THE possession of a home, rightly understood, is inherent in real consciousness, as is seen when man is conceived as reflecting the allness of Mind. However, mortal mind, with its claims of world upheavals, restless personalities, and laborious processes, argues against such direct realization of good. Thus the possession of home often seems to elude the individual.
Yet the study and application of Christian Science show one that no right achievement is impossible. Indeed, students of this Science have discerned the great fact that to whatever appears as a human problem there is a divine answer. Home, as a spiritual concept, is practically demonstrable here and now. How can the true understanding of home be gained? And of what value can a divine answer be to the average person who thinks of himself as an ordinary mortal?
On page 475 of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy says of man, "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas." Later in the same paragraph she speaks of him as "that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker."
He who accepts this truth about man is learning to claim the dominion which Christ Jesus characterized as the kingdom of God within or the understanding that man includes all right ideas. Thus he is able to declare with understanding that he includes the right idea of home and to demonstrate that scientific declaration.
The individual troubled by a problem concerning home must first cease to think in terms of the problem, in terms of the mortal sense of existence. For basically the problem is the mortal sense which is always fluctuating, unstable, unsatisfying, beginning and ending. It is not the "house . . . eternal in the heavens" of which the Apostle Paul speaks (II Cor. 5:1), but is, instead. the house built upon sand—the vagaries of human belief.
True home ownership takes place, not through going out and renting or buying a suitable house or dwelling and moving into it, but through spiritual understanding. The satisfying result humanly will be the coming into the right possession of home. Man, as the reflection of divine Mind, possesses the right idea of home.
What is this right idea? To mortal sense home is a material dwelling. By reason of its materiality it is subject to the conditions of materiality, to destruction, loss, or theft. An individual believing himself to be material, thus having a material concept of home and existence, may fear eviction and may feel homeless while traveling, or lonely and deserted while at home. Home relationships also suffer from the duality of this false concept. They may seem to manifest either harmony or discord, expressed perhaps in intemperance, incompatibility of temperament, infidelity—Soulless dissatisfaction in all its phases.
The right idea of home includes none of these unpleasantnesses. In "Pulpit and Press" Mrs. Eddy says (p. 2), "The real house in which 'we live, and move, and have our being' is Spirit, God, the eternal harmony of infinite Soul." It is self-evident, then, that the individual seeking a home is actually seeking an understanding of God— seeking an understanding of the primal cause of his own existence.
What is God? Mrs. Eddy through spiritual discernment of the inspired Word of the Bible has given the following seven synonyms for God (Science and Health, p. 587): "Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love." In the divine presence home is indeed found. Actually, that which calls itself homeless is only that which is separate from God; therefore nonexistent. That which is homeless would have to be outside the infinite presence of the all-knowing Mind; it would be substanceless, lifeless, soulless; it would be godless, hence manless. The ever-presence of God makes homelessness an impossibility.
What then is the belief of homelessness, and where does it come from? It is the supposititious opposite of the ever-presence of home, of the ever-presence of God, divine Love, in whom "we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). It is an aggressive mental suggestion, which, in the light of the truth that Mind is infinite and one, is nothing. The spiritual fact of Mind's oneness forever precludes the possibility of a mind to suggest homelessness. The suggestion itself is homeless because it has no home in Mind.
The author, when her family was served an eviction notice, found much practical help from the thought that to be dispossessed in Spirit or Mind is to be rid of false concepts of God and His manifestation, man and the universe. It is to see the utter perfection, constancy, and consistency of divine Mind in its ever-loving unfoldment of being. Thus, as the individual casts out false concepts and learns to have that Mind which was in Christ Jesus, he comes into possession of the kingdom of heaven. He enjoys the permanency of divine Life, independent of time, place, person, and things. This unfoldment, which came through daily study of the Bible and our Leader's works, resulted in peace of mind, and soon came the opportunity to rent a convenient house, when the world would have said that such a thing could not happen.
Having once possessed the right sense of home through spiritualizing his thinking, the individual must retain this right sense. If he maintains a conscious oneness with his divine Principle and reasons from cause to effect regarding home, or whatever appears as his human affairs, this consciousness will maintain him and his home in perfect harmony. As the conscious, constant reflection of Soul, man is constantly conscious of home. Realizing this in his daily experience, the individual can express that impartial and universal love which comes only from the Father-Mother God. Thus all whom his thought touches will feel the presence of Love which means home.
Living in obedience to divine Principle, Love, one cannot know homelessness or a disturbed home. All inharmonious suggestions regarding home must fade out when confronted with the truth that home is not a material structure outside the permanent consciousness of Truth, but is the consciousness of Love itself. Each can know that the truth about his individual experience is the truth about the experience of all other individuals. Thus he reflects the all-inclusive nature of Love, which blesses all.
