Learning to Love Your Enemies with Giula Nesi Tetreau

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Spiritual Solutions for Today's challenges, an eight week
series airing on Sunday evenings in October and November at
eight o'clock. The sponsors of this week's program, Learning to
Love Your Enemies are the Christian Science Churches in Jamaica
and Levittown, New York. Their guest night, Julian Nissi Tetro,
will also speak in person at the Levittown Public Library

(00:30):
on Saturday, November ninth, at one pm. Listen for details
at the end of this program. Nisi Tetro has spent
her entire career in the healthcare field. She is a
practitioner Christian Science and a former psychotherapist who has been
on the faculty of Harvard Medical School's Symposium Spiritual and
Healing in Medicine. She has lectured widely to both professional

(00:54):
healthcare audiences and the general public. Julia Nissi Tetro asks
all a call to go deeper to connect with the
divine experience better health and healing. The answers you seek
are within your reach. You could be happier, healthier, and
more at peace. I've experienced that kind of transformation in

(01:15):
my own life and have helped many others experience it.
The Christian Science Churches in Jamaica and Levittown are pleased
to present Julian Nissi Tetro speaking on learning to love
your enemies.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Welcome everyone, I'm Julian Nisi Tetra, and I'm going to
be speaking with you about learning to love your enemies.
When you hear that subject, what comes to mind? Where
does your thinking go? And speaking with folks both here
and in other countries on this topic, I've heard, I

(01:51):
don't have any enemies. Love nice emotion, but it can't
do or change anything. It has to be an eye
for an eye, otherwise you're ignoring evil in the world.
Others have said, oh, I don't want to, or it's
just too hard. I like being angry, the injustice, the harm,

(02:13):
the wrongdoing is dangerous, and it's just been too great.
Others have said, I feel like I'm my own worst enemy.
And then there's some individuals I've met with a quiet
and reflective voice, look within and acknowledge I really need

(02:36):
to learn how to do that. Do any of those
sound familiar to you? Clearly in looking out at the
United States today, particularly but not exclusively, in the political
arena with the upcoming presidential election. The polarization, divisiveness, and

(02:58):
hostility it runs, and it's not just in this country.
It extends to other regions and nations as well. Seeing
quote the other as the enemy, that view of othering
what happens It leads to stigmatizing, distancing, division, even the

(03:23):
dehumanizing of individuals that are perceived to be an other
or different from oneself, whether it's politically or religiously, socioeconomically, racially.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Or whatever.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
I think we need to pause and ask ourselves this question,
what is it that makes us think that we have enemies?
Isn't it the fear or the belief that somehow we've

(04:00):
been cut off or separated from good or that in
some way it's under threat, that we could lose or
we've lost something we treasure, that we value, that we
feel we deserve, or that we desire, That someone or

(04:21):
something out of our control has the power or the
influence to determine what happens in our lives and the
lives of others. Well, if we're believing there's another power
or influence controlling our lives and that somehow we've missed out,
been held back, or deprived of what is right and

(04:44):
just for us to have. That can lead to some
pretty intense feelings anger, resentment, envy, revenge, even hatred. What
if there was a way that we could think and
then live that helps us to realize that we can

(05:08):
never be separated from good, that the source is a reliable, infinite,
constant present with which we have a spiritual unity or
oneness that can never be lost, that can never be destroyed.

(05:31):
The good news is that there is Christian science, which
is based in the Bible, primarily the life and teachings
of Christ Jesus and are the basis of this talk
explains why this inseparability is true, and then it shows

(05:52):
us how to experience it more and more in our lives,
and it's actually happening for many people. To Christian science,
it gives us a new framing story for seeing what's enduring,
what's permanent in our world. It's a spiritual viewpoint that

(06:14):
can ultimately lead to where good doesn't feel under threat
and can lead to the creation of a world community
where our differences don't divide us, but rather where harmonious
diversity reigns. If you're just tuning in welcome I'm Julia

(06:39):
Nissi Tetro, and we're talking about learning to love your enemies. Well,
now let's take a look at where we find this
directive to love even our enemies. It's in the New
Testament in the Bible, in Jesus's Sermon on the Mount.

