Article December 18, 1948 Issue

LOVE KNOWS NO DISILLUSIONMENT

[Of Special Interest to Young People]

MARTHA SWANSON BRUCK

A young college girl plagued with a series of boils on her face was startled when a Christian Science practitioner asked her, "Are you disgusted with anyone?" After thinking for a few moments, the girl admitted that she had been disillusioned and disgusted by the actions of several girls living in the same house with her.

Patiently and lovingly the practitioner pointed out to her that this disgust could claim to fester until it was replaced with genuine love, not a smug, self-righteous concept of love, but the universal sense of love which blesses and heals. Such love, she explained, never condones error, but completely separates it from man, seeing him as he is, in reality, the image and likeness of God, unfallen and upright. These scientific explanations aroused the girl and caused her to clear her own consciousness, to see that her sole responsibility was to reflect more of Love. With a grateful heart she set to work to replace self-righteousness with humility, indifference with kindness, disdain with compassion. As a result the boils vanished, and the atmosphere of the house perceptibly improved.

This experience was valuable to her because it was a positive refutation of the popularly accepted belief that disillusionment implies a bitter awakening. Instead, disillusionment was seen to be an awakening from the illusion of life in matter. Scientifically understood, disillusionment is freedom from illusion. Because God, divine Love, has never beheld an illusion, either of mortal man or of a material universe, but has forever perceived only His own perfect creation, including man, Love knows no disillusionment. The college girl's freedom and healing came when she replaced her faulty perception of man with the true concept of man as Love forever beholds him, the perfect expression of God.

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