My husband and I will be married 25 years our next wedding anniversary. Happily. Good communication is an important ingredient to our unity. Yet, experience has also taught me words or a lot of talk, is not enough. The human language, with all its intricacies, is inadequate to express our deepest, most profound, healing thoughts. Words can even cause trouble, misunderstandings, and division not only in a marriage, but also when it comes to Christianity. Breaking the human language barrier reveals understanding, healing, and unity.
The word Christianity can produce comfort and hope however it also can produce fear and prejudice. Fear and prejudice can be removed as the definition of Christianity is not restricted by the human language. Humanity does this to a degree with the use of action, music, dance, and art. Humanitarians define Christianity as promoting wellbeing. Music identifies Christianity with joy and strength. Dance and art can describe the beauty and grace of Christianity. And, it is prudent when we use a plethora of words, in the form of directives, prayers, or church policies to define Christianity beneficially. Thankfully, the language barrier can be broken when say epiphanies occur, and Christianity is redefined in a way that restores comfort and hope. I had one such epiphany.
Years ago, I was looking through a rack in a clothing store. The store was fairly quiet. I suppose there were about a dozen or so people in the store also browsing. Then, very naturally, a sweet maturing voice clearly said, “mom, look at this!”
I automatically looked up to see what this daughter was showing me, along with about 3 other moms. We all laughed at each other as the correct “mom” responded to her daughter. We all had the name “mom,” yet we also had our own human name. A “mom” represents compassion, nurturing, strength, and alertness. Sadly, the mortal human nature can infest and distort the idea of mom and moms can seem to represent suffocation, fear, or abuse. But, the spirit of true motherhood is untouched by the mortal nature. The spiritual energy of a word is real, beautiful, and worthy of our attention; just as the spirit of true Christianity is.
Society is advancing in the validity of the spirit of language, versus enforcing the restrictions of the literal word. Looking again at “mom” we see today many dads or neighbors who exhibit a wonderful sense of mom. This is not to diminish dads or neighbors, on the contrary, those terms are also expanding as moms see they have the ability to express fatherhood or neighborliness.
The term Christianity is expanding. The spirit, not the letter of Christianity is a universal ideal or energy, a state of consciousness or God-like attitude. Christ Jesus epitomized this attitude and energy very well. Mary Baker Eddy, a spiritual thinker of the 19th century era, pointed out in her writings that when Jesus remarked, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” (NIV) that he was describing the ongoing spiritual nature of Christ. Jesus was his human name, and Christ was the spiritual nature he communicated or characterized. The spiritual attitude of a Christian is forever available to recognize and express, even before there was a dictionary to define Christianity! This thinking has helped me improve my world perspective enormously.
I was privileged to volunteer at an orphanage in Thailand last year, a country where Buddhism is prevalent. I discovered the spirit of Christianity to be very alive and well in practicing Buddhists. The words Christianity, Buddhism, Muslim, and so on are not confined by our human language. The words are not confined to a particular culture of human beings either. We have the capability to not let words be narrowly defined, to not let words become falsely attached to a religious fanatic, or become divisive.
A spiritual, expanded view of Christianity is also very healing. I have experienced mental and physical healing by letting my thought break the barrier of the human languages definition of people or Christianity. It has also come to my attention that Church policies can become more compassionate and honest when Christianity is seen as a state of consciousness, instead of a position in the world or a certain cultural mortal lifestyle.
Think of the speed of sound. Centuries passed before we even knew sound had speed. Then the speed of sound was broken in the mid 20th century, no longer indomitable. Also, the speed of sound is 4-5 times faster in water than in air causing the speed of sound to be redefined. There is also no set, absolute definition of Christianity in the human language. Rather, Christianity must and will continue to advance spiritually in its infinite meaning, and the human language must keep up.
Cheryl Petersen practices spiritual healing and has revised Mary Baker Eddy’s textbook on Mind-healing. In eBook or audio format, “21st Century Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” is available online <A HREF=http://www.healingsciencetoday.com>revised Christian Science textbook HealingScienceToday.com</a>