Article December 21, 1981 Issue

What shall I handle?

DONALD M. SWINNEY

Once the disciples asked Christ Jesus concerning a blind man, "Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" Their first impulse was to speculate—to see the patient as a mortal with good reason to suffer. But the Master, knowing that God is the only real cause, declared, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."^{John 9:2,3.} The blind man was healed through Jesus' perception of the man's immortal status and his recognition that there could be no legitimate cause for loss of faculties. Jesus' comprehension of the individual's indestructible unity with God destroyed the disease.

As we pray for healing in Christian Science, we do not seek to uncover error in order to condemn a person or to give legitimacy to evil as a source of suffering. To handle error simply means to nullify it—to see its nothingness. "You must find error to be nothing: then, and only then, do you handle it in Science,"^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 334.} writes Mrs. Eddy. Asking "What shall I handle?" is actually saying, "What shall I see as nothing?" There need be no puzzlement over the answer. We see as nothing any belief that suggests the existence of a power or presence besides God, good. And we see the nothingness of such error from the standpoint of the eternal truth that God is All-in-all.

Since all right ideas are always within our true being as God's image, we actually have what we need every moment. The spiritual solution to a problem is present in Christ, the true idea of God. As we refuse to speculate about the condition and turn completely to God for guidance, we gain deeper insights and are able to discern the right course.

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