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"I go a-fishing." Really?Peter and John ran to the empty tomb, saw the linen clothes lying, turned, and shuffled back home -- to the sepulcher of disbelief. Then, Mary proclaimed, "I have seen the Master. He is risen!" They didn't believe her. Two disciples hurried back to Jerusalem to tell the apostles; "We have seen the Master. He made our hearts burn within us." They were dumfounded. Then, Jesus appeared in the midst of them and "upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart" (Mark 16:14). They were all astounded, except for Thomas who was absent physically and mentally. Eight days later, Thomas was with them, where they were again huddled together for fear, the doors being shut. Jesus again appeared in the midst of them; "Why are you so hard to convince? Touch me; understand the meaning of Life beyond the control of the deceiver." They pondered the extraordinary sighting, but did nothing. The magnitude of its meaning was still hidden from conscious practicality. Then, Simon Peter, the one who they considered to be their new leader, "saith unto them, I go a-fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing" (John 21:3). Jesus had spent three and a half years healing in their presence, teaching them to pray, and sending them forth -- commanding them to go and do likewise -- but they were still not ready to give up material means and methods. They returned to their old, plodding ways, trying their luck at fishing in the dark. How were they so easily distracted ? turned away from Jesus' command to catch men? Have we any more resolve than they, or is catching men still in the planning stage? Children of this world are offered a dance-'till-you-drop format for living. They believe they were born to mortal man's rhythm and must make their choices about how to move to it. They automatically assume that they must learn to dance to earth's piper. Jesus did not comply. He said, "Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Luke 4:8). No piper could tempt him to comply with any of the world's choices. His disciples had to learn how to cast their nets without choice -- to respond to Truth alone. To follow Jesus in the Way separates us from the mentality of this world, but the command to "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation" requires more than hiding out while the temptation passes by (Matt. 26:41). The children of Israel hid in their homes while the cloud of sorrows crept over Egypt, but Moses commanded them to be energized, ready to depart -- to become free agents for Truth. So must we be still in our fortress of patient yearning, ready to move at the instant of divine impulse. However, before we can know the fullness of Truth we must uncover and demystify the root of evil's temptations. The swirling mass of matter, energy, and light is the subjective state of so-called mortal mind, and our attraction to mortal mind is called animal magnetism. It is animal magnetism that needs to be unmasked, so that the familiarity and comfort in mortal mind's means and methods will be abandoned. The physical senses, all dis-ease, and ease -- the belief in a sick body as well as belief in a healthy material body -- is animal magnetism. In order to be attractive, evil claims ownership of some of God's attributes, and so appears to be consciously present, powerful, beautiful, humane, life-giving, intelligent, reasonable, and affectionate. If evil really possessed these attributes, it would maintain them under all circumstances and demonstrate Life, Truth, and Love as the Principle of existence. The fact that it cannot sustain them proves that evil does not possess these qualities "for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). Mortal mind is not actually good and evil. Mortal mind is all evil, meaning that it has no existence either good or bad. For mortal mind to actually judge itself and admit its mistake would require its redefinition, for at the moment of acknowledgement, it would either disappear or be at-one with God (Truth). Instead, evil insists that truth is optional, and that man is endowed by God with free choice. Then, evil suggests that we accept "time" as a period in which to make these choices, giving us an opportunity to figure it out. No human logic or profession of religion has ever figured it out, healed sickness, or saved man from sin, time, or mortal mind. By his example, Jesus illustrated the way out of this bewildering mental climate and gave us the general rules for saving ourselves. He healed sickness, destroyed sin, and vanquished death individually for those who were receptive. Then he affirmed, "and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father" (John 14:12). The greater work is to destroy our attachment to mortal mind universally -- all beliefs of matter, energy, sickness, sin, and death. We must understand that New Jerusalem or divine Science is conscious only of divine Mind in its fullness. Jesus fulfilled his mission confidently announcing, "be of good cheer; I have overcome the world", meaning, I have overcome mortal mind -- the so-called source of dance-'till-you-drop mentality, fruitless fishing expeditions, confusion, and trouble (John 16:33). Persecution comes to those who work it out universally, but still think of themselves individually. When aggressive mental suggestion has been found to have no credibility, it seeks to destroy the advancing thinker, just as the Pharisees of old persecuted Jesus, but God's image and likeness has no personal counterpart. "Christ was not crucified -- that doom Was Jesus' part" (Christ and Christmas 53:29). Remove the idea of many individuals entertaining heaven, and we grasp how it is impossible to be persecuted when individual means one in the likeness of One, and that one is Spirit. Beneath, above, beyond, methinks I hear the soft, sweet sigh of angels answering, "So live, that your lives attest your sincerity and resound His praise" (Mis. 106:25). Let us not go a-fishing. The perpetual call is to "watch with Me" and to "catch men." Let us go hence and declare the gospel -- the gospel of Christ Science. George Denninger © |
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