The Easter season for many people brings up a lot of questions about what happened over 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem. Was Jesus really crucified? Did he actually die? Did the resurrection happen – and did Jesus return to talk with his disciples as if he had not died? Does any of this have import today?

In an Easter sermon, religious reformer Mary Baker Eddy focused her message on the inspired meaning of the Bible accounts and their application to everyday living. For example, do Jesus’ teachings and healings have relevance to individuals in contemporary life? What do the crucifixion and resurrection represent beyond historical events? In other words, do they have meaning for me today?

Since the same questions that are being asked today were also asked of Eddy, she in turn in her Easter sermon asked her audience several questions. The most important questions being, “Is our consciousness in matter or in God? Have we any other consciousness than that of good?” To Eddy, studying Jesus’ teachings, healings, crucifixion and resurrection led her to understand that God, which she called divine Mind or Love, is the only source of wisdom in this human experience. When one prays for this loving Mind to guide, the direction for even the most mundane of human functions – eating and drinking – is unerring, beneficial, and health-giving. In this way, then, God, divine Mind, gently and naturally speaks to our consciousness. And this spiritual embrace of consciousness has the power to consistently govern the body.

Emphasizing her message, Eddy asked another question of her audience: “What is it that seems a stone between us and the resurrection morning?” This ‘resurrection morning’ can be seen as the individual reawakening, the renewal and restoration of one’s spiritual and mental ability to see and be one’s inherent spiritual nature, free from any temptation to find satisfaction in matter. For instance, permanent freedom from any of the many common addictions. What then seems to stand in the way of this freedom? The stone, Eddy explains, is only belief – the false attraction or temptation – that matter has power to control.

In my spiritual healing practice I often ask: ‘What would try to keep the patient from seeing his inherent, spiritual nature – the divinely-bestowed nature that can only be attracted to right thinking and good, beneficial, health-giving action?’

Frequently in cases of addictive behavior what needs to be removed is an obsessive attraction that claims satisfaction in matter. It shouts, “I taste good!” or “This feels good!” In other words, it’s the attraction that physical food, alcohol, drugs or smoking has the power to satisfy the physical body. Some say the body actually craves this satisfaction. Bottomline, it appears that the body is calling all the shots, controlling the individual’s attraction to harmful effects.

So we should ask ourselves, “Where does my satisfaction come from? Is it from a momentary physical attraction or a genuine desire to renew and restore my spiritual consciousness?” When the spiritual attraction inherent in every individual’s consciousness changes the basis of satisfaction from body-matter to spiritual good, the natural desire to identify with this spiritual good and joy is felt. The stone is rolled away! The gentle light of wisdom and love floods consciousness, and the effect is freedom and healing.

The meaning of Easter continues to have relevance today and always.