(07:00):
Mary Baker Eddie the nineteenth and early twentieth century religious reformer,
spiritual visionary, theologian, and founder of the Christian Science movement.
She referred to this sermon as Jesus's Diamond Sermon, and

(07:21):
she identified it as one of the key foundational stones
on which Christian Science is based. So in this sermon
we find these words. You've heard it said you'll love
your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you,

(07:45):
love your enemies, Bless those who curse you, do good
to those who hate you, and pray for those who
spitefully use you and persecute you, so that you may
be the children of your Father in heaven. The New

(08:07):
Testament was written in Greek, and the word in this
passage from Jesus's words for that love is a goape.
It indicates a love that isn't weak or just a
nice emotional feeling but an unconquerable, invincible benevolence and goodwill

(08:31):
towards others. It's a broad and inclusive, a charitableness to all.
It's unselfish, and it's not a passive love, but a
love in action, and it creates and it builds community.

(08:52):
So what was it that Jesus knew about the significance
of this mental and spiritual practice of agappe love that
we need to understand for our well being, for our health,
and for the world's wellbeing. Why is it a prerequisite

(09:14):
for us to live as the children of God? Well?
To answer those questions, I did some research, both biblical
and other avenues, and I came upon what Reverend doctor
Martin Luther King Junior understood was the significance of this practice.

(09:35):
He thought it was so imperative that I understand he
preached on it almost once a year, and this is
what he said. The words of this text glitter in
our eyes with a new urgency, kind of diamond like. Right,
I would say that it's possible that what doctor King

(09:55):
said is even more true today. He understood one of
the paramount reasons that we needed to love our enemies
is because it's an absolute necessity for the survival of
our civilization. Doctor King expounds on this revolutionary love in

(10:16):
this way. He said, when I speak of love, I
am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I
am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh.
I am speaking of that force which all of the
great religions have seen as the supreme, unifying principle of life.

(10:42):
Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which
leads to ultimate reality. A force that is the unifying
principle that unlocks the door leading to ultimate reality. Decades

(11:04):
before doctor King wrote that, Mary Baker Eddie, in an
address to the college she established to teach Christian science healing,
said this love is the principle of unity, the basis
of all right thinking and acting. And here she capitalizes

(11:27):
the P. It's a name for God, the supreme being
the one source, the one creator or principle that that
is divine love. Love as the principle or origin of
creation is It's therefore the only indestructible and unchanging source

(11:52):
of the ultimate reality. Now, this divine creator creates and
knows only good, and so then it follows naturally that
true existence or reality life must and does flow from
love and be wholly good. Now, this love, it's unchanging,

(12:19):
it's universal, it's eternal, it's unconditional. It's a love that's infinite,
always active, always present, impartial, embracing one and all equally.
Nothing or no one is left out, cut off, or

(12:44):
in any way separated from it. There are no outsiders
in Love's family. There are no others. It's a love
that binds up broken hearts, that men's broken bodies. It's

(13:06):
a love that nourishes hungry hearts, that corrects and guides
misguided or wayward hearts. It's not just a nice feeling.
But this love, it's the ultimate force for good. Doesn't

(13:28):
ignore fear, hatred, malice. But what it does, it nullifies it,
it and gnulls it. It harmonizes and unifies. A favorite
Bible passage of mine tells us about the indivisibility we

(13:50):
all have from this love as the basis of the
ultimate reality. It goes like this, For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth,
nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate

(14:15):
us from the love of God. Christian science teaches us
that each one of us is created as the unique
expression of our maker. Our permanent, authentic identity is actually
the very likeness of Deity. We are Love's very image.

