The following is an article from the December 1999 issue of The Christian Science Journal

Christ, the light shining

in darkness

Nothing in the world can keep Christ from dawning fully in our hearts, illumining the path of freedom now.

Marjorie Russell Tis

There’s something so natural about a feeling of hope. It’s our normal inclination to trust in God and to expect to see His goodness and love prevail in our lives. Sometimes, though, when the going is rough, it’s not easy to see that things will work out. Maybe an illness, a family disturbance, or a business trouble has gone on for a while, and it seems as though there’s no end in sight. Perhaps a series of problems have hit, one right after another, and we’re thinking, "What next?" Or maybe we’re feeling alone and just plain scared about the future. At such times, we might well wonder, "Will I make it through this?"

Yet even then, even in what seems like the darkest of hours, it’s possible to remain hopeful. Calm. Even encouraged. It’s possible because of a constant presence in our lives called the Christ. There is no hopeless case where Christ is.

"The light shineth in darkness," says the Bible, and Christ is that light—"the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."1 The "true Light" shines right through adversity and can never be defeated. This pure influence of divine goodness is present now in human consciousness. It always has been. It always will be. Nothing—not the severest circumstances, not medical predictions, not others’ opinions, not even our own doubts and fears—can ever snuff out Christ. Like a lighthouse on a stormy night, Christ shows the way out ofdespair and keeps us on a steady course.

We might say that Christ is God’s way of communicating His healing truths to humanity. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, explains it this way: "Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness."2 Sometimes the divine message comes as a specific spiritual truth appropriate to our need. Or it may come as an intuition that leads us to take a particular course of action. Or as a bit of self-knowledge we needed but didn’t realize we needed! Sometimes it appears as a powerful, wordless realization of divine Love’s presence. But however it comes, its mission is always the same: to heal and to save.

It doesn’t matter what the extent of our need, or how clueless we may feel, we can at any moment listen for and respond to God’s saving message and find our need cared for. But how do we do this when it seems hard to pray? I’ve found that an important first step forward is to humbly acknowledge that Christ, Truth, is here, speaking to me, and that I can hear the divine message; that I’m not waiting for the Messiah to come, but that it is already here. Right here. Then the way begins to open up.

Is there anything we can do to be more consistently responsive, on a day-by-day basis, to the enlightenment Christ brings? Yes, there is. And commitment to spirituality is the key. The progressive spiritualization and Christianization of our lives naturally makes us more aware of "the true Light" in our midst. Then we’re less likely to have to grope for the "switch" at a difficult time. The daily exercise of qualities such as humility, purity, integrity, grace, modesty, patience, and unselfed love keeps our thought in the light. Gratitude to God does, too; it keeps us from sinking into despair and, in fact, can help break through the mesmerism that would keep thought riveted on a problem. Even if all we see of the light at the moment is a pinprick, some small evidence of good, we’ll be far better off if we spend our time thanking God for it and keeping our eye on it rather than on the darkness.

Christ illumines thought perpetually with the sacred truths of being. And these truths guide us, step by step, to forsake depressing, materialistic definitions of life and to accept a brighter view—the scientifically Christian view. To material sense, the life, soul, and mind of an individual are believed to be embedded in flesh. Existence and happiness, within the context of this belief, are regarded as fragile and vulnerable, here today and gone tomorrow. But is this the truth? We learn through the Science of Christ that it is not, that the perspective of the physical senses is incorrect and misleading.

This Science informs us accurately. It teaches us today what Jesus knew and proved—that life is actually in and of Spirit, Soul—God—instead of in the flesh. Man, it shows us, is the immortal expression of Spirit, not an erring mortal destined to suffer, deteriorate, and then die. The fact is, as the Bible puts it, ". . . we live, and move, and have our being" in God.3 We don’t live at a distance from God; we are one with Him and are like Him in quality—Godlike. What a relief it is to realize this even in a degree. It means that our genuine, spiritual self is never on the brink of disaster or failure, never in danger of being wiped out. As the eternally perfect, indestructible offspring of perfect divine Mind, we are in God’s dependable care at all times. Our future is never up for grabs.

