A common defeatist notion about modern life is that it is impossible to resolve complex conflicting interests. "Deadlock in the Middle East," "The World Bank opposes the Save Bombay Committee," "Race plan: a sinister ring"—the enormity of reported troubles such as these, with the attending doubts over their ultimate resolution, can put us fast asleep spiritually by making us feel helpless, instead of alerting us to our responsibility to pray daily, emphatically, and understandingly, "Thy kingdom come." Matt. 6:10; Mrs. Eddy spiritually interprets this line from the prayer Christ Jesus gave his disciples as, "Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present." Science and Health, p. 16;
Conflicting interests—even those of multinational or superpower dimensions concerning issues as gray as a dawn fog— you and I can help resolve by our total acceptance of the omnipotence and ever-presence of God. Once we begin regularly to acknowledge His omnipotence we are less likely to be duped into believing that what we are spiritually discerning doesn't count for very much against "big problems" or that the institutionalized greed of some powerful monopolies threatening human rights is too complicated for us to pray about effectively.
The Bible is an encyclopedia of spiritual facts, which when pondered dispel the notion that small- or large-scale conflicts are immovable blots on mankind's horizon. Jeremiah declared, "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." Jer. 23:24; David cried, "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine." I Chron. 29: 11; The recognition of God's omnipresence involves the acknowledgment of the presence everywhere of all His attributes. Where God is, there too are mercy, intelligence, goodness, justice.
So often in problems involving conflicting interests it is this last attribute, justice, that seems critically absent. Turning to the Bible once again, we read a powerful statement of the Psalmist contradicting this: "Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face." Ps. 89:14; How reassuring it is to realize that God, infinite Principle, is the source of all justice, which like God Himself is omnipresent! And such realization heals.
Therefore, when we are dealing with conflicting interests that concern us directly or thinking of cases that, though remote from us personally, cry out to our conscience, it is important to remember that our role is not to beg for justice from humanity or the judge's bench. "Justice and judgment are the habitation [foundation] of thy throne." Justice is the very basis of God's law, of His omnipresent, benevolent power.
So we make an effective appeal for justice by identifying this attribute with God and, furthermore, with God's likeness, man. In this way we begin to object to the picture in our mind's eye of a person or group of people acting unjustly. What's more, we do not wait for them to reform before we begin to appreciate them as spiritual and Godlike. Rather, we immediately make practical the revelation of man in Christian Science as the expression of Principle, the likeness of Love. We see that it is impossible for any quality of God and God's man to be negated or erased by what appears to be a material personality or a number of personalities. "Mercy and truth" are ever before the face of God. They are always before God's expression, man.
The present tumultuous state of world politics and economics perhaps should not surprise us. Around the turn of the century Mrs. Eddy made a number of prophetic statements concerning the general welfare of the human race and the conflicts that would be encountered in time to come. These have proved to be remarkably pertinent to the present time and are worth considering carefully.
Like the prophets before her, Mrs. Eddy clearly foresaw the confusion that would follow thought and action based on the belief that power resides in human personality, money, and material methods, and she warns her students to be alert to the dangers inherent in such a belief. Her counsel to her followers is to forestall evil effects through grasping the fact that God is infinite. For instance, in the early pages of her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 she says: "It does not follow that power must mature into oppression; indeed, right is the only real potency; and the only true ambition is to serve God and to help the race... . Competition in commerce, deceit in councils, dishonor in nations, dishonesty in trusts, begin with 'Who shall be greatest?'" '02., pp. 3-4; Here she gives us a timeless clue to the resolving of conflicting interests through prayer.
The question at the root of every conflict is not "Who shall be wisest?" or "Who shall be most loving?" or "Who shall be most just?" but "Who shall be greatest?" Even the scale of the conflicts that confront us personally or in concert with those who inhabit the same part of the earth or who hold similar opinions doesn't change this fundamental fact. From two children scrapping over a toy to the abuse of financial power by multinational companies, the concern is ultimately over which side will eventually be adjudged the greatest in material might or influence.
However, if with humility and spiritual perception we ask, "Who shall be greatest?" we find we cannot answer in terms of human personality or material power. "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness" is the only honest answer.
But it is all too obvious that some people habitually answer "Me!" Impelled by their own ego or the collective ego of clan or company, they would try to usurp control over other people through the force of willpower. Such an attitude is found in some monopolistic organizations that wield inflated bank balances to gain control of certain markets or government agencies. But alongside the power of the Almighty, such power is little more than a house of cards, which the slightest breeze collapses. We cannot believe that power belongs to people or factions at the same time we are realizing the omnipotence of God. Such realization heals conflicting interests by denying them reality.
If we haven't observed a sufficient triumphing of justice over the pretenders to power, could it mean that we have more earnest praying to do? Could it be that in our own thought we need to propel justice out of the confines of the courtroom into the realm of infinite, divine Principle, where we can recognize it as universal, ever present, all-pervasive? Although the error of setting out to be adjudged the greatest will not be completely eliminated until every human being acknowledges the omnipotence of God, the prayers of you and me can help mightily to speed that day.
The prayerful approach to healing conflicts of interest includes the refusal to be impressed by the number of people involved. A group of people is often referred to as a body or corporation. In fact, under United States law a corporation has been defined as "an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law" (Dartmouth College Case). In Christian Science a body—be it "many-headed" or the physical body per se—is not an aggregate of material personalities or tissues. In the Glossary of Science and Health we find Mrs. Eddy's spiritual interpretation of the biblical term "temple," which begins: "Body; the idea of Life, substance, and intelligence; the superstructure of Truth . . . ." Science and Health, p. 595. Clear vision of "the idea of Life, substance, and intelligence" can prohibit conflict within the body politic, the body economic, or a civic or commercial corporation.
Similar results follow when we identify two private parties in a case of conflicting interests as ideas of God, Life. For this enables us to see at once that each is really spiritual, expressing the nature and attributes of God. On this basis we can affirm the presence of God on both sides, so called; and where God is, no conflicts can be.
Undaunted by the size or complexity of any appearance of conflict, we can pray scientifically, declaring the omnipotence and omnipresence of God. And such prayer resolves conflict, proving that God's kingdom is come.
