Article May 31, 1982 Issue

Needed: more light

GLORIA CHRISTENA

If you walk into a dark room, where have the furnishings gone? They're there, of course. It's just that without light you don't see them. Light is required for seeing, and darkness is lack of light. We don't say, "I see the darkness." We say, "I can't see because it's so dark."

This is as true in the figurative as in the literal sense. The word "darkness" is frequently used as a synonym for error or ignorance. The Bible sometimes uses it this way, as it also uses "light" to mean truth or understanding. So, as darkness induces not seeing for want of light, error induces not seeing for want of understanding.

Christian Science teaches that evil is darkness. When we look at the array of evils on the human scene—lack, sinfulness, disorder, and suffering—we may be convinced that we are beholding terrible realities that will yield only to painful, slow, perhaps even uncertain efforts at correction. But this is not so. What we are "seeing" is only darkness.

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