Article September 25, 1995 Issue

Allergies can be healed

Edda Müller

Each year as spring approaches, we begin to hear references to hay fever, the allergy to pollen spreading from blossoms and grasses, and, in rural areas, sensitivity to the dust produced when the fields are mowed. I suffered for many years from this kind of allergy and did not know at first what to do about it. But this sensitivity to irritation from dust and pollen made me stop and think. How can it be that man is weaker than the natural world around him?

Pondering this, I was led to ask myself, "What, actually, is man?" In studying Christian Science I have learned not to accept diseases as part of my fate or as sent by God. As Mary Baker Eddy says in her book Science and Health, "What an abuse of natural beauty to say that a rose, the smile of God, can produce suffering!" She continues a few lines later, "It is profane to fancy that the perfume of clover and the breath of new-mown hay can cause glandular inflammation, sneezing, and nasal pangs" (p. 175).

Christ Jesus healed all kinds of diseases and infirmities. How was that possible, and what were his actions based on? This I wanted to understand. The Bible tells us Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father" (John 14:12). I took this not only as a summons to be obeyed but also as a promise. First, I thought about who or what this "me" is in whom I am supposed to believe. Surely the material, human Jesus is not who is meant. Rather it must be the man created by God, His spiritual idea. This is the eternal, Christlike nature Jesus expressed.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

A watchful love, an alertness to have one Mind