(14:39):
So in our essence, all that we have, all that
we are, all that we be, comes from this all
good Creator. And it naturally follows then that the divine
nature that we embody is wise and loving, and health,

(15:00):
wealth and joyful, patient and strong, and so much more.
That divinity of our nature, which Jesus lived so fully,
is called Christ and it actually defines our identity for
every single one of us, and Jesus's life example he

(15:23):
shows us that nothing can threaten, nothing can destroy that
true spiritual nature we have as God's likeness, and that
we can never ever be separated from that divine source,
like the array can't be separated from the sun. There's
a woman, her name is Poully Murray. She was the

(15:44):
first black woman that was ordained to the priesthood in
the Episcopal Church, and she was also active in the
civil rights movement. And in a sermon she gave, she
said this, to think of oneself as a child of
God is a liberating experience. It's to free oneself from

(16:07):
all feelings of inferiority, whether it's race or color, age
or sex, economic status, or your position in life. When
I say that I'm the child of God, made in
God's image, when I truly believe that God is my
father and my mother, in short, my creator, I am

(16:28):
bound also to believe that all men, women, and children
of whatever race, color, creed, ethnic origin. I would add
political persuasion, are my sisters and brothers. What a beautiful
What a beautiful thought? So is it too much to

(16:52):
think that loving our enemies is what will lead us
to the promised land? A spiritual recognition that we already
have everything that we need or want, and that we
can never be deprived or prevented from experiencing all that good,
a world where we can live together in unity and

(17:14):
in harmony, and that peace can reign in human hearts
and minds. No, it's not too much. If God is
this principle the origin or source of everything good. Well,
considering that I've had to ask myself some other questions,

(17:35):
is there anything a single individual can do to make
a difference? Can one person bring light, healing and help
to their loved ones and contribute to the uplifting of others,
even potentially the whole global family. Is it possible to
prove harmony and love can prevail? A friend shared her

(18:00):
recent experience with me that gave me a very clear
answer and affirmative yes to those questions. This is what happened.
She shared that for several years after meeting this individual
with whom she was to have a very close contact with,
she became aware that this other person hated her, and

(18:21):
she said she had never felt hated by anyone, and
she couldn't understand it or why it was the case.
What she did was she returned an eye for an eye.
She returned the hate to this woman and felt justified
in doing it. She said she earned it by hating
me first, and because this hate had existed for so

(18:44):
many years, it was consuming all of her thoughts and
she didn't see how she could ever possibly get rid
of it. This woman was so awful to her. She
even changed she moved to a different state, but it
didn't change anything in terms of what was happening in
her thought and in her heart. Now, my friend is

(19:05):
a praying woman, and she realized she needed to address this,
and she turned to God in prayer, and she realized
that as she was praying, these messages, these angel messages,
as she described them, came from God. That she realized
in Love's creation that there was no cause for hate.

(19:29):
With that divine love as the principle of all creation.
She recognized Love didn't make. Hate doesn't cause, it doesn't sustain,
it doesn't send, it doesn't know it. And then as
the child of this all good creator, she couldn't express
anything that didn't come from God that was unloving or

(19:52):
ungodlike you could say. And looking at Jesus' example was
so helpful to see how he addressed that hate when
he was confronted with it. So as she prayed, she
said she found inspiring ideas in the Bible and in
the primary text of Christian science written by Mary Baker Eddie,

(20:14):
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, And in
there Mary Baker Eddie writes that human hate has no
legitimate mandate and no kingdom. Love is enthroned. Well, Jesus
told us the kingdom of Heaven was within. It wasn't

(20:35):
some far off place, but it was right within our
own consciousness, our own awareness of that love and of
our unity with that love, And so what happened for
my friend? She came to a place where she asked herself,
do I really want to surrender my true identity as
a kind, lovable, unselfish child of God to the depth

(20:58):
of the ugliness being possessed by hatred? And of course
she said the answer was absolutely not. With that firm
declaration and that insistence on who she really is, her
authentic identity, she said she felt just suddenly expunged of

(21:20):
this fear and hatred that had consumed her for so long,
and that sense of hatred it was destroyed by that love,
and what emerged was feelings of goodwill and benevolence, which
are always there. Now they may be hidden at times,

(21:41):
but it's possible that when we align ourselves mentally spiritually
with our authentic identity as the child of God, they
emerge right where there seemed to be hatred and fear.
And she said she'd know if she'd ever hear from
this woman again, and she said she really didn't need to.

