From hope to freedom – the ongoing influence of a woman’s discovery
It’s Women’s History Month, and here’s an article exploring the enduring value and relevance of one woman’s contribution to the world: Mary Baker Eddy’s discovery of Christian Science, which empowers, helps, and heals.
A few years ago, I visited First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia. I was so moved by some designs engraved on the original pews, said to be messages of hope written by enslaved Black people who had taken refuge in that church in the 19th century.
Most of us have never been in the unthinkable situation those individuals were. But don’t we all hope for freedom of some kind – whether from an illness or injury, fear, anxiety, or something else? We may relate to these words in a psalm: “Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?” The verse concludes, “I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again – my Savior and my God!” (Psalms 43:5, New Living Translation).
I have found great hope, encouragement, and healing from the life and writings of the remarkable 19th- and 20th-century woman Mary Baker Eddy, who is the founder of this newspaper. She suffered from ill health and poverty in her earlier years and lived at a time when women had little voice. But she repeatedly turned to God’s love, where she found refuge, comfort, and healing.
In 1866, Mrs. Eddy fell on ice and wasn’t expected to live. She asked for her Bible to find comfort and read a Gospel account of one of Jesus’ healings. Her deep inner trust in a powerful, loving God took on a new dimension. She glimpsed that divine Spirit, God, is our only real existence, and was healed.
Mrs. Eddy had long devoted herself to searching the Scriptures for answers, particularly Jesus’ teachings and healing works, and through this healing she discovered the allness of God, infinite good, and the consequent impotence of evil. She named her discovery Christian Science, reflecting its basis in the provable divine law of God’s healing goodness, always in operation – which was the basis for Jesus’ healings.
Her book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” is the textbook of Christian Science, and it refers to a “universal freedom, asking a fuller acknowledgment of the rights of man as a Son of God, demanding that the fetters of sin, sickness, and death be stricken from the human mind and that its freedom be won, not through human warfare, not with bayonet and blood, but through Christ’s divine Science” (p. 226).
Decades ago, when I first learned of Christian Science, I glimpsed the healing and freeing truth of this divine revelation. I recall what it felt like to consider that we are more than mortals, we are perfect spiritual reflections of God’s nature. Science and Health weaves through its pages Bible-based synonyms for God that bring out the vastness, or, “allness” of Deity. They are Mind, Life, Truth, Love, Principle, Spirit, and Soul. Understanding God in this way, we begin to feel God’s ever-present reality and majesty, and this is a true and living communion, or prayer.
Studying this Science discovered by Mrs. Eddy has had a transformative effect on my outlook, confidence, and happiness. I’ve seen changes in every aspect of my life – home, career, health, etc. – as step by step I’ve found trust and freedom in God’s continuous, unfolding goodness, especially during hard times.
This freedom and joy didn’t come from changed human circumstances, but rather from the deep satisfaction and peace gained from a clearer understanding of God’s impartial goodness and abundant mercy – which then changed my life in tangible ways. It felt like a spiritual baptism, a submergence in the Spirit and substance of divine Love. As Mrs. Eddy writes, “Love is the liberator” (Science and Health, p. 225).
Individually and collectively, we can affirm and trust that prayer rooted in divine Love’s omnipresence is a powerful influence that lifts us to understandingly trust in God’s justice, mercy, and freedom for all. The Christ that Jesus expressed uncovered and rebuked everything unlike God, good. Thus Jesus brought to light the truth that Love is the only legitimate presence and power. It was the same Christ, divine Truth, that enabled Mrs. Eddy to overcome illness, injury, and injustices of her day, and to heal as Jesus taught.
In her sermon “The People’s Idea Of God – Its Effect on Health and Christianity,” Mrs. Eddy describes “a higher and holier love for God and man” and urges us to “behold once again the power of divine Life and Love to heal and reinstate man in God’s own image and likeness...” (p. 14). For all kinds of problems that seem to hold us captive, the teachings of Christian Science show us that Christ is still with us now, uplifting hope to a deep and liberating conviction that healing is possible.
Some more great ideas! To read or listen to an article in the weekly Christian Science Sentinel on how God heals us titled “Christian Science isn’t ‘mind over matter,’” please click through to www.JSH-Online.com. There is no paywall for this content.