Article August 5, 2013 Issue

Banner-waving freedom

Helen Stevermer

My family and I watched the recent movie adaptation of Les Misérables, based on Victor Hugo’s classic book. It’s a story set in the years around the French Revolution. We were moved by the characters’ experiences of misery and loss, hope and triumph, and the ending that encompassed all in a rousing refrain. At one point, the lead character, Jean Valjean, sings, “To love another person is to see the face of God.”

Through the lens of my study of Christian Science, I could appreciate the sentiment, although perhaps in a slightly different way than Hugo intended. In the opening chapter of the Bible we are assured that man is made in the image and likeness of the Creator of the universe, God, whose creation is entirely good (see Genesis 1:26, 27). In contrast, the second, allegorical, chapter of Genesis sets up the concept of original sin and man’s fall from grace.

Christian Science teaches that Genesis 1 is the accurate account of God’s creation. And, in fulfilling his role as the image and likeness of God, man must naturally express the attributes of the Creator. Consequently, I reasoned that “to love another person is to ‘be’ the face (image or expression) of God.” This view doesn’t allow for separating people into categories of good and evil. It encompasses all creation, even if our experience testifies otherwise. In that light, the “bad guy” in Les Misérables, Inspector Javert, would have to be seen as an inherently merciful man. But how is this possible?