When one considers history between 1989 and 1991, the fall of the Berlin Wall certainly offers the strongest symbolic significance among other important events connected with freedom, such as the breakup of the USSR and the abolition of apartheid in South Africa.
All these events remind me of the way Paul and Silas, who had been unjustly imprisoned, found their freedom: “At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God … And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed” (Acts 16:25, 26).
We can rejoice that Christian Science reveals the fact that freedom is natural and normal in God’s creation. Each spiritual idea is free because each one is infinite and eternal. Each spiritual idea is the manifestation of Love, and can never be separated from its divine source or origin, God. So it can never be limited, trapped, or imprisoned. Our understanding of this spiritual fact shakes the foundations of mortal mind or the “spirit of the world” (I Corinthians 2:12); it opens the doors of thought, and breaks the fetters of all prisoners—be it of a totalitarian regime or of a debilitating illness or of an abusive relationship. By praying from this standpoint, we help peoples, communities, and individuals become free and obtain respect for their right to progress, because prayer is an active, effective way to bring to light all the good that is already present in God’s creation.
