A Christian Science healing is a resurrection morning. It is a moment when we recognize the presence of the Christ. Until that moment occurs, it would appear that the Christ, the true idea of Life and Love, is absent. We may believe that God is Love and that He is ever present, that He is the only Life there is, and that that Life constitutes our health, our well-being. We may believe this with enough conviction to repeat the words and to affirm the truths conscientiously. But until we recognize that what we are saying is the true idea, not something we hope for, but something that is, here and now, we are still merely expecting a healing. When we recognize the presence of this Christ, Truth, the healing comes.

Easter morning is more than an annual event. It is a symbol of the healing that takes place in any human heart when the truth of God, God's ever-present spiritual idea, is recognized. Even the time of the year—when northern flowers bloom and thoughts turn from the cold darkness of winter days to fresher hues—symbolizes the morning of recognition, of resurrection.

But Easter loses its meaning if thought is centered on the celebration of a time of year or of a historical event. Although no event of greater significance has ever occurred than the resurrection of Christ Jesus, the significance of his resurrection does not stop there. Its purpose was our resurrection from faith in what Jesus overcame to an understanding of the spiritual reality he proved.

Jesus overcame the materialism of mortal thought and the human hatred, stemming from that materialism, toward anyone who dared to represent Spirit rather than matter as real. But Jesus understood and forgave. He loved, not in spite of the hatred, but because Love was his very Mind, his Father, God.

"Destroy this temple," he said, "and in three days I will raise it up." ^{John 2:19;} Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "That Life is God, Jesus proved by his reappearance after the crucifixion in strict accordance with his scientific statement: 'Destroy this temple [body], and in three days I [Spirit] will raise it up.' It is as if he had said: The I—the Life, substance, and intelligence of the universe—is not in matter to be destroyed." ^{Science and Health, p. 27;}

The story of the resurrection morning, as John records it, tells of one who, though she loved Jesus and the truth he taught, was still seeking the idea of life in a material body. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, stooped down, looked inside, and two angels asked her why she was weeping. She said, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." And John says, "She turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus." Mary, still weeping, thought Jesus was the gardener. "Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away," she said. "Jesus saith unto her, Mary." Then the Gospel gives an interesting fact. She had already turned herself back from the tomb. But now, a second time, "she turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master." ^{See John 20:11-16;}

Is this not our own story when we seek healing in Christian Science? We know the truth, or we think we do; that is, we are still looking for that truth in a material way. We think something has been done that must be undone, or something we are doing is not right and needs to be corrected. We think the power of Truth is yet to be proved.

Jesus' resurrection had already taken place. The truth that heals us is already proved. The only thing that has been done that needs to be undone is false thinking. We have looked in the wrong place to find the true idea of Life and Love. Let us turn back, away from the belief of life in matter. And then, when we contemplate the truths we have been declaring, the allness of God and His goodness, the perfection of man as His reflection, shall we ask, Why have not my declarations of these truths brought the healing? Should we not rather turn ourselves a second time and recognize the true idea present in those truths, present here and now where the truths of God and man are known and declared and understood?

Perhaps the most beautiful thing about this story is the fact that if we still do not recognize the Christ-idea, if we still do not feel able to claim the proof of indestructible life and health, if they are still only words to us, it is the nature of the Christ to forgive and to love. It speaks to us, it calls us by name, so that we do understand, and we have our resurrection. Mrs. Eddy defines "resurrection" as "spiritualization of thought; a new and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence; material belief yielding to spiritual understanding." ^{Science and Health, p. 593.} Our recognition of the Christ-idea is the morning of our healing.

Carl J. Welz