Satisfaction

February 25, 1999

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Matthew

Last week most of us viewed Satisfaction as a divine attribute, but as we worked and prayed with it during the week we found it to be just a human concept, subject to fluctuation depending on what the senses are reporting. With this understanding some of us were able to see the value of dissatisfaction in moving us to seek the Truth. A mortal resting upon his wealth or personal goodness is a time bomb, as shown by the story of Job. A process of suffering and then surrender to the facts of being may be necessary to find a firm footing in divinity.

The whole thrust of Christian Science is to turn the student from satisfaction based on dualistic concepts to a diviner dependency. A couple of powerful statements by Mary Baker Eddy were read: "Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God," (Science and Health, pg. 15:25-26), "The Christian Scientist is alone with his own being and with the reality of things." (Message to The Mother Church of 1901, pg. 20:8-9) There was a tendency among us to interpret these statements as promoting "spirituality" or other-worldliness. But some members stated emphatically that the genius of Christian Science is to re-envision human existence as, in Truth, divine. We've all felt those momentary flights of spiritual uplifting that are followed by a crash; and why? Well, probably because they're so apart from everyday functioning that they don't get properly grounded in our lives.

Mrs. Eddy has a perfect article to address the problem of how to regard "material objects". (see Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 86-87) Here's a brief quote: "In our immature sense of spiritual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous universe: "I love your promise;" (pg. 87:6-8).

Once we had something of an understanding of how to handle the relative, some problems were brought up for discussion:

  • One member felt depressed over not having done all the things he wanted to do in his life and seemed to be saying his remaining years were limited. This ushered in a cascade of age related talk. One member promptly turned to some of the things our Leader has to say about age, see for instance Science and Health, pp. 244:23 to 248:2. Another took up the belief of age like any other example of "earth's beauty" and deconstructed it into the divine. Perhaps its promise is immortality — which it will not deliver of course, but that's the belief. Fine, let's recognize we're already fully there, all of us — Immortal now.
  • Another member said she was impelled to live her human individuality to its fullest potential. This would certainly involve letting the divine Mind lead. She commented on the demonstration of another member who, relieved of a job he had for many years, has blossomed in new employment opportunities arising daily, based on prayerful listening and honing his talents. This led to a generalized appreciation for the various members and our individual struggles. It's amazing that so many different people with diverse needs and even agendas for the meeting come together and throw light on areas of human concern.
The March 8th issue of the Christian Science Sentinel came up for comment. A new column has been instituted to report on prayerfully determined decisions. The first article describes the work of a heterosexual woman to let go of a Lesbian affair she says she was hiding in because of character flaws. Once she worked these through with Christian Science she was free to come out as a heterosexual and find a man. All well and good.

We all know Gay men and Lesbians who through Science or plain human grit have been able to come out of hiding in heterosexual affairs or other closets and step up to their highest potential. "Wisdom in human action begins with what is nearest right under the circumstances, and thence achieves the absolute." (Miscellaneous Writings, pg. 288:13-15) Unfortunately, this first article in the series is marred by heavy doses of homophobic rhetoric.

The Sentinel article prompted one member to work on recovering from the belief of parentage, whether biological, The Mother Church, or even a Father-Mother God. This member feels that these are immature, kindergarten terms which may be OK for the early student. Eventually they give an erroneous impression of what and where God is. I AM THAT I AM is to be lived individually as each and all. There is no one or thing to reverence or placate or work up to.

Our member who has been staying away because the room felt unsafe has returned. We all got along very well. There were obvious breakthroughs in honoring each member's understanding and demonstration of Christian Science. It may also be one of the positive fall outs from the Sentinel article that some members suddenly got the point about feeling unsafe in an organization, in this case The Mother Church. It gave us empathy for the one suffering in our group and forced us all to find our safety in the presence of God, not a human sense of well being.

We'll look at Competition next week. Some of our members have been struck by how much they run into this in their work and daily lives. No more dates to report, but it would come up there too. We've decided to keep the story about a breakthrough in relations between those in authority in the Movement and Gay people under cover for now in view of the uncertain atmosphere. We'll take that Jesus baby to Egypt for a while.

The Bible

As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy

Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real enjoyment.

Who hath found finite life or love sufficient to meet the demands of human want and woe,—to still the desires, to satisfy the aspira-tions?

Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we are helped onward in the march towards righteousness, peace, and purity, which are the landmarks of Science. Beholding the infinite tasks of truth, we pause,—wait on God. Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured, and conception unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory.

The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see,—that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness.

Deity was satisfied with His work.

Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy

Only through the sore travail of mortal mind shall soul as sense be satisfied, and man awake in His likeness. What a faith-lighted thought is this! that mortals can lay off the "old man," until man is found to be the image of the infinite good that we name God, and the fulness of the stature of man in Christ appears.

To take all earth's beauty into one gulp of vacuity and label beauty nothing, is ignorantly to caricature God's creation, which is unjust to human sense and to the divine realism. In our immature sense of spiritual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous universe: "I love your promise; and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light, and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and knowing this, I shall be satisfied. Matter is a frail conception of mortal mind; and mortal mind is a poorer representative of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the immortal Mind."

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