But let’s say we’ve struggled with an illness for a long time, so long that we, and perhaps others, believe it may be too late for healing. The Christ is showing us the way out of that belief right now, leading us at this moment to forsake the conviction that matter can keep anyone the prisoner of pain and fear. Christ is calling on us to believe the gospel—in other words, to surrender unconditionally to the truth that our Father-Mother Mind maintains our substance as forever sound, healthy, and harmoniously secure in Spirit. It’s never too late to wake to the reality of diseaseless being. In fact, this awakening is inevitable in every case.

Like the Bethlehem star that led the wise men to Jesus in the manger, Christ leads each of us to welcome this lifesaving truth into our hearts: man’s true selfhood is not material but spiritual. Purely spiritual. All light, without any dark side. Christ invites us to stop thinking of ourselves as embattled, suffering mortals, and instead to find rest and stability in the assurance that Spirit, God, alone is our Life. Matter and material conditions, Christ teaches us, are actually irrelevant to Life and powerless to destroy it.

What if we’ve sinned in a major way and we know it, and now everything is falling apart and we’re feeling unworthy of healing? Well, it is essential to recognize our sins, face up to them, and repent. Self-knowledge and reform are indispensable to progress. But is it ever too late to be redeemed? Ever too late to reclaim our spiritual innocence, to begin obeying God’s law and to be made new? Never. Not in any case. If we’re genuinely willing to be made new, we can and will be. Christ lights the way to freedom from the misery of sin by awakening us to God’s irresistible, all-powerful love and to man’s sinless status as His likeness. Mrs. Eddy affirms, "To-day the Christ is, more than ever before, ‘the way, the truth, and the life,’—‘which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,’ healing all sorrow, sickness, and sin."4

The gloom of a materialistic outlook inevitably lifts as we cease reacting to what appears to be going on (bodily symptoms, conflict, history of failure), and respond instead to the quiet good news Christ imparts. Our spiritual sense (that is, our ability to know God and feel close to Him) is restored in this way. And what’s the result? We regain something that is so natural to each of us, something we might say is our mental home: a simple, childlike confidence that good is supreme, All-in-all. We’re even able to humbly thank God that, no matter how things appear, we know His power and love are even now winning the day and will surely prevail.

Nothing in the world can prevent the Christ-idea from dawning fully in our hearts, any more than it could prevent the coming of Christ Jesus on earth, or block his healing work, or stop the resurrection from taking place. Yet the mission of Christ is vastly more than just to get us through the dark times so that we can say, if asked how we’re doing, "I’m surviving." Christ compels us to go higher spiritually. It brings full, not partial, salvation. In other words, it comes to destroy pain, illness, sin, sorrow, the effects of old age, stress—not just to manage them. And it dispels these mental shadows through the understanding that in the pure radiance of divine Mind, there simply isn’t the smallest corner left for evil to hide in. As the Bible says, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."5

So instead of just getting us through difficulties, Christ empowers us to see through the claims of mortality and materialism, to see that they are actually unreal because they don’t come from God. As a result, the consciousness of God’s allness floods thought, dissolves the error, and healing takes place. We realize with joy that the darkness of evil was illusion, a fraudulent deception. Evil is essentially the claim that God, Truth, is absent. But God—infinite Life, Truth, and Love—never was absent to begin with.

Everything that’s good and true in our lives is permanent, because it comes from God. It can never be wiped out by mortality’s temporal, suppositional drama, but, in fact, outlasts the various ups and downs of the human scene. The Science of Christ shows us that the errors of disease, impurity, fear, suffering, and death are what won’t "make it." This Science assures us that we, and those we may be concerned about, are able not only to come through the stormy times but to emerge wiser, spiritually stronger, and less bound by a material sense of life. With a little God-inspired perspective, we can step back from the immediate scene and see that, actually, some beneficial spiritual growing is going on. Salvation is in the making.

Whatever we’re facing, we can remember that Christ is in our midst, showing us all we need to know, enabling us to keep the faith and to demonstrate our God-blessed dominion. Take heart. Christ is lighting the way to your freedom and progress at this very moment.

1 John 1:5, 9.

2 Science and Health, p. 332.

3 Acts 17:28.

4 The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 257.

5 I John 1:5.