(22:06):
But shortly after this experience of this feeling of freedom,
she got a text from her as if they were friends,
and she said she was absolutely amazed and grateful, and
they've gone on to have a lovely relationship. So can
one person make a difference. Well, there's a beautiful quote
that tells us I alone cannot change the world, but

(22:30):
I can cast a stone upon the waters and create
many ripples. From the scriptural basis that Christian science gives
what we've been talking about, our very existence is eternally
united or at one with God. And also from her
own life experience, Mary Baker Eddie wrote a very pointed

(22:52):
article entitled Love Your Enemies, and at the very beginning
she asks a question, what is it that harms you? Well,
I know that often we think of the enemy as
something or someone out there, an insensitive family member, a

(23:13):
political leader or government official, someone of a different race,
someone of a different religion, our neighbor, our boss. It
goes on and on the other. And I know sometimes
if you've been wronged being angry, you feel justified and
it can feel kind of good for a time. But

(23:35):
at some point can you recognize, just like my friend did,
that it's actually harming you. Maybe you've had a persistent
feeling of unhappiness or physical distress, or sleepless nights or
conflict with loved ones. Isn't it better to be free?
To be free to who you really are? In that

(23:59):
article I just referenced, Mary Becker Eddie explains that what
harms you isn't something or someone outside of yourself that's
causing the stress. That it's not a person, place, or thing.
The enemy is actually the destructive thoughts, the beliefs, perceptions, motives,

(24:20):
feelings about our lives that weigh on us. And it's
not a person, not a place, not a thing, not
a group. It's really anything that pulls us away from recognizing,
feeling and living in line with our true selfhood, our
christ'sly divine nature, our inherent goodness and divinity. That's the enemy.

(24:47):
There's a definition of enemy that says it's an adversary,
one that opposes or denies or disputes an opponent. Well,
that's what these feelings and thoughts and motives are trying
to oppose or dispute who we really are. Now. I
have yet to meet anyone that doesn't have at least

(25:10):
one of those things that's trying to grab a hold
of them and say it's a part of who they
really are. But what Christian science tells us about the
very nature of the ultimate reality. It helps us to
see that we don't have to stay in that lost, suffering,
angry place, that no matter what it looks like on
the surface, it's possible to experience, moment by moment a freer, healthier, happier,

(25:37):
and more peaceful sense of existence. What happens is these
ungodlike offenders, they can and they do dissolve when we
yield to the presence of love and the truth of
who we really are as Love's children. That's reality shining through.

(26:00):
And because of the unity we have with divine Love,
that we are made in the very image of our creator,
it's impossible for us to have anything that's not from
our loving, benevolent maker. For me, Jesus is the ultimate
example of a life lived in line with our true

(26:21):
divine nature. He so lived the Christ, he was given
the title Christ Jesus, and he himself said I am
the Way. When I think about that in Jesus's words
saying I am the way, it's through the way that
he thought, the way that he taught, healed, and lived,

(26:44):
not through doctrines or denomination. That that's what he meant
when he said he was the way, and that his
life example is available for anyone and everyone to find
their way at the chaos at times of a superficial
or a kind of physical view of life. Jesus fully

(27:07):
lived that agatbe love. And as we learn to love
that way as he did, those ungodlike motives, emotions, thoughts,
they're removed a god bee. Love frees thought and advances
consciousness heavenward to the kingdom of Heaven, awakening to that

(27:33):
experience right here, right now, not at a far off
distant time. How does that happen? Well, that love demands
that we let the Christ spirit, that we let grace
so permeate and purify our heart, our mental consciousness, that

(27:54):
anything anything appearing to be unlike the Anointed or Christ
dissolves like a shadow. And living this love, it awakens
us more and more fully to that promised land that
we've been talking about, and that we have a deeper
confidence and a deeper conviction that the good that we

