Giving of Ourselves
One of Jesus' best known lessons is what is commonly known as the parable of the prodigal son. It might well be called the parable of the constant father. The father, seeing the returning prodigal afar off, runs to meet him. The father does not wait at the gate or send a servant out; in wholehearted welcome he runs out himself.
When Christ Jesus commissioned his twelve closest disciples to preach and heal, he included in his charge: "Freely ye have received, freely give." Matt. 10:8; In their giving they were to hold nothing back; they were to give without measure. And Jesus himself set the example. Repeatedly the Gospels depict his deep compassion—for individuals, for the confused multitudes, for the people of Jerusalem.
When some great good has come into our lives, we usually wish to share it with others. This is particularly true of those who have been touched and healed by the Christ Science; we wish to share it. To this end we may willingly give time, skills, money. But whether this sharing is on a one-to-one basis or through some collective activity, there is something else we need to give as well; we need to give of ourselves. One of Mrs. Eddy's students, describing the generous hospitality extended by the Leader of Christian Science to visitors in her home, writes, "Above all, she gave of herself freely." We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, First Series (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1943), p. 30 ; This giving of oneself is an essential part of giving freely.
What do we mean by giving of ourselves? Certainly more than mere personal involvement or empathy, to use two currently popular words. Unless these are under some higher discipline, they can drag us down into the very difficulties being experienced by the one we are trying to help. Though we walk in the marketplace, our lookout-point must remain the mountaintop.
Early in the chapter on Christian Science Practice Science and Health has a striking passage that offers guidance on this. Mrs. Eddy writes: "The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow-being is deficient in human affection, and we have the apostolic warrant for asking: 'He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?' Not having this spiritual affection, the physician lacks faith in the divine Mind and has not that recognition of infinite Love which alone confers the healing power." Science and Health, p. 366;
Sympathy, human affection, spiritual affection, the recognition of infinite Love. The first three are necessary ingredients in the free giving of oneself; but if they are to build to the healing compassion that moved Jesus and to the giving freely he required of his followers, these three must derive their final conditioning and direction from the fourth, from the recognition of infinite Love. Without it involvement and empathy are likely to achieve only limited results. With it the act of giving is raised to its full potency.
But what is the connection between giving of ourselves and a recognition of infinite Love? It is simply this: we are most truly and effectively ourselves and most truly and effectively give of ourselves when we recognize ourselves as the individual expressions of infinite Love, God, and let this recognition inspire our giving. As Mrs. Eddy writes, "Spiritual love makes man conscious that God is his Father, and the consciousness of God as Love gives man power with untold furtherance." Message to The Mother Church for 1902, pp. 8–9;
In order to give of ourselves freely we may first need to give up false concepts of ourselves, concepts that would obscure our expression of infinite Love. The Bible has many records of men and women who learned to do this. Both Jacob and Joseph had to slough off false concepts of themselves before Jacob could meet Esau in love or Joseph was able to return good for evil to his family. Yet in the end what great generosity of character both men expressed.
Sometimes the false concepts of ourselves we need to give up include elements that appear desirable, so we shrink from surrendering them. The belief of good material inheritances, for example; or human skills, abilities, and successes that may have served some purpose in their time but whose usefulness we have now spiritually outgrown. All these have to go; but as they go, we lose nothing. On the contrary we progressively gain a clearer sense of who we really are, the individual expressions of infinite Love, and how we can give most freely of this selfhood in our healing ministry.
There remains one great fact that makes this requirement to give of ourselves so inescapable. In responding to it we do far more than give of a human selfhood. Instead we find our giving a transparency for the divine I or Ego itself; we reveal the ultimate selfhood of all reality as present and active on the scene.
Mrs. Eddy sums it up in one succinct statement, "The Ego-man is the reflection of the Ego-God." Science and Health, p. 281. In both "Ego-man" and "Ego-God" the Ego is capitalized. The one Ego is God, infinite Love. When we truly give of ourselves, infinite Love itself is in action and is seen in action.
Peter J. Henniker-Heaton
