18. We believe that the body of man is the highest formed manifestation
of Creative Mind, and that it is capable of unlimited expression of that Mind. "Know
ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?"
If we need proof of the unlimited
possibilities for the expression of the physical body, all we have to do is look around!
What variety we see in people’s bodies. Some we call beautiful, some we may see as
unattractive, but each one is an individualized expression of the divine idea of
physicality. In recent years there was a movie called, "Simon Birch" which
presented a powerful message about our judgment by appearance.
Simon was born dwarfed and deformed.
His father was so disappointed in his son’s appearance that when he brought his wife
and newborn home from the hospital, he let them out in front of the house and said,
"I’m going to work now." As Simon grew, he could not do the things other
boys could do though he tried very hard. One day on the way home from a day camp, a bus
filled with young children had an accident and ended up in a river. All the children
panicked except Simon. He took charge and the children followed his instructions. The kids
always listened to Simon because of his small size and indomitable spirit. One by one the
children were passed out the back door to an older child who carried them to shore. When
it appeared that all the children were off except Simon, the bus slipped further into the
water and the rear door jammed shut. Simon realized that there was one more child still on
the bus with him. He found the last child held under water because his foot was caught in
a seat. Simon was just the right size to be able to free him and get him to a window. They
were both the right size to pass through it to safety. Later, at the hospital, his older
friend visited him and as they talked, Simon spoke about his purpose in life and said,
"Well, I have to go now." He closed his eyes and was gone, his purpose
fulfilled.
While we have many ideas about what is
a perfect body, Charles Fillmore said in Talks on Truth, "The body is the
meeting place of the life and substance attributes of Being, consequently body is an
important factor in consciousness. Body is not matter; it is substance and life in
expression." (p. 158) We are three-fold beings. We are spirit expressing through soul
or consciousness within a physical body. In Creative Mind there is one idea for the body,
but that idea is capable of an infinite variety of expression. Each body is a perfect
expression of God-life and substance that is formed and shaped by the matrix of
consciousness. At every moment in time the body is an accurate out picturing of our
deepest beliefs. It is also plastic, a dynamic and changing vehicle responsive to evolving
awareness.
Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian
Science, taught that there is no reality in matter and according to the previous quote,
Charles Fillmore would agree. The common idea of matter is that it is a formed, solid
thing separate and different from spirit. Often we contrast spirit and matter, spiritual
reality from the material universe. But matter separate from spirit does not exist. The
cells of our bodies are dancing points of spiritual energy which is eternal and
unchanging. Though the appearance seems to change according to the limits of physical
sight, the life and substance that is every cell cannot change because it is an attribute
of God and God cannot change.
19. We believe that through conscious union with Jesus in the
regeneration man can transform his body and make it perpetually healthy, therefore
immortal, and that he can attain eternal life in this way and in no other.
The Unity Correspondence School course
material Series 1, Lesson 2 says, "Everyone instinctively feels that there must be a
way to health, an exact, sure way founded upon principle. There is such a way. It may be
found by the earnest student in the doctrine of Jesus Christ... . If a cause is removed,
its effect disappears. This is the right and only sure method of wiping out the appearance
of disease... . If mental and physical discords were real, they could not be healed."
(pp. 1,2)
Right where something else seems to
make its presence known, there is only God. The woman who had hemorrhaged for twelve years
knew that there must be a way to health. She went from doctor to doctor looking for a cure
but none was found. Her instinctive feeling that healing was possible kept her pursuing
something which seemed so elusive. When she had exhausted every possibility in the
physical world of allopathic medicine with no relief and her future looked dark, she heard
reports of a spiritual teacher who had performed what appeared to be miracles of healing.
She sought this teacher in a crowd believing, as many of her people did, that the fringe
on a holy man’s garment had special power to heal. As she approached him, she
stretched out her hand and, unnoticed, touched one of the purple tassels. Instantly the
hemorrhage stopped and she felt deep within that she was healed. Jesus, feeling the power
flow through him, asked, "Who touched me?" The woman admitted her action and
Jesus replied, "Daughter, your faith has made you well." (Mk 5:21-34)
Though we may feel instinctively that
healing is possible, we may not know where to find it and so we look everywhere in the
physical world for answers. The woman in the story represents our faith in healing. When
our faith is invested in outer things as the source of health, we may find temporary
relief but no cure because we have tried to change effects without going to the root cause
which is always found in the mind. The moment we begin to turn from outer effects and look
within for answers, those answers come. We don’t have to know how healing happens, we
only need to turn our awareness to the source of life and health.
