Christ Breaks Through the Language Barrier

By Cheryl Petersen
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>