We don’t have to look far to see that there is an urgent need for justice in our world; a justice that includes every individual and leaves no one struggling on the outside. The needs of today are pushing us to search deeply for what true impartiality, fairness, and equality mean.
We can gain a deeper sense of justice by considering a more permanent basis for rights; by considering each one’s divine rights and the laws of God that operate to bless all with goodness.
I grew up in a country during a dictatorship where there was repression and a lack of full freedom. It forced me to search for a more permanent and reliable freedom—a spiritual freedom that the divine law always brings. As a young man, I found Christian Science, and it brought to me a clear understanding of the meaning of divine law, and it also healed me.
This law has been explained by Mary Baker Eddy, whose discovery of Christian Science is based on the deep truths of the Bible and Christ Jesus’ teachings. She defines Christian Science “as the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony” (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 1). This definition has helped me understand that the purpose of divine law is to bring out harmony—God’s supreme harmony—not just for some, but for everyone.
Some years later after I left my homeland, the mental and spiritual freedom I felt through this understanding of divine law brought much-needed justice to a great injustice I was faced with.
While I was going through a normal legal process, documents were presented by others unjustly stating that something wasn’t resolved, even though it had been resolved more than twenty years earlier. Because of this, there was a pending hearing with an order of arrest that could send me to jail at any moment. Suddenly, I was deprived of all my rights, including being able to work and travel. I had to reopen the old case in order to prove my innocence. I was overwhelmed with resentment against the officer in charge of my case, who had told me directly that she believed I was guilty. She had also taken away the documents that I needed to proceed with my original request.
In the middle of all this, I had a growth by my eye that had been there a number of years. It was very visible and getting worse. Some family members asked me insistently to at least consult with a doctor, which finally I consented to. He sent me to a surgeon, who diagnosed it as a tumor and advised surgery to remove it right away, because it was dangerously affecting my vision. An appointment was set for me at the hospital to have it removed.
While in the waiting room of the hospital on the day of surgery, it suddenly occurred to me that I could turn to God in prayer to resolve this, just like I had done in many instances before. I canceled the surgery right then and left the hospital.
Through the years, I had gained the spiritual conviction through my study of Christian Science that whatever inharmonious situation we are experiencing, physical or moral, can be corrected and healed through spiritual means. I had experienced many healings of all kinds of problems through the understanding of God as my divine Parent. I knew I could find healing again.
While this turmoil of the physical difficulty and the legal challenge was going on, I was praying daily to express the purity of God’s thoughts, which reveal my true, spiritual nature. I also prayed to see the perfection of all my neighbors, without excluding anyone. I was striving to see that this was God’s—divine Love’s—law, and that it couldn’t be imposed on, interrupted, or blocked in any way. Since it excluded no one, I was praying to know consistently that this was also true of the officer in charge of my case.
Praying to understand the divine law of Love can bring a balance to human affairs.
I thought a great deal about the commandment, or divine mandate, to love our neighbor as ourselves that Christ Jesus insisted upon as a vital, active law of justice. Jesus, who taught and exemplified Christian living and its healing power to the utmost, must have known that it was unjust for humanity to morally and physically suffer. He came to tell us that heaven, harmony, is a divine state of thought available now on earth for everyone. His healing work showed that there must have been no doubt in his thought that humanity was inseparably linked to God, and that the law of God was operating on earth as it is in heaven for the good of all.
I was endeavoring to see that whatever appeared to be rising up against God—whatever might go against the good laws of God, like resentment—was unjust for both the officer and me. This was the important point and was giving me a fresh perspective on real justice that I was able to apply directly to my experience.
Every day I was obedient to an admonition in Mrs. Eddy’s main text on Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It says, “In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error,—self-will, self-justification, and self-love,—which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death” (p. 242). This meant to me dissolving bitterness, self-will, and self-love with the spiritual understanding that Love has created each one to be loving and lovable. I began to feel very strongly that my affections were governed and protected by this law. The deep peace that comes from God filled every corner of my life.
Soon after I established these ideas and their spiritual power in thought through prayer, the tumor lessened drastically. In a few days there was no more evidence of it, and my sight, which had previously been blocked by it, became clear. I understood that divine law was ever present and filling all space. This was the power of real justice in action. It left no room for self-justification. The thoughts that didn’t have the tender goodness of Love’s law behind them had no authority, and I could let go of them and see that they had no power to determine or direct my life in any way.
One day after praying, I felt a strong directive to call the chief district attorney. After only minutes on the phone explaining the situation, I could see that she recognized my innocence and saw that the charges were a complete mistake. Within a few days after I sent her some documents that verified my innocence, the judge in charge of my case sent me a document of absolution that restored all my rights. I went on to successfully complete the legal process that I was involved in when this injustice came to the surface.
Spiritual law includes no chance or liability and never results in suffering. It always has the effect of restoring or sustaining harmony because God is all and only good. Even where human systems and our fellow beings appear to sanction imbalance or neglect values and respect, spiritual law can restore balance. Mercy and forgiveness play an indispensable role in the justice that corrects wrongdoing. They lift the thought of all mankind and show us that harmony and freedom are integral to the life of everyone.
Spiritual authority and law—divine justice—characterizes God’s government, and obedience to this spiritual law harmonizes our experience. Obedience to this authority is not a condemnatory or weak submission to a master who punishes or penalizes. Allowing every motive, impulse, thought, and act to be governed by God, Love, actually empowers us to love and to do right.
The mercy and justice of divine law are shown in the redemption, health, and liberation they bring; the liberation that lifts individuals out of moral and physical suffering. Each of us has a right to regeneration, reconciliation, and making right whatever is wrong. Praying to understand the divine law of Love can bring a balance to human affairs. Where restitution is needed—no matter how small or large—divine Love’s law is at hand.
Whatever situation we may find ourselves in, there is always an opportunity to be blessed by the great mercy and justice of this supreme law of God. And the world will also be blessed by it.