(28:17):
yearn for is invulnerable and it's all ready ours. And
what happens is that ache of believing that we're ever
separated from good just disperses like a mist. Well, my
friend's experience that I just described to you and really

(28:37):
points to another important message. In that love your Enemies
article that Mary Baker Eddie wrote, she said that what
we perceive to be our enemies might actually be our
best friends. How can that possibly be? Well? They compel
or push us to learn really deep spiritual lessons, though

(29:02):
I found in my own life that those are the
moments when we can often feel that all embracing power
and presence of love most tangibly and in reality, we
come to see that we really have no enemies. Those

(29:23):
harmful ways of thinking and feeling gets lifted off of us.
Love does the lifting off of us, and seeing ourselves
more and more as the loved child of God, and
seeing our brothers and sisters everywhere in that same light.
Mary Baker Eddie herself learned this deep spiritual lesson through

(29:48):
many many trials, and she went on to be recognized
as one of the most prominent and powerful women in
her day, and her life example continues today to be
an in inspiration and provide guidance for many of us
in how we might better live this agapbe Love. Clara Barton,

(30:11):
who you may know as the well known founder here
in the United States of the American Red Cross. When
she was asked what she thought of Mary Baker Eddie,
Now Barton was not a Christian scientist, she said, this,
Missus Eddie, should have the respect, admiration, and love of

(30:32):
the whole nation. Love permeates all the teachings of this
great woman, so great. I believe that at this perspective
we can scarcely realize how great. And looking into her
life history, we see nothing but self sacrifice and selflessness.

(30:56):
And I say, no one familiar with her and her
teachings can help but see the marvelous consistency and beauty
of what she has given to the world in Christian science.
And Mary Baker Eddie knew that this was not This
was not her creation. She didn't make this up. This

(31:19):
is what she said. Mary Baker Eddy said it was
the divine hand that led her into a new world,
a new world of light and life, a fresh universe
old to God but new to his little one. She

(31:39):
was talking about this new framing story for understanding that
divine love is the principle of unity of harmony, that
that divine principle is the source and origin of everything
that is enduring, That is permanent, and you could say

(32:02):
that has reality in our lives. And then through the
teaching she's given us, which science and health, the foundational
text key to the Scriptures, opens up the Bible and
helps us to practice the sagatbe love more and more
in our lives so that we may experience the blessings.

(32:24):
Mary Baker Eddie's life is a wonderful example of the
possibilities and potential for all humanity today. The contribution she's
made to Christianity and the power of spiritual thinking, its
impact on health and the quality of our lives is

(32:44):
absolutely undeniable. Well, we don't have time to dig into
every year of this woman's life and all of her accomplishments,
but you can learn more about her at a website
mary Baker Eddie library dot org. Her life and accomplishments

(33:07):
were huge, and I want to tell you a story
from her formidable eighties as it's been described that I
think sheds a beautiful light on the motivating, impelling love
that lay behind everything that she accomplished. There was a malicious,

(33:30):
really media orchestrated, baseless lawsuit brought against her, and remember
she's in her eighties and it was really set up
to increase sales. It was brought by a New York
newspaper and they were claiming that she was mentally incompetent
to handle her own affairs and was challenging this. Even

(33:54):
her own son was brought into this lawsuit against her.
And now at this time she was considered one of
the most interesting, powerful and famous women in the United States,
if not the world, and they're challenging here with this
lawsuit hermntal competence. She was living in conquered New Hampshire

(34:16):
at the time, and it became a media circus there,
as you might imagine that from all over Folks were there,
reporters wanting to get the scoop on Mary Baker Eddie
and really looking to dig up dirt about her. So
there wasn't just a single enemy, It was an army

(34:38):
of enemies there. And one of the reporters that was
there had apparently a pretty severe throat condition. We don't
know if it may have been cancer, we don't know,
but it was pretty disabling to him. He was often
in pain, unable to speak, but he was there and

