Ancestry: Divine and Human
It is evident that the attribution of one's good or undesirable physical conditions and mental traits to immediate or remote human ancestry is an ancient fiction in the history of the human race. From certain words uttered by the prophet Ezekiel, some centuries before the Christian era, it may be seen that the oppressive belief that a person's life could be overshadowed by sins committed or diseases experienced by an ancestor, is without basic spiritual foundation.
In the picturesque symbolism of the Orient, Ezekiel tells us that the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, "What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?" With the query came the divine answer, "As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel."
The word of the Lord as given to Ezekiel continues, "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right, ... and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly ... he shall surely live, saith the Lord God."
The heading of this eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel, as found in some editions of the King James Version of the Bible, is in part as follows: "He sheweth how he dealeth with a just father, a wicked son of a just father, a just son of a wicked father." The whole chapter is a remarkable treatise on the divine justice which is denied or ignored by one who subscribes to the cruel belief that he is burdened by errors other than his own. The injustice of suffering for sins other than one's own was crystal-clear to Ezekiel.
One often hears the expression "ancestral shadows," and it is apt. Many a mortal's life has been shadowed by retaining in thought erroneous pictures of experiences which, through assimilation of the teaching of the Bible on this subject, should be completely erased. David had the divine viewpoint when he said: "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance. ... The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." This goodly or Godlike heritage is for all, but the general acceptance of baseless material theories is so ingrained that it requires much more than a casual acceptance of the divine fiat to prove it by demonstration.
Based squarely on the Master's command to accept God only, and no human being, as Father, Mary Baker Eddy says in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 63 ): "In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry." She adds, "Spirit is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the law of his being." Sometimes when a babe is not yet a day old parents and friends begin to decide which features are like the mother's and which like the father's. As the child grows, his traits are often listed as belonging to one side or the other of the two families. Great liberation would ensue for the child if all the fine traits were attributed to his "primitive and ultimate source of being." and any errors he might express recognized as without an actual source, and therefore eradicable.
Obedience to the fifth commandment, understood in both its spiritual and its human interpretation, covers the whole subject of ancestry. Because of the revelation of the Science of the Scriptures which has come to us in this age through our God-directed Leader, we understand that we are to honor the Father-Mother God as the only creative power and true source of our being—the only real parental influence. This is not merely a doctrinal point to be believed; it is a vital, cardinal point to be kept in the foreground of thinking.
Viewed from the humanistic standpoint, could it not be said that truly to honor one's human parents would be to divest them, in thought, of everything unlike the real man? Whether these parents are still with us or not, we need to see them as individual ideas of God, regardless of the temporary, mortal mind arguments which may have been accepted. The fifth commandment, which Paul says "is the first commandment with promise." reads. "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Surely a promise that human pilgrimages will be both prolonged and made more joyous and useful if the so-called progenitors are honored by being seen or remembered only as God's perfect ideas.
The Christian Scientist who most clearly perceives that "the beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry," will not fail in respect and affection with regard to his human relationships. He will neither condone the dictatorial and possessive attitude sometimes unwisely assumed by parents even toward their adult children, nor, in turn, set up this unwise procedure toward his own children. The Scientist will cheerfully and lovingly fulfill his human responsibilities; but he will, through intelligent study of his textbooks, progressively recognize the transitory nature of these human relationships and the divine, eternal relationship between God and all His children. The quality of friendship, involving mutual kindnesses, respect, community of interests, pleasure in one another's society, may be cultivated between parents and children, and displace the desire arbitrarily to rule, or the willingness to be so ruled.
With her extraordinary faculty for covering a cardinal point in her revelation in a few words. Mrs. Eddy says in her "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 286, 287 ): "It should be understood that Spirit, God, is the only creator: we should recognize this verity of being, and shut out all sense of other claims. Until this absolute Science of being is seen, understood, and demonstrated in the offspring of divine Mind, and man is perfect even as the Father is perfect, human speculation will go on and stop at length at the spiritual ultimate: creation understood as the most exalted divine conception."
