Peter and John, the Scriptures relate, healed a man who was "lame from his mother's womb."Acts 3:2; He had been born a cripple, but the disciples proved that the power of the Christ, Truth, is able to overcome a condition of lameness despite its long duration or supposed incurability.
The understanding that matter never had a perfect form—that, indeed, matter never existed—leads us to see that it can never become de-formed. As Peter lifted up the lame man, we, too, need to lift our consciousness to see man's identity as completely spiritual—to behold man, not as a mortal trapped in deformed matter, but as an immortal idea, never having been in matter.
Peter and John had already witnessed Christ Jesus' demonstration of the nothingness of matter and the eternality of Life. And when the people wondered how this healing occurred, the disciples indicated that it was through no power of their own but through the Christ-power that this man was made whole. The healing Christ brings to light the true identity of man and proves the imperfect, material concept to be illusive, unreal.
But where did the crippled body go? Did malfunctioning matter somehow turn into well-functioning matter? This appeared to be the case. But what appears to be the healing of matter merely evidences a clearer view of man's unbroken spiritual perfection. Spiritual sense knows and sees only the perfection of Soul and its manifestation, never any condition or form of matter.
Searching for a more spiritual concept of identity opens the way for the light of Truth to penetrate the ignorant, unillumined concepts of the human mind, manifested as disease and deformity. This brings healing to the human body. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "The belief that a material body is man is a false conception of man."Science and Health, p. 285;
To conquer this false sense of man and his origin, the root of the error must be uncovered and destroyed. The belief that man was created materially instead of spiritually is the lie upon which congenital discords rest. But as Christian Science explains, this belief has no foundation in Spirit, no support from divine law. Therefore it is illegitimate, and its illusive effects can be destroyed.
To annul a congenital problem, we need to see through the suggestion of a womb experience for man to the fact of his origin in Spirit. This understanding helps release one from the lies of prenatal and birth defects and of incurability. It enables him to see the truth of his divine heritage of perfection.
Man is only conceived once, for divine Love alone, the one Mind, has the power to conceive an idea. Man is not, therefore, conceived a second time into matter. The material concept of man is a misconception, no concept at all. And this lie is overcome only by seeing the true—the only—concept of man, which is spiritual. The divine reflection never fell into matter, never was trapped in matter, and never existed as matter. How tempting it is to believe we are mortals and trying to get out of this state!
Science shows it to be impossible that man began as matter and underwent a birth process, for Mrs. Eddy states, "So-called mortal mind—being non-existent and consequently not within the range of immortal existence—could not by simulating deific power invert the divine creation, and afterwards recreate persons or things upon its own plane, since nothing exists beyond the range of all-inclusive infinity, in which and of which God is the sole creator."ibid., pp. 513–514;
Through scientific prayer, in which we correctly identify ourselves as children of God, we overcome false beliefs about man's selfhood until eventually all material beliefs are overcome. We prove that all that ever was and is, is our spiritual identity.
It is essential to understand and claim our spiritual existence right now. This will bring improvement to our lives. But to be merely an improved mortal isn't our goal. To be deceived into believing that man is a mortal and that our goal is to seek a better state of life in matter would be to fall into error's trap. Our goal should be to demonstrate that we are immortal now —already spiritual—and in doing this we will progressively disprove every claim of mortality, regardless of its supposed reality.
Moving toward this goal and seeing our identity as untouched by the flesh help us see more of our real selfhood, our Christly identity. And this strikes at the root of congenital problems, for the mask of material conception is taken away by the truth of man's existence as a pure idea of Soul.
The material concept of man, including the belief that man passes through a period of gestation and birth, needs to be unmasked. Matter is always illusion, whether seemingly deformed or formed according to mortal mind's standard as to what constitutes normality. Man never entered or emerged from a womb, therefore he cannot suffer from the effects of an experience he never had. Mortal man is a counterfeit, unreal, and the mortal only parades in the guise of the genuine.
To attempt to make changes in the counterfeit, or mortal concept, isn't going to help us find or recognize the real man. The real man, God's expression, can never become a mortal—happy or unhappy, sick or healthy. Neither can an unhappy, sick, or discordant mortal become the real man. The one is always real and the other always unreal.
In reality there are no material formations to be corrected or adjusted. Man's perfect identity exists in Mind, and we can see this right where a suggestion of defect or abnormality claims to be. Through this understanding the practicality of Christian Science is demonstrated in the healing of physical ills, including congenital difficulties.
Christian Science refutes the lie of mortal parentage with the spiritual fact that man's Parent is the one Father-Mother God, the only creator. Christ Jesus referred to his true, spiritual self, never touched by mortality, when he said, "O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."John 17:5.
The truth of each of us—that we exist as a perfect idea in eternal Life—can never be destroyed. All that can ever be eliminated is an error about man's being.
The desire to lift all mankind to find their perfect being in Spirit is unquestionably right, but it cannot be accomplished by accepting man as a decrepit, deformed, or diseased mortal and attempting to lift him to perfection from that false basis. Man's perfection and immortality isn't a state we're waiting to reach but a present fact we can demonstrate here and now.