(34:58):
Mary Baker Eddie knew why this reporter was there, but
What she did was she sent a message to him
through her representative, and she wanted this message going just
to this reporter directly. So her representative, his name is
Irving Tomlinson, called over to the hotel and got this

(35:20):
reporter on the phone. Apparently he was quite uncomfortable at
the time, unable to speak, but he could listen, and
he did. Tomlinson delivered Mary Baker Eddy's message. Now we
don't know exactly what was said, but it must have
been in the spirit of everything we've been talking about here.
This agappe love and being, each one of us being

(35:41):
the loved of love. And when he hung up the phone,
he was completely healed. He turned to his colleagues. They
were shocked. They didn't know what happened, They didn't understand
what happened, but they could see the proof right there.

(36:03):
And what they said, these reporters that were there with
him said was if Christian scientists were loving enough to
actually heal reporters who had come as enemies, they were
showing a genuine love beyond anything they had ever before encountered.

(36:24):
Some years later, this reporter got a message to mister Tomlinson,
and a relative of his got a message to mister
Tomlinson that said that in his later years this man
turned to Christian science and knew he owed a debt
of gratitude to Mary Baker Eddie for his healing in

(36:45):
conquered well this lawsuit, this baseless lawsuit. After a group
of examiners were sent by the court to meet and
interview Eddie, the law suit was abruptly withdrawn. There's a

(37:05):
way that Mary Baker Eddie shared that she prayed every day.
This is how it goes. God, bless my enemies, make
them thy friends, give them to know the joy and
peace of love. Well, what she did right after the

(37:27):
lawsuit was withdrawn, she wrote a letter of overflowing forgiveness
to one of the individuals in the lawsuit. Forgiveness, that's
a spiritual practice, as I understand that that often goes
hand in hand with learning to love your enemies. And
I know some people feel that, oh it's weak if

(37:51):
you forgive, you're a dormat, it's naive, But it's actually
quite the opposite. It takes a great deal of spiritual strength,
humility and love to forgive. If you have an eye
for an eye, hate meeting hate, where does that end.
Can it end that cycle? Yes, it can end, and

(38:15):
it can be broken, and that is with divine love.
I'd like to share with you now an experience that
I had. This was a number of years ago, the
very beginning of COVID, and like many, very quickly had
to move everything my whole life, it seems, online and

(38:36):
I was feeling the stress and pressure of that. Got
an email from someone that was very critical and very judgmental,
and I have to say I wasn't at my best
and I reacted. I reacted in anger and like, why
did they said that? How dare they do that kind

(38:56):
of attitude? Well, I was so busy I just put
it aside and just kept up with my activity. But
a short while later I developed these physical symptoms. The
middle section of my body became quite inflamed. The discomfort
was intense, and obviously I wasn't going to ignore it

(39:19):
and needed to address it. And for me, Christian science
is it's a healing system, a prayer based healing system
that's safe, that it's effective, that's available to anyone anywhere, anytime,
and without the use of surgery or drugs. One is
always free, of course to choose how best to care

(39:41):
for oneself. This is the way I've cared for my
health for many years, very successfully, So it was very
natural for me when I was faced with this health
issue to turn wholeheartedly to God in prayer. And I
asked a friend who is a Christian science practitioner, a
professional that praise with people for healing, to help me.

(40:04):
And what I was really striving to do in my
prayers was much of what we've been talking about here,
which is to see myself and to see others through
the lens of love as God sees and knows every
one of us. And as I did that, it was

(40:25):
like this purging that happened, and what came to the
surface was what I call an ungodlike offender. It was
this intense anger that I was feeling at injustice. Now,
a lot of memories came with it, that this was
something that just was not new, It's something that had

(40:47):
been with me for a very long time. And all
these memories came flooding in from the time I was
a little girl up until more recent times. And a
very significant one that had been very recent had happened
just the year before my husband, my new husband, we

(41:08):
were recently married, was running for his third term as
the first selectman or mayor of our town, his third
term four year term. Well, I had never had a
front row seat at a political campaign, in a political campaign,
and here I was newly married, front row and center

