Moving On
April 17, 2003
The true sense of being and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it will hereafter.
Last week several members talked of moving on in certain areas of their lives. We also found collective issues where similar trends were appearing.
After the readings, some basic thoughts dominated discussion.
1) Consciousness is evolving whether we like it or not but Christian Science offers a way to access Truth and harness the evolution for the benefit of mankind.
2) As mortals, we like to think of ourselves as initiating the movement of consciousness, but we had to face the fact that what's needed is to allow the logic of Science to weaken and thin out the barriers we've set up to prevent infinite eternal living.
3) If we resist the onrush of reality, we may call the result suffering. If we acquiesce, understand and rejoice, we'd doubtless find we're moving on in a most wonderful way.
The rest of the meeting was taken up with examples of how individually and collectively the evolution of consciousness is impacting us and how Christian Science can be mobilized to bring harmony to the situations.
Here's a summary of individual shares.
1) One member called to talk of his emigration to Britain to be with his life-partner, a British subject. They had tried to live together in the US but could not arrange this under current laws. They were, however, welcome in Britain, which follows European Union regulations granting sanctity to Gay couples. He has moved far in his demonstration of the Science of home and companionship.
2) Another member was discharged this week from his civil service job after hearings which addressed and rejected his decision last year to run for public office. He quickly found another position in government but also decided to take the termination to court. He sees this as a matter of Science, an opportunity to bring healing into the area. Those who followed his political saga as he ran for office — reflected in several of our meeting notes (one might type in "state senate"on our [#page=archive#]) — will recall the healing he brought to that process. Here's a quote he's studying: "I see the way now. The guardians of His presence go before me. I enter the path. It may be smooth, or it may be rugged; but it is always straight and narrow; and if it be up-hill all the way, the ascent is easy and the summit can be gained."(Miscellaneous Writings, p. 347:21)
3) Another member has been quiet in the romantic area for several years, but recently met someone who shows him a great deal of attention and affection, declaring, "I love you,"on a regular basis. Our member's emotions have stirred. After much prayer he arranged an intimate meeting with this new friend, who is Muslim and so far non-Gay, to clarify the nature of the relationship. Romance and even sex now seem possible, but our member is taking it very slowly, allowing himself and his friend plenty of space to explore their deepest feelings and motives in the situation. All very new — and very healing.
4) Another member decided to pay attention to those he might be sexually/romantically attracted to as he made his rounds this last Sunday — with a focus on getting some insights. Well, first there was the stud at the gym who displayed his ample nudity "just for me"and then quickly dressed and rushed for the exit. Next came church — only wisps of interest there, nothing serious. But the new waiter at the diner was awe-inspiringly cute, very accommodative and filled with joy. "I could take him home to mother."Then the spiritually oriented lunch companions could not be overlooked — perhaps these relationships weren't sexually driven but there was a lot of love there. On the way home, Mr. Smoldering Eyes standing on a corner insisted upon acknowledgement and got at least a nervous twitch. So that was it — which would he select for a night of love and romance? "Mr. Smoldering Eyes, hands down."Our member noted in the four episodes a quaternity, symbolizing completeness. The seeming separation of the prima materia can now be brought together through the alchemy of Christian Science.
5) Another member recently moved to New York City and found confirmation for his supposition prior to the move that mere geographic relocation would not change the basic issues of one's life. As another member put it, "I arrived on day one; the baggage arrived on day two."
Next we turned to how some LGBT Christian Science issues are moving on.
1) The Board of Emergence International has begun a series of discussions about the future of the organization. Many of our members have views on this — some favor activism, some social gatherings, others look for a deepening of Christian Science thought. Proposals for a meeting in October are being evaluated.
2) Two of our members went through the LGBT Christian Science history they participated in during the 60's, 70's and 80's with a member of Emergence International who's writing a book on the subject. A lot of material — memories and memorabilia — was unearthed. Some of it was painful but they tried to keep the focus on Mary Baker Eddy's counsel from Retrospection and Introspection shown in the readings. We need to look through the symbol to the Truth-Love-Principle asserting itself as church.
3) We discussed the foot-dragging going in the Christian Science religious periodicals regarding the inclusion of Gay people and what to do about it. A recent issue of the Christian Science Sentinel devoted to the healing of prejudice, for instance, included not a word about us.
