On finding health, only health
It’s not uncommon for a patient who has been suffering from an obvious—even serious, and sometimes medically diagnosed—disease to be found in perfect health after receiving Christian Science treatment through prayer. Adherents of Christian Science are constantly striving to understand exactly how such decisive healing occurs, and how to bring such results more consistently into their own practice. In doing so, it’s natural to turn to Jesus’ example and teachings in the Bible, as well as to the chapter “Christian Science Practice” in the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
Mrs. Eddy closes that chapter with a detailed allegory of a mental trial in which a patient is found, on the grounds of testimony from common medical, theological, and other theories, sentenced to death—but where the testimony of Christian Science reverses that sentence, and the patient rises up “regenerated, strong, free” (p. 442 ).
While there is much to ponder in that allegory, there is one passage that especially captures my attention whenever I read it. It is where Christian Science, as counsel for the patient, testifies, “We send our best detectives to whatever locality is reported to be haunted by Disease, but on visiting the spot, they learn that Disease was never there, for he could not possibly elude their search” (pp. 439–440 ). Wow! That’s a mind-bender.
The total goodness of all God made has not changed.
I’ve asked myself: Who are these “best detectives”? How is it that they found that disease “was never there,” and that it “could not possibly elude their search”? Good detectives would certainly find what they are looking for. And therein lies the answers, because Christian Science doesn’t look for and find disease, and then make it disappear. It looks for and finds only health—and in doing so the nonexistence of disease is exposed and therefore disappears from experience. Let’s explore this further, starting with a lesson from Jesus’ healing practice.
Jesus was often found healing on the Sabbath day, and he was soundly criticized for doing so. The criticism arose from traditional views regarding observance of the Sabbath, but Jesus was always looking deeper. His response on one of these occasions was, “Are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:23, 24 ), or as the New Living Translation renders Jesus’ advice, “Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.”
The Sabbath day in its spiritual significance is the celebration of the completeness of God’s creation, in which He “saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31 ). The total goodness of all God made has not changed. God, who is infinite Spirit, does not see His creation through material eyes; His senses are entirely spiritual, seeing only the reality of His own likeness—spiritual and perfect.
To God—in whom each man, woman, and child actually exists as His spiritual reflection—health, or wholeness, is the only condition of being. No disease, or any other discord, is or ever has been any part of God or His creation, so it never can be found there. Though this eternal perfection of God’s creation seems mysterious to the material senses, it is knowable and demonstrable through the spiritual senses with which God endows us all—and through which Jesus healed the sick.
Jesus healed the sick by looking at things from God’s point of view.
The following definition in the Glossary of Science and Health sheds light on this subject: “Unknown: That which spiritual sense alone comprehends, and which is unknown to the material senses” (p. 596 ). Well, then, the spiritual senses are our “best detectives.” They find health, only health, in every direction. “Disease cannot possibly elude their search”—that is, in the light of spiritual truth, the nonexistence of disease is exposed. Light can never find darkness, and the spiritual senses can never find disease.
Jesus healed the sick by looking at things from God’s point of view, and he encouraged his followers to do the same. His teachings direct us to engage our spiritual senses to look beneath the surface impressions of the material senses, and to plumb the depths of spiritual reality. For example, he commended a spiritual sense of purity as a means of seeing God as He really is: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8 ).
Developing a pure sense of God as Love, and of God’s creation as Love’s expression, is to align one’s thought with divine Science, the law of divine Love. Then we are looking at things from God’s point of view. And as Mrs. Eddy says, “When examined in the light of divine Science, mortals present more than is detected upon the surface, since inverted thoughts and erroneous beliefs must be counterfeits of Truth. Thought is borrowed from a higher source than matter, and by reversal, errors serve as waymarks to the one Mind, in which all error disappears in celestial Truth” (Science and Health, p. 267 ).
What an excellent tool for detecting health where disease claims to be—using errors as “waymarks to the one Mind.” Since no error can be found in God, infinite Truth, the reverse of any error, or discord, must be true—the only reality. So, instead of being overwhelmed by the surface impression of any material error—any symptom of disease, any sinful tendency, or any inharmony—we can welcome the opportunity to look beneath the surface to see what God sees. Through spiritual sense, we can discern the spiritual idea that is the reverse of any specific error, and find that idea to be true right here, right now—because it is God-made and God-maintained.
It’s a practical, joyful, and healing approach to one’s day to engage your “best detectives,” your spiritual senses, to gather thoughts from the divine Mind, where health—only health—can be found. I’ve seen enough healing come from this approach to know that error does indeed “disappear in celestial Truth.”