(41:30):
in this and unfortunately, this campaign devolved. It devolved into
a very very difficult place. What you see happening here
in the United States nationally just take that down on
a smaller scale. But in our local community much of

(41:50):
the same dynamics were at work that political landscape. I
know we were seen as enemies, and very honestly I
saw some of the others as enemies. There were half truths,
there were lies that were being spread. Now, there were
serious issues that had to be addressed, but this was

(42:11):
developing into a very very ugly situation. I had many
many sleepless, fearfilled nights. I knew I had to address
this feeling of injustice, the fear, the anger. Now, in
Christian science, where we always start, the place starting place

(42:34):
is always God. What do I know about God that
can be helpful here? Well, our Creator is a just
God and justice is a primal quality of Dity. So
if we understand the idea that God is divine principle,

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the source and origin of all. Where does that leave injustice?
It's actually illegitimate. Well, it may seem, and I certainly
felt that way, that it may seem to be thriving
for a while, but that's temporary, and Jesus's life shows
us that we can challenge it and overcome that. There's

(43:17):
a beautiful passage that meant a lot to me during
this time and is from Isaiah in the Hebrew Scriptures
or the Old Testament, and it goes like this, this
is God speaking. I will make my justice rest as
a light unto the people. God's justice a present reality,

(43:40):
a justice that's universal, impartial, fair, It's there for all
equally to experience. So I had to ask myself, was
I willing to see myself and others as part of
one universal family, these folks that I thought were my enemy?

(44:05):
Was I willing to see them differently? Was I willing
to recognize the only power and authority governing my life
was divine love? I mean, my husband and I did
our best. We took I would say, the high road.

(44:28):
We never returned an eye for an eye. But yet
this was tough, This was hard. I also had to ask,
was I willing to let God's will be done, to
let go of outcome, knowing that it would be only
good because God only blesses us, and just be so

(44:53):
willing to let go of what I thought was right
or what I want to see happen. Well, I answered
yes to all of that. There's a passage in Ephesians,
which is in the New Testament that says, clothe yourselves

(45:17):
with the new nature created in God's image in righteousness, justice,
and holiness. I was letting God remake me, and as
I yielded to that agape love, letting it permeate every

(45:39):
bit of my being, all of the anger that I
had been feeling this view of injustice just dissolved. And
as that happened, very naturally, my body conformed to its
normal state. This wasn't like mind over matter or blind

(46:01):
faith healing or positive thinking, some kind of activity of
the human mind, but rather it was the activity of
the one and only power and presence and healer, divine Love.
As I outligned my thought in heart with that, it's
very natural for that reformation, transformation, and shift to take place.

(46:28):
Now I can see Christian science healing really it's about
it's not about making a sick body well, but it's
about transformation, reformation. And I can see that what happened
with this was that that tendency I had to be
reactive to see these situations as terrible injustice to me.

(46:54):
That that doesn't happen anymore. Now. I won't say I
never get angry. That wouldn't be truthful, but that quick
kind of reactive stance that just hasn't happened. I've been
faced with situations where it could have, but it did not.

(47:14):
There's a wonderful statement that I found during this time
that Mary Baker Eddie wrote. She said, experience is victor,
never the vanquished, and out of defeat comes the secret
of victory. Now, my husband was not successful in his

(47:35):
re election campaign, but I can tell you through that experience,
the secret of victory we have experienced over and over
and over there has been a flood of blessings upon
both of us, and it continue today. In Jesus's Sermon

(47:58):
on the Mount that we talked about at the very beginning,
he also asks a profound question, if you love those
who love you, what reward do you have? Mary Baker
Eddie drives a lesson home when she says, love your enemies,

(48:20):
or you will not lose them. And if you love them,
you will help to reform them. I'd like to finish
now with a passage from First Corinthians thirteen in the

(48:41):
New Testament. And it is all about a gape love.
If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels,
but have no love, I become no more than blaring
brass or crashing symbol. If I have the gift to
foretelling the future, and hold in my mind not only

(49:03):
all human knowledge, but the very secrets of God. And
if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains,
but have no love, I amount to nothing at all.
If I dispose of all that I possess, Yes, even
if I give my own body to be burned, but
have no love, I achieve precisely nothing. This love of

(49:26):
which I speak is slow to lose patience. It looks
for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive.
It is neither anxious to impress, nor does it cherish
inflated ideas of its own importance. Love has good manners
and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy.

