The passing of a friend


Notes and References, Sunday, May 7, 2000
Thoughts upon the passing of a friend.

I was saddened and shocked to hear the news. A close friend, in good health, passed away suddenly at home with a practitioner by his side. How is that possible I asked myself? This is not common place in Christian Science. I know of many more examples of long lives filled with healings. To lose a case and to lose a “fellow soldier” in our battle against mortal belief angers me greatly. It’s wrong! It is the worst of all lies that we are being asked to accept as Truth. Jesus proved the infinite nature of life beyond the grave. He demonstrated this victory for all of us.

What a sham it would be to simply and coldly say, “Life is God and there is no matter, therefore he is fine.” It sounds as though his passing can be minimized as though it isn’t really that important. We must never fall into the intellectual trap that it isn’t important whether someone lives or dies if all is spiritual anyway. It is important. It is the demonstration of Truth that proves Spirit’s dominion over matter’s nothingness. I just can’t stand losing a case. We win our 99 out of a hundred but that doesn’t make the one and easier to accept. Here is a quote from Mrs. Eddy.

My 127:16
I deliberately declare that when I was in practice, out of one
hundred cases I healed ninety-nine to the ten of materia medica.

I might add here that I am just as angered and distressed by the passing of someone in a medical facility. I have had many more experiences losing friends at the hands of the surgeon then with a CS Practitioner. My sadness is not diminished by the chosen method of treatment but by our need to do better work for ourselves, our families and our communities.

I was so troubled by the event that I called a Christian Science Teacher who is a good friend. I would like to share those thoughts with you. In general he proposed the following:

We must catch ourselves every time we look to the human for a measure of our progress. Keep your eye on the divine event, the spiritual fact. When we look at the amount of money in the bank account, the amount of intellect or experience we have to accomplish a task, the amount of pleasure we feel in our bodies or even the number of years we are able to stay on the earth. That kind of thinking is reserved for those that must see with their eyes to believe with their hearts. He then referred me to the story of Thomas:

John 20:24-29
24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. 26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. 27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

You see, we are those whom Jesus referred to as those who having seen not yet believe. That is our duty. Its not blind belief referred to here. It is believing though understanding and demonstration. We were not here when Jesus walked the earth, nor when Mrs. Eddy had her many demonstration of the power of Truth. Yet we believe because of the Science we are given which gives us the understanding to practice the truths that the world resists. Turn to Spirit first and then demonstrate your dominion over matter.

That thought about Thomas was very helpful. I realized that I must rededicate myself to seeing the allness of Truth in the face of a lie, the allness of Love in the face of hate and the allness of Life in the face of death. When a comrade in this field falls then I have a choice: I can turn and run the other way in fear, as though the battle isn’t worth it. Or I can fight all the more to demonstrate in my own consciousness the stand that my friend took.

Never was there a more solemn and imperious call than God makes to us all, right here, for fervent devotion and an absolute consecration to the greatest and holiest of all causes. The hour is come. The great battle of Armageddon is upon us. The powers of evil are leagued together in secret conspiracy against the Lord and against His Christ, as expressed and operative in Christian Science. Large numbers, in desperate malice, are engaged day and night in organizing action against us. Their feeling and purpose are deadly, and they have sworn enmity against the lives of our standard-bearers.
What will you do about it? Will you be equally in earnest for the truth? Will you doff your lavender-kid zeal, and become real and consecrated warriors? Will you give yourselves wholly and irrevocably to the great work of establishing the truth, the gospel, and the Science which are necessary to the salvation of the world from error, sin, disease, and death? Answer at once and practically, and answer aright! (Mis 177)


The most important thing I think I can share with all of you is this: Man can’t pass on. What is he passing on from and where is he passing to. Don’t get in the matter trap. There is no matter. Listen carefully to the Scientific Statement of Being at the end of Sunday School each week. Man was never born into matter thus cannot pass out of matter because there is no matter. Man cannot die because there is no death. Jesus demonstrated that for us. We die because we believe in matter and we must dedicate ourselves to “unbelieving” it. Our leader writes in Mis 42:12

When we shall have passed the ordeal called death, or destroyed this last enemy, and shall have come upon the same plane of conscious existence with those gone before, then we shall be able to communicate with and to recognize them.

Imagine that! Let’s reverse the material claim that you are going to die. You are not going to die. Just the opposite. You are coming to Life. In fact, if you are coming to Life, you are never going to be as dead as you are right now! Each day we must make progress in our travel out of the belief that matter determines our success, our romance, our bank account, our health or our life. W must recognize the allness of Spirits influence, invisible to the world but brilliantly seen in your hearts. Blessed are ye, indeed, that believe having seen not.


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