WHY should this happen to me? Why should I have to suffer so? Why should I have so much to meet? These and similar questions are often raised by those seeking an answer to the puzzles of daily living. Oddly enough, one seldom hears the questions: Why does so much good come to me? Why am I so greatly blessed? Mankind's questions usually have to do with the frustrations and not the benefactions of life.
A study of Christian Science, however, reveals to mankind the glorious truth of being that the real man is not downtrodden, underprivileged, and frustrated, subject to the hardships and deprivations of material living. Conversely, he is the child of divine Love, the beneficiary of all the good that is God's. This is his eternal heritage, his divine right. God never withholds any good thing from His creation, and in the proportion that one is receptive to divine Love's beneficence is he the recipient of the blessings God bestows.
In her "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy declares (p. 155), "All power and happiness are spiritual, and proceed from goodness." Divine Love is ever supplying us with all the advantages, opportunities, and blessings necessary for our improvement and advancement. But there must be receptivity on our part, a desire to listen and be led, rather than a tendency to question, to hesitate, or to dispute. When doubt and uncertainty arise, this is proof that the carnal mind, rather than divine Mind, is being heard. All questioning and indecision is in mortal mind. There are no whys in the kingdom of heaven.
On page 555 of our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," our Leader refers to an inquirer who said, "'I like your explanations of truth, but I do not comprehend what you say about error.'" She comments: "This is the nature of error. The mark of ignorance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor can be understood." Wherever error seems to be, there will always be a question mark, for it is not understandable. On the other hand, to the spiritually-minded there is no mystery about godliness. It is easy to grasp, and the understanding of it brings innumerable blessings.
Good alone is logical and understandable, because good alone is real. All that we ever can understand about error, evil, is its unreality. If error were substantial, real, and true, it would be a permanent part of our lives, and we should never be separated from it. Mankind's mistake is that it has forever been searching for relief from evil as though it were a real entity. But the search was futile until Mrs. Eddy discovered the truth of being, which reveals the utter falsity of every claim of evil.
To understand that error is false, having not the slightest semblance of reality and being no part of God's endowment to man, automatically cuts off the questionings of the carnal mind. The truth that good only is real and evil, Truth's opposite, is unreal, when understood in its scientific meaning, is the answer to all the whys of mankind. It is as simple as that.
To believe that God predestines or foreordains personal or national calamities is to believe that God is both good and evil. This is wholly the working of the mortal or carnal mind, which in its wickedness would make mankind believe God to be the cause of all ills. Evil remains a mystery to those who are unaware of its nothingness and of divine Love's unchangeable presence. But there is no mystery about the infinity of good, which is ever waiting to bless those who turn to God in confidence. As we accept the truth about perfect God and perfect man, our lives will be blessed, and all questions as to the past, present, or future will be lost in the realization of God's infinitude, His omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience.
This truth came to the writer some years ago when her young son was pushed off a seesaw when it was high in the air. He fell on one elbow, shattering the bone at the tip. The school physician was afraid that the bone was so badly injured and out of place that the arm would never again move normally.
Questions began to flood the mother's thought: Why should anyone do such a cruel thing? Why should my child have to suffer so? But as she meditated, the words of Jesus came to her (John 9:3): "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest." Immediately she realized that as a member of the only Christian Science family in this small town she had to let her light shine—to prove the truth of this divine Science for which she and her children were so grateful. She realized that here was no insurmountable problem, but an opportunity to show forth the glory of God.
Gratitude to God for this precious truth flooded the mother's consciousness, and with renewed consecration she drew closer to Love in the realization of man's complete and constant perfection. Within the hour the pain ceased, and in a few days the child was able to use his arm normally.
Looking back at the experience, the mother realized that she had questioned because she had been seeing a material person involved in a material situation, instead of seeing reality—God's spiritual idea —living and moving in the realm of heaven, harmony, where no belief of accident can exist. The healing came about as a material sense of man was exchanged for the spiritual, which is his only true status.
In Jesus' statements one may invariably discern his acknowledgment of God as the only power, the only source of good. With this as his basis he proved the powerlessness of evil—its utter lack of even a claim to be anything or do anything. Jesus never failed in any demonstration because he knew God's all-power was boundless, illimitable. He knew also that there could be no half-right or half-wrong attitude where error is concerned; in other words, there can be no such thing as a halfway position. "Let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay," he directed (Matt. 5:37), "for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil."
God, good, has always been the only reality, and therefore evil, the opposite of God, has never been real. Everything that has its source in God, almighty good, reflects the power and presence of divine reality. Anything contrary to this all-presence and power is without origin, plan, or continuity. Sin, disease, and fear, with all that stems from the unreal and untrue, are mere illusions; they are without cause, basis, or substance.
To realize man's constant, inseparable at-one-ment with God and his complete separation from all that is unlike good results in better health, joyous freedom, enlarged opportunities. In the infinite allness of God, good, there are no unsolved problems, no perplexing situations, no incurable diseases, no unanswered questions. Because this is true of the infinite it can be demonstrated by all in the minutiae of human affairs.
Our revered Leader admonishes us in "Christian Healing" (p. 10): "If you wish to be happy, argue with yourself on the side of happiness; take the side you wish to carry, and be careful not to talk on both sides, or to argue stronger for sorrow than for joy. You are the attorney for the case, and will win or lose according to your plea."
The student of Christian Science early learns that there is no occasion for asking, "Why?" Rather is the opportunity ever at hand in this Science to prove the presence of divine Love, which meets every need positively and completely.