The Correspondence course material
says, "The only way to health is through the I AM, the Christ, in man, which is the
law of his being... . The one way to health is to return to the source of health and learn
the laws that govern this state of purity and soundness... . To be every whit whole one
must not only learn the laws of universal good but one must also be obedient to them in
every thought, feeling, word, action and reaction." (Series 1, Lesson 2, Annotation
1)
The first move for us when we need
healing is to recognize that God is present in the situation as Mind with infinite
intelligence. Establish conscious awareness of your oneness with God-mind through prayer.
Then begin to affirm that God as the ground of your being expressing as the I AM or Christ
is present in every aspect of your body. Charles Fillmore said, "IS THAT GOOD LOGIC?
Of course it is. Will it work? Of course it will. THIS IS THE REAL SECRET OF METAPHYSICAL
HEALING." (Keep a True Lent, p. 20)
20. We believe that the "blood" of Jesus represents eternal
life; that the "body" of Jesus represents incorruptible substance, We believe
that these are original elements in Being, and that they can be appropriated by all who,
through faith and understanding, attain the Christ standard of spirituality.
Churches have fought over the issue of
communion: do we celebrate it at certain times in the year or every time we join in
worship? Does the congregation receive both bread and wine, or bread alone? Emerson, as a
Christian minister, was required to administer communion to his congregation. As he grew
in understanding of the inner meaning behind the outer ritual, he no longer felt
comfortable with the traditional celebration and the wrong concept it presented to a
congregation. He came to a point in his spiritual journey where the ritual demanded of him
by the church and his deep understanding of the spiritual essence behind the ritual were
so at odds that he refused to perform the rite any more and left active ministry.
When Jesus gathered the disciples in
the upper room, he did not invent a new ritual, he was teaching spiritual principle
through symbols well known to his people. Abrahim Rihbany, in The Syrian Christ,
says, "The Last Supper was no isolated event in Syrian history. Its fraternal
atmosphere, intimate associations, and sentimental intercourse are such as characterize
every such gathering of Syrian friends... . At our feasts we always drink the wine out of
one and the same cup. We did not stay up nights thinking about microbes. To us the one cup
meant fellowship and fraternal communion. . . . It is also customary for a gracious host
to request as a happy ending to the feast that the contents of one cup be drunk by the
whole company as a seal of their friendship with one another. . . .
"No account of fraternal feasting
in Syria can be complete without mention of the zikreh (rememberance). To be
remembered by his friends after his departure from them is one of the Syrian’s
deepest and dearest desires . . . Rarely do friends who have been feasting together part
without this request being made by those of them who do not expect to meet with their
friends again for a time. ‘Remember me when you meet again’ is said by the
departing friend with unspeakable tenderness." ( pp. 56-64)
This is an accurate description of the
actions which we are told in the Gospels took place that night in Jerusalem. The provision
and sharing of food occur many times in the scriptures. The Israelites were provided manna
in the wilderness as their daily bread. Jesus blessed and broke bread to feed five
thousand. Both of these stories allude to the bread of heaven or spiritual substance. Wine
in the East was a symbol for the blood of life.
Charles Fillmore said, "In Matthew
26:26, 27 Jesus called the bread He had blessed His body and the wine His blood. Out of
this came the symbolic rite of the Lord’s Supper. All symbols are useful to the
extent that they point man to the realities for which they stand. . . . Jesus dwelt
continually in the consciousness of being the very substance and life of God. . . .
Through the conscious realization of His oneness with God His body became a ‘body of
life,’ spiritual substance, His blood the life of God. This is the body and blood he
gave as a ‘ransom for many’; the understanding that the Christ body comes not by
the grave but through our daily realization of the omnipresence of substance and life and
our union with it." (Atom Smashing Power of Mind, pp. 77-78)
Every time you remember that your life
is not your life and that your body is formed of the same eternal substance of
which the stars are formed, you appropriate the bread of heaven and the wine of eternal
life. Someday, all churches will unite in the understanding behind the outer ritual, as
Emerson did, and differences of doctrine will cease to exist.
To Be Continued Next Month
Copyright © 2000 by Greg W. Neteler
Used with permission.
Messages from previous months