Thank you very much for this post!
That verse from the Responsive Reading, and the following one from John 15:13 (Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.) has given me a lot to think on this week. The greater love that Christ Jesus demonstrated certainly lasted longer than his final moment on the cross, but to human thought, laying down our lives is treated like a momentary thing. Yet how many decades did Mary Baker Eddy lay down her life for the world? How many in this church right now – and those who have come before – have laid down their lives in a similar manner?
The lesson includes Science and Health, page 454: Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept. Patience must “have her perfect work.” This reminded me of Mrs. Eddy’s words from page 248: We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives.
It seems clear that the perfect concept or model is the one which has put aside all personal sense to patiently wait on God. Expressing that greater love is the work of a lifetime, not a moment. I am so grateful we have those models to look to, and for the importance placed here on living Christian Science.
I also found the Christ Jesus’ use of the word friends very comforting, and was happy to be led to the three verses (John 15:14-16) after the last line of the Responsive Reading:
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
Thank you!