4) Our group co-sponsored a workshop last Saturday, along with SAGE (Senior Action In A Gay Environment) and other religious groups, on "Reinventing LGBT Aging."
We barely had time to tick off some international situations undergoing major evolutions of thought. These include Iraq (humanitarian and political developments); terrorism; Israel-Palestine (did Sharon really say he'd let go of the settlements for peace?); the West and Islam; and enlargement of the European Union. We ran out of time and had to leave these openings in world thought for inspirational homework.
We ended with a few brief quotes from an article in the New York Times of April 13, 2003, page A 12, on the apparent healing of the linguistic divide in Quebec. English speakers regularly speak French and vice versa. This problem which seemed so intractable just five years ago is dropping away. We'll keep that in mind as doom-laden comments continue to drench problems such as those noted above. There's one Mind and it's ready for anything.
For next week we'll look at Security.
Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.
And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten,
And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Mortals move onward towards good or evil as time glides on. If mortals are not progressive, past failures will be repeated until all wrong work is effaced or rectified. If at present satisfied with wrong-doing, we must learn to loathe it. If at present content with idleness, we must become dissatisfied with it. Remember that mankind must sooner or later, either by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error that is to be overcome.
In trying to undo the errors of sense one must pay fully and fairly the utmost farthing, until all error is finally brought into subjection to Truth. The divine method of paying sin's wages involves unwinding one's snarls, and learning from experience how to divide between sense and Soul.
If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striving to enter in. He constantly turns away from material sense, and looks towards the imperishable things of Spirit.
Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight.
"Now," cried the apostle, "is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,"—meaning, not that now men must prepare for a future-world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life. Now is the time for so-called material pains and material pleasures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossible in Science. To break this earthly spell, mortals must get the true idea and divine Principle of all that really exists and governs the universe harmoniously.
Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas material. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal man. But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind is All and reproduces all—as Mind is the multiplier, and Mind's infinite idea, man and the universe, is the product.
According to Christian Science, perfection is normal,—not miraculous. Clothed, and in its right Mind, man's individuality is sinless, deathless, harmonious, eternal. His materiality, clad in a false mentality, wages feeble fight with his individuality,—his physical senses with his spiritual senses. The latter move in God's grooves of Science: the former revolve in their own orbits, and must stand the friction of false selfhood until self-destroyed.
Christian Science demands order and truth. To abide by these we must first understand the Principle and object of our work, and be clear that it is Love, peace, and good will toward men.
^Is there infinite progression with man after the destruction of mortal mind?^
Man is the offspring and idea of the Supreme Being, whose law is perfect and infinite. In obedience to this law, man is forever unfolding the endless beatitudes of Being; for he is the image and likeness of infinite Life, Truth, and Love.
Infinite progression is concrete being, which finite mortals see and comprehend only as abstract glory. As mortal mind, or the material sense of life, is put off, the spiritual sense and Science of being is brought to light.
Within this mortal mansion are adulterers, fornicators, idolaters; drunkenness, witchcraft, variance, envy, emulation, hatred, wrath, murder. Appetites and passions have so dimmed their sight that he alone who looks from that dwelling, through the clearer pane of his own heart tired of sin, can see the Stranger.
Startled beyond measure at beholding him, this mortal inmate withdraws; but growing more and more troubled, he seeks to leave the odious company and the cruel walls, and to find the Stranger. Stealing cautiously away from his comrades, he departs; then turns back,—he is afraid to go on and to meet the Stranger. So he returns to the house, only to find the lights all wasted and the music fled. Finding no happiness within, he rushes again into the lonely streets, seeking peace but finding none. Naked, hungry, athirst, this time he struggles on, and at length reaches the pleasant path of the valley at the foot of the mountain, whence he may hopefully look for the reappearance of the Stranger, and receive his heavenly guidance.
Mere historic incidents and personal events are frivolous and of no moment, unless they illustrate the ethics of Truth. To this end, but only to this end, such narrations may be admissible and advisable; but if spiritual conclusions are separated from their premises, the nexus is lost, and the argument, with its rightful conclusions, becomes correspondingly obscure. The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged.