Spiritual Communion JOSEPH ARMSTRONG, CSD          What material ceremony can commemorate the spiritual idea as presented by Jesus?           Is there any material symbol by which we can show forth the Lord's death till he come?           The use of material bread and wine in this attempt of mortals to partake of the body and blood of Christ is only another effort of mortal mind to interpret all things materially. It is easier for mortals to believe in and adopt some mode of water baptism, than it is to understand and live the Truth and Love taught by Jesus, until they too are immersed in Divine Science, and partake of the nature of the Christ-Principle.          Christian Science teaches us that Mind cannot communicate with matter, or Intelligence with non-intelligence. Something and nothing cannot communicate. "What concord hath Christ with Belial"?          Paul, explaining the human blindness says (2 Cor. iii. 5), "But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart." The definition of veil as given in Science and Health is: "Concealment; hiding; hypocrisy." Jesus warned his disciples against the "leaven of the Pharisees," which he said "is hypocrisy." The teachings given by Moses were evidently spiritual. But mortal man, who has "made a covenant with his eyes to belittle Deity," hid this spiritual teaching, and through hypocrisy the Truth was buried to mortals in the rubbish of human concepts. And so they are looking to matter instead of Spirit, to person, instead of to Principle, for the Saviour: "Nevertheless" says the apostle, "when it shall turn to the Lord the veil shall be taken away." When mortals are ready to give up their material and false sense of God, and accept the spiritual-real as taught by Jesus, and in Christian Science, then that which has been hidden for centuries will again be revealed to the human consciousness, and the new heaven and the new earth will appear.          This spiritual sense is attained by looking into the perfect law of Love, and then continuing as a doer of that law. "Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image (or reflection), from glory to glory." Jesus said, "They that have seen me have seen the Father," the Principle of man. In his demonstrations over sin, sickness and death, through his understanding of Life, Truth and Love, he "brought life and immortality to light," and he said, "And I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me." If we see Jesus in his true character, as the ideal man, the Son of God, reflecting all that is pure and good, and adopt this for our life model, we shall be uplifted from glory to glory.          This is the communion we would celebrate, keeping in remembrance the true idea until he comes again. This perfect idea must reign in our consciousness until all error, all evil, is put out, and Spirit becomes all in all to us.          After our great Master's crucifixion he rose from the tomb, the victor over all evil. He had triumphed over sin, sickness and death, and again appeared to his disciples the self same Jesus whom they had followed so long. Through beholding this demonstration, they were enabled to apprehend better the teachings of the Master, as evidenced by their better works and their forever turning away from old methods. This spiritual enlightenment comes through the teachings of the Bible and Science and Health and is the spiritual communion to which all may come.          This is "the bread of Life." And silencing the claims of material sense in our struggle to bring out in our lives the spiritual real as illustrated in the life and character of Jesus, and the persecution it brings from the world of sense, is the cup we are to drink. A material ceremony can never make mortal man spiritual. All the material bread and wine on earth, if eaten and drank in the firm belief that it symbolized the body and blood of Christ, would not bring us one step nearer God, or make us in a single particular more Christlike.          The "bread we break" is the Truth and Love we explain or reveal through our lives, as brought out in demonstration. Paul says: "They that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,—if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." Before mortals learn the fact of Being in Christian Science, they believe themselves to be material in origin, at the same time the Scriptures are declaring that God, Spirit, made all. This belief in a material origin is the "carnal mind," which is "enmity against God." Those who have learned that all is Mind, that Mind is God, and that man and the universe are not material, but spiritual ideas reflecting the Substance of Spirit, are no longer the servants of the flesh, though they must demonstrate this great fact in order to make it a reality. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." But mortals believe they are in the flesh, and are the servants thereof, and this belief must be changed for the spiritual consciousness that man is wholly spiritual.          The question we must decide is, how this is to be accomplished? Jesus demonstrated the way, and said, "Drink ye all of it." Science and Health furnishes the key to Jesus' words and works, and makes the way plain. But why does not the religious world accept this way? When Jesus taught the way of Life nineteen hundred years ago, his teaching was the opposite of the religious teachings of that day. He taught a living Principle, and showed by actual proof in healing sickness and sin that this Principle is the Saviour of men. Following Jesus' example in this age is opposed by the religious world because, I am sorry to say, their teaching does not require following his example. We should bow before Principle,—that is, give up our ways, that we may partake of Christ's nature. If we are striving to live according to the example set by our great Leader, we will be found facing error of every kind and proving its nothingness. The Scripture teaches that Spirit is all: therefore matter is nought. Sin and sickness are the fruits of the belief that matter is real. To have no other God than Spirit we must deny the power of matter, and show our faith by our works.          Thus we see that healing the sick in Christian Science is not simply a new remedy for disease to compete with material methods, but it is the evidence that we are having no other God; the proof of our understanding of our true relation to this one God, called in the Scriptures Life, Truth and Love.   "Spiritual Communion" by Joseph Armstrong, CSD The Christian Science Journal, April, 1893

 

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