The healing power of divine harmony

Imagine two intergalactic travelers not from Earth talking about life on this planet. One says, “Ah, yes, Earth. That’s the planet where everyone believes in the reality of discord as inescapable.” Though the traveler would be mostly right – inharmony certainly does seem pretty common and unavoidable – happily there’s another way we can think about this.

For example, traffic fatalities are often tacitly accepted as an inevitable byproduct of modern transportation. But a number of places – such as Sweden; New York City; and Edmonton, Canada – are significantly preventing such incidents through an approach called Vision Zero. The premise of the approach is that we can avert severe injuries and fatalities.

There’s a spiritual basis for challenging the inevitability of discord in any area of life. Christian Science teaches the universality of harmony as the spiritual reality – everyone created and governed by the one all-good, omnipotent God. Thus, rather than discord being a natural part of life, it’s actually an anomaly, a misperception, unreality (not created by God) with no actual substance.

But the practical implication of that metaphysical insight isn’t ignoring or downplaying illness, suffering, conflict, or loss. It’s an imperative, compassionate call for their elimination as needless impositions on human thought and life, unacceptable because not countenanced by the all-loving God.

While undoubtedly discord can seem real to the human mind, the spiritual fact that it doesn’t exist in and is unknown to God, the divine Mind, gives us a fresh and effective way to deal with it, and to support all those working to lessen it.

The first chapter of the Bible says that God, who is pure goodness, sees His entire creation as “very good” (Genesis 1:31). In healing sickness, reforming sinners, and even raising himself and others from death, Christ Jesus proved the actuality of immortal harmony. And he said that a house or a kingdom divided against itself can’t stand (see Mark 3:24, 25). If harmony and discord, light and darkness, joy and sadness existed together, the universe would be self-destructive.

But how can we know for sure that discord is unreal? If we judge reality by what the physical senses report, then discord certainly seems real. But beyond the limitations of the physical senses, we can rely on a spiritual, intuitive way of seeing that appreciates the sheer rightness of harmony and the fundamental wrongness of discord and suffering.

As we trust what this spiritual sense – which is inherent in all of us as God’s children – is telling us, we can break free of the limitations and discord of the physical senses. As we come to realize that in truth harmony is the one, eternal reality, the law of the universe, always in operation, then harmony is increasingly brought to the human situation or circumstance.

Christian Science has a strong 150-year record of effecting healing from this premise, proving that though the human mind educates itself to think that discord is normal, inevitable, and acceptable, this false perspective can be outgrown.

When a child, I regularly had mouth cankers, often several at a time, in spite of the kind efforts of our family doctor. They seemed an inevitable part of who I was. However, when I learned of Christian Science, I understood that I could pray to be free of the recurring cankers.

Realizing that was a big step, and I found that when I felt a canker or felt one coming on, it was helpful to let harmonious thoughts from God fill my consciousness. Over time I leaned more consistently on these divine assurances of God’s goodness and harmony as the reality. Praying and thinking in this way healed me permanently.

I have seen many times that recognizing God’s all-harmonious government brings not only physical healing but also the harmonization of relationships, the resolution of community conflict, and financial solutions. The founder of this publication, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote, “Let discord of every name and nature be heard no more, and let the harmonious and true sense of Life and being take possession of human consciousness” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 355).

The truth that harmony is the reality gives us an expectation of good that’s founded on the divine, all-harmonious Principle, God – and therefore goes beyond human optimism. For God’s glory, we can apply this Principle calmly and systematically to the healing needed in any situation.