Luke Chapters Five and Six

Joyce Voysey - Monday September 17

In my consecutive reading of Mary Baker Eddy’s Prose Works I am now reading Retrospection and Introspection (Ret.).  This morning I came to page 30 where the chapter title is Foundation Work. The opening sentence strengthens the point made in my entry to this blog on September 6^th, that our work in Christian Science is warfare: “As the pioneer of Christian Science I stood alone in this conflict, endeavouring to smite error with the falchion of Truth.  The rare bequests of Christian Science are costly, and they have won fields of battle from which the dainty borrower would have fled.  Ceaseless toil, self-renunciation, and love, have cleared its pathway.”

There are references in Science and Health which refer to the warfare between Spirit and the flesh.  (See for instance page 288:6, and page145: 28.)  In Mrs. Eddy’s Address before the Christian Scientist Association of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, in 1893, titled Obedience, we find (Miscellaneous Writings p.118) a list of some of the errors we are battling: Self-ignorance, self-will, self-righteousness, lust, covetousness, envy, revenge….  But then she joyfully tells us to “Be of good cheer; the warfare with one’s self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you, - and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory.”

The warfare with one’s self.  Surely that is our only battle; our consciousness is the only place we can overcome the flesh and all error.  And we have the Truth which is the light which dispels the darkness of error.  But we must work, work, work.

The Great Exemplar sets examples in Chapter 5:

·         Expectancy that launching into the deep for an extraordinary catch of fish – and men likewise

·         Cleansing the leper

·         Withdrawing to the wilderness to pray

·         Healing the palsied man brought to Jesus by his trusting friends

·         Forgiving sins

·         Answering the doubting Pharisees

·         Calling for followers

·         Calling the sinners to repentance

Chapter 6 finds Jesus confronted by the scribes and Pharisees on what is lawful to do on the Sabbath days (reference of course to the 4^th of the 10 Commandments), such as plucking and eating corn and healing a man’s withered hand. 

Then another good example – go into a mountain to pray, if necessary all night.

A question comes to mind. Who are the Pharisees of to-day?  I went hunting on jsh-online.com.  Here is quote from an article titled “Righteousness” by Warwick A. Tyler from the November 1917 Christian Science Journal.

“Christian Science shows that Pharisaism is a condition which is inherent in the human mind; and we must recognize that whatever strives to exalt itself in the form of self-assertive opinion, formalism, and dogmatism, binding men to unreasoning and unreasonable observance of man-made customs and beliefs in the affairs of daily life, as well as in religion, is the "leaven of the Pharisees" against which the Master warned us.”

The article also quotes Mary Baker Eddy’s comment on a Pharisee having “the arrogance of rank and display of scholarship” in comparison with the Mary Magdalene’s “devout consecration”.  It is best to quote the whole paragraph on page 367 of Science and Health (S&H): “This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not “for the loaves and fishes,” nor, like the Pharisee, with the arrogance of rank and display of scholarship, but like Mary Magdalene, from the summit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and with those hairs all numbered by the Father.”

And, of course, we have a Glossary definition (S&H p. 592):  “Pharisee: Corporeal and sensuous belief; self-righteousness; vanity; hypocrisy.” ...Which brings us back to our own consciousness.  When we see any of those Pharisaical qualities, we must deny them a place in our own thinking, for ourselves and for our concept of another.