(49:49):
It does not keep account of evil or gloat over
the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is
glad with all good men. When truth it prevails. Love
knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust,

(50:10):
no fading of its hope. It can out last anything.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
You can hear this program and others in the series
as podcasts. Go to wor seven ten dot com slash
Spiritual Solutions. Again. Go to wor seven ten dot com
slash Spiritual Solutions to hear this and other programs in
the Spiritual Solutions for Today's Challenges series. The Christian Science

(50:38):
churches in Jamaica and Levittown, New York, each called First
Church of Christ Scientists, brought this program to you. These
friendly churches welcome visitors to their services on Wednesdays and Sundays.
For details, go to CSNYC dot com. That's CSNYC dot com.
Christian Science churches have Sunday schools that meet every week.

(51:02):
If you are less than twenty years old, this is
the place for you. First lessons include the Ten Commendments
and the Beatitudes, not just what they say, but also
how they apply them. Students search the Bible stories and
learn from the prophets, the disciples and apostles, and especially
Christ Jesus. Here you can ask the tough questions and

(51:24):
will search for God's answers. Together. Go to c S
N YC for locations and times of Christian Science Sunday
schools that c S and YC. A great way to
learn more about practical spirituality is to attend a public
lecture on Christian Science. There are several in the w
o R listening area to day's speaker, Julia nic Tetro,

(51:48):
will be on Long Island for two in person lectures
here learning to Love Your Enemies at the Christian Science
Church on Ocean Avenue, Patchhawk on Saturday, November two at
eleven a m. Nissi Tetro will repeat her talk at
the Levittown Public Library on Bluegrass Lane, Levittown on Saturday,
November ninth at one p m. Melanie Wahlberg will speak

(52:11):
in Manhattan at Eighth Avenue on seventy seventh Street between
Lexington and Park Avenues on Tuesday evening, October twenty ninth,
at seven thirty topic Never Alone, How spiritual ideas work
in US. Janet Haggerty will speak at First Church in
Manhattan Central Park West and sixty eighth Street on Friday,

(52:32):
November eighth, at seven thirty p m. Topic how to
Make Change for the Better. You can hear Sentinel watch
a production of the Christian Science Sentinel twenty four seven
at c s n y C dot com or at
a new call in number dial three three two two
five five six seven eight nine to hear Sentinel, watch

(52:53):
the Bible Lesson or El Heraldo, the Spanish Herald. Any
One can now access Christian and science programs on this
New York City number three three two two five five
six seven eight nine. That's three three two two five
five six seven eight nine, or go to cs NYC
dot com. Each week on spiritual Solutions for today's challenges.

(53:17):
You'll find inspiring, strengthening spiritual ideas that can bring healing
to your own life, to your family and community, and
to the world. Discover the practicality of timeless spiritual ideas.
Tune in every Sunday evening in October and November at
eight o'clock. Next week, inspirational speaker Alexander Fisher will return

(53:40):
his topic how spiritual perception Brings Healing here on seven
ten WR.

Speaker 3 (54:54):
The Lord deloyed, and on thy care bad to thevery trabably.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
My best, my friend, the nor.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
Material streams are dried, thy fall miss the same.

Speaker 4 (55:31):
May I with this be satisfied and glory thy need?

Speaker 3 (55:45):
Ah, God, we're here.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
It may be found. It's so stuff finding me. I
must have all things and bad.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
Will.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
God has got to me that that a strong faith,

(56:27):
to long within, to credit what my.

Speaker 4 (56:34):
Save you said, whose word can now

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Face