People around the world are concerned about swine flu and staving it off for themselves and those they love. In an effort to contribute to the lessening of fear, and to offer concrete spiritual truths that can keep one free from contagion, this blog post. It is primarily done for those who are not acquainted with what Christian Science teaches, since so many of the readers of this website already know these things and in many cases, have proved their protective, healing power.
Since first hearing of the outbreak in Mexico, have been praying with these two statements: first, from Genesis 21:22, "God is with you in everything you do." And this from the pen of Mary Baker Eddy: "A calm, Christian state of mind is a better preventive of contagion than a drug, or than any other possible sanative method: and the 'perfect Love that 'casteth out fear' is a sure defense." (Miscellaneous Writings, page 229)
This is not mere theory. I know personally of contagious conditions that have been quickly and permanently healed through the power of divine Love, God. One, which took place many years ago, involved my own brother, who, as a preschool-age child, was stricken with all the symptoms of infantile paralysis. The fear of the disease at that time was great in our community, and my mother, who had just begun studying Christian Science, was understandably worried. But she had herself been healed of a long-standing, serious physical condition through relying on the law of God. So she decided to ask a Christian Science practitioner to pray for my brother. The symptoms were so frightening, my mother feared he might nor live through the night. But he was healed within a couple of days. This powerful proof of God's love for His children made a deep impression on my mother, and it strengthened her trust in God as an everpresent help in times of sickness.
What my brother experienced was the effect of the understanding that man is God's own child, as the Bible brings out. And in harmony with the Bible's spiritual meaning, Christian Science shows that man is inherently pure and whole--not a mortal, flesh-and-blood creature, who is subject to fear, disability, and death. It can't be emphasized enough just what a powerful antidote to fear it is to realize we are not made up of material elements that can be invaded by a virus, or whatever. Grasping this divine fact puts us on an entirely different--and protective--plane of thinking. You and I are actually God's spiritual offspring, not at the mercy of whatever disease is believed to be prevalent and gaining ground. Divine Love, the tender, always present Father of all, by virtue of His allness, excludes whatever is unlike His pure nature. This truth destroys fear that we could be subject to a pandemic. It gives us immunity not available from any drug or pill or human precaution.
Our dear Master understood fully the inseparability of man from God. Jesus knew that man is God's child, eternally safe in Him. Discerning something of our real being as God's spiritual image, and expressing the calm, Christian state of thinking that characterizes that being, we can come to feel the assurance of His care. We can prove for ourselves that true immunity from disease, and abiding peace of mind, are found in the consciousness of God's omnipresent control of our lives. As one of the many passages in the Scriptures that offer a way out of fear of a pandemic states: "In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me" (Psalms 56:4).
