"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
Two years ago my friend next door, who is very involved with the charity “Children of Chernobyl,” introduced us to a young 20-year old woman called Kate who has a loving, outgoing and happy disposition. Kate lives in Svetlogorsk, Belarus, 60 miles away from the nuclear reactor that released a devastating radioactive cloud twenty years ago.
We have grown very close to Kate, and while staying next door she very quickly got into the habit of popping in to see us daily. I gradually learned of the great hardship and sadness her cheerfulness masked, including being abandoned by her father as a young child, physical illness, and a tragic accident in which Kate’s 13-year old brother and her step-grandfather had died.
Last summer Kate stayed with us and as the anniversary of her beloved brother’s death approached she gradually became very sad and depressed. To help lift Kate’s sorrow we visited the beautiful Chalice Well Garden in Glastonbury. As we walked and talked in this peaceful, contemplative place, I mentioned that I had noticed she frequently said about any little problem “oh, it’s a punishment from God”. She said that her orthodox Christian church taught that any human suffering was a punishment from God for sin committed by either the victim or his predecessors, and the hardest thing for them to accept was the thought that their gentle, loving boy had died as a punishment from God. They found trying to accept this teaching, and coping with their considerable grief, overwhelmingly difficult.
I prayed silently to find the right words to comfort Kate, not wishing to voice glib clichés, knowing I had to dig deep within my own understanding for answers. It came to mind to quote Jesus’ disciples’ question on seeing a blind man, ”Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” and Jesus’ reply, “Neither hath this man nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”
Kate was unfamiliar with these words, and a long, deep discussion followed, in which I told Kate of Mary Baker Eddy, who was a spiritual healer with a Calvinist background which also taught of a strict punishing God; and how Mrs. Eddy, when a sickly child, became more ill because she could not accept this. However, being encouraged by her Mother to go to God in prayer and lean on His love, she found healing.
Kate was very interested to learn how this led to Mrs. Eddy’s life’s work of studying the Bible to find the source of God’s healing power, and that through her thorough research of Jesus’ healings she discovered and gave to the world Christian Science as laid out in her book Science and Health.
I explained as simply as I could that I had learned from being a student of Christian Science that our human existence is not all there is to life, as God made us in His image and likeness, spiritual and perfect. Jesus proved by His resurrection after he was crucified, that our spiritual life is forever. Everything about Kate’s brother that was good and true, will always be with his loved ones. I found two Sentinel articles on the healing of grief that Kate gladly accepted, and after her response of gratitude for the comfort she found in these, I offered her a copy of Science and Health which she also happily accepted.
Kate told me that she never realised there was any other way to think about God than as a punishing God, and has found great relief in learning that her brother is innocent, a perfect child of God, and is continuing his spiritual growth. She is sharing what she is learning from reading Science and Health with her Mother. When her Mother is feeling a bit down she often says, “Will you please read to me from your book?” So I obtained a copy in Russian for her Mother. Kate says she reads Science and Health almost every day, and I know she is using what she is reading.
When we were asked the question, "Is our parish our world? or is the world our parish?" my friendship with Kate has answered this in a way.
I am so happy to have been able to give Kate and her Mother the means of learning about God’s healing power and am looking forward to her next visit in July and more of our in-depth conversations, which are also progressing my own understanding of my relationship with God.