Science and Life

SCIENCE begins with G as in LIFE

Christian Science Society of San Juan Capistrano

Wednesday Readings for January 30, 2013

Readings  from the  King James Version of the BIBLE 

with correlative passages from the Christian Science textbook, 

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures 

by Mary Baker Eddy  (Citations follow)

The BIBLE 

Genesis, Hosea, Jeremiah, I Corinthians, Deuteronomy,

Jonah, Matthew, John, Acts and Science and Health  

Genesis and Chapter 17 Glossary

In the beginning …

In the beginning God …

In the beginning God (1) [The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; … Life; (A)] … created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply…. (2)

Hosea

I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love (3)

Genesis

This is the book of the generations of Adam.

… the woman … took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

… the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

… he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, … And she again bare his brother Abel.… Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: … And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; … then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.

And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: … And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: (4)

Jeremiah

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, (5)

I keep wanting to move the apple...

The Son of Man by Magritte

Magritte's Son of Man gets me involved. I keep wanting to move the apple. I keep wanting to see behind the apple. I find it hard to just turn away. Magritte knew that would happen. So he painted it and for years viewers like me have had to keep their hands behind their back.

Mankind's desire to see face-to-face stems from the undeniable attractiveness of transparency. It comes from man's heart's longing for intimacy, to know and be known. Magritte's green apple creates tension, it denies access to the intimacy that seems so close at hand. It inserts doubt and even fear. And that reminds me of Adam.

After eating the forbidden fruit, everything changed. Adam probably saw the fruit hang like Magritte's green apple hiding the countenance of God. Transparency was gone. Intimacy was replaced by naked distance. No more seeing face-to-face.

Magritte's work illustrates the value and nature of countenance. By hiding it, he uncovers our tremendous attraction to it and its necessity status.

In an interview, Magritte had this to say: 

At least it hides the face partly. Well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It's something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.^[Wikipedia]

After reading that, I thought, "Of course, it is our nature to want to see what is hidden by every material picture we see." Then I wondered, "Why is that?" 

Instantly, this thought came: We are not satisfied with what two eyes report, we seek the spiritually fashioned. Mary Baker Eddy wrote: A mortal, corporeal, or finite conception of God cannot embrace the glories of limitless, incorporeal Life and Love.^S&H 258:1-3  And Paul tells us the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.^{Hebrews 11:3}

^{O, yes, my heart does seek the lighter, finer things of Mind and nothing more opaque.}

NOTE: The Son of Man is part of a private collection so we don't have an opportunity to even try to move the apple!

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