Mediation that heals

International conflicts, broken families and marriages, labor-management strife, and fragmented political parties -- they all cry for unifying solutions. Although many disagreements have exhausted the best mediating efforts of human intelligence, the power of prayer can bring the needed answers.

The Apostle Paul relied on prayer when faced with conflict in the early Christian Church. Centuries-old fear and prejudice among nations, quarrels over laws and traditions, and jealousy among people ambitious for power threatened the emerging religion. In his letters, Paul tells of his unceasing prayers for the churches. He exhorts them to follow consistently the teachings of Christ Jesus.

Jesus taught that God is Spirit, man's only Father. He taught that since our real life is from God, the aspiration after generosity, forgiveness, and humility should replace srife over material possessions and power. Through his own life, Jesus showed people how to be Godlike. As the New Testament writer up it, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." n1

n1 I Timothy 2:5;

Paul knew the power of Christly mediation from personal experience. Before his conversion, he was well known as a hardline opponent of Christianity, and he had persecuted its followers. But the saving Truth that Christ Jesus represented came so forcefully to Paul one day that his life was transformed. He felt the light, or deep understanding, of the presence of Christ. One result of this was an end to his mistreatment of innocent men and women.

Mark Baker Eddy n2 describes the mediation of the eternal Christ this way: "Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness." n3 And, "Christ, Truth, was demonstrated through Jesus to prove the power of Spirit over the flesh, -- to show that Truth is made manifest by its effects upon the human mind and body, healing sickness and destroying sin." n4

n2 Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science;

n3 Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesm , p. 332;

n4 ibidm ., p. 316;

The highest form of mediation is that which makes mankind consistent with God. This was the purpose of Jesus' remarkable career. He healed both sin and sickness on the grounds that because we are in reality children of God, we must show the true image of our Father. His command was, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." n5

n5 Matthew 5:48.

Since conflict is no more consistent with the perfection of God than are sickness and sin, we have the authority of Christ to heal it. The Christly method of mediation is prayer affirming that God is the one infinite, indivisible, all-powerful Mind, and that man -- the only true man, and our true identity -- is inseparable from God.

God is One because God is All. His allness can be thought of as infinite Love filling all space; as universal Principle comprising and enforcing all law and justice; as all-knowing Mind forming and governing all ideas. To think of God as present whenever and wherever reconciliation is needed is a powerful prayer.

God's allness includes man. Infinite, impartial Love sustains him with the tenderness of a Father-Mother. Divine understanding and intelligence are expressed by all of God's children. All-powerful Principle holds man in obedience to deific law. All-knowing Mind gives them insight and wisdom. To think of God's man as present in every negotiation is also powerful prayer.

It is impossible for God to be in one place and man in another. Man cannot escape or avoid or secede from the allness of God, any more than the number six, for example, can separate itself from the law of numbers. Nor can the real man act independently of God, his governing Principle. As our prayers reveal the perfect agreement between God and man, agreement among people will follow as a natural result. Now, as in Jesus' time, Christ is the universal mediating power , penetrating the most stubborn resistance to show the oneness and allness of divine Love.

DAILY BIBLE VERSE Ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's. I Corinthians 3:23