By Ann, an Ex-Christian Scientist Group contributor.
In most Christian traditions, death can be seen as a mercy, where people find comfort in knowing that their loved one is relieved of pain and restored to wholeness when they pass. I hate it that Mary Baker Eddy took that away, claiming that even after death, we still had to outgrow whatever ailments had afflicted us in life.
My mom adored her mother and they were very close. When my mom was in her late twenties, her mother suffered two leg amputations due to diabetes. She died a short time later and my mother was devastated.
My elder brother became a big deal Christian Science practitioner. Mom asked him—the font of all spiritual wisdom—if her Mama’s legs had been restored when she ‘made the transition’ to heaven. My brother told her, “no, because it’s still something that she has to work out.”
We talk here about the physical pain this religion inflicts, but the emotional pain that simple statement cost my mother can not be described in mere words. My mother asked me for reassurance about it a dozen times, and each time, I’d take her hand, look into her eyes and tell her, “Mom, I’ve read at least three dozen books on near-death experiences, and I promise you that your mama has her legs now, and that the moment she passed the pain was gone, and she was restored to wholeness and peace.”
The ‘Comforter’? Like hell.
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My dad died after fighting early onset Parkinson’s Disease for decades. I left Christian Science after his death. It has been a few years now since he died. And I think I am finally getting over the idea that he still has this problem. I can’t quite describe it, but I feel the agony directly here of your mom being so deeply distraught by her own mom’s double amputation and then non-restoral after death. So heart breakingly sad. Amen. Also, I love the quote: “‘The Comforter?’ Like hell!”