Article January 2, 2006 Issue

SPIRITUAL IMMUNITY

BY JER MASTER

I BEGAN TO STUDY Christian Science while I was a practicing pediatrician in a hospital. I had seen many instances of viral contagion in my practice, and my daily reading of Science and Health was giving me so much to think about on this subject. I appreciated this book as a guide to spiritual healing, which makes it possible for anyone to understand God and His spiritual creation, and I had started to apply its spiritual teachings in my own life.

One statement that I was learning to understand says, "... nothing inharmonious can enter being, for Life is God" (Science and Health, p. 228). As I thought about this, it became vividly clear to me that all of us, in our true spiritual identity, are not made of flesh and bones but are the perfect image of God. Our true substance is made up of the qualities we reflect from our divine Parent, our Father-Mother, God. These qualities consist in part of purity, innocence, honesty, strength, and vitality. And because each of us is in reality an entirely spiritual being, nothing inharmonious can "enter" into our honesty or innocence. No disease or ill effect from anything physical can enter the entirely mental, spiritual qualities that make up each child of God.

More and more in my practice I began to see that everyone is completely safe in the presence of God. As Psalm 91 says, those who dwell "in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (verse 1).