conscious human individuality by showing God as its source."

The grayness of the dawn is but a transitional stage in the appearing of the full light of day. Just as the light of day is the only reality to the dawn, so the goodness of God, the intelligence of divine Mind, the spiritual beauty of Soul, are the realities of what appears to be the enlightened human individuality. Is not this indicative of what our Leader further says in these words (Science and Health, p. 25): "The divinity of the Christ was made manifest in the humanity of Jesus"?

The humanity of Jesus was so cleansed of mortal beliefs that the Christ was vividly demonstrated. Jesus' spiritual individuality, the Christ, was what was true and real about him. The human Jesus was only the human concept, which disappeared with the ascension.

The more clearly each one of us becomes conscious of the Christ —man's real spiritual selfhood— which voices the eternal goodness of God as it is expressed in our true individuality, the more we shall express a sense of humanhood which is at once satisfying and blessed. This will appear as enrichment of thought and life; for instance, friendships which are stimulating to the best that is in us and call forth our highest qualities and capabilities. The normal experiences of daily living—eating, sleeping, working, playing, exercise, study, prayer—will be carried on in complete freedom from unnatural restriction, fear, overemphasis upon the importance of some of them, or ill effects from participation in any of them.

Thus daily living will express a richer humanhood, beautiful in its simplicity and humility, blessed in its purity. So it is that the humanity of our daily lives comes increasingly to express the Christ-consciousness, the divine naturalness of our true selfhood. This is because the perfection of Principle is the source and substance of our only real being. "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. . . . Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:22-24).

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