Article July 8, 1950 Issue

WHAT ARE WE SEEING IN OUR NEIGHBOR?

Julia Irene Fitzgerald

Many of us have already profited by heeding Plato's words. "What thou seest, that thou beest." It might be well, while being reminded of it again, for each one to ask himself: What am I seeing as my neighbor or fellow man? Am I seeing the man described in the first chapter of Genesis, the man whom God made in His own image and likeness and to whom He gave dominion over all the earth? Or am I duped into believing there is another man, a sinning, mortal, material man, who is subject to every error included in the Adam-dream creation?

Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in answering the question, "What is man?" tells us on page 475 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" that man is spiritual and perfect idea, the image of Love: "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas." She further defines man as "that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker."

If our concept of man is a true one, we are seeing Godlike qualities expressed by our neighbor as well as be ourselves. But if we are looking upon him as a mortal, or a physical personality, victimized by all the mistakes, faults, or errors to which mortality is subject, then we are admitting the possibility of our expressing the same errors. In his epistle to the Romans, Paul writes (2:1). "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things."

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