Love's New World Order
WAR tends to alter our view of man -- to make us think in terms of enemies, of victims, and of vengeful armies. We seem to lose sight of the brotherhood of man. But this brotherhood does exist, not as some utopian ideal, but as the way things truly are -- the way God causes creation to be in its native essence, governed by His law and wholly spiritual. God, the creator of all, created man to express His nature, to manifest divine Life and Love. And to the degree that we're willing to recognize man as spiritual, our view of the world takes on a whole new perspective -- life ordered by Love.
Against the backdrop of war's devastation, however, this spiritual view of man can be very difficult to discern. The Boston Globe reported that when one young Marine was asked how he felt about fighting, he said, ``I'm scared what it will do to me. When there's skirmishing, and rounds blowing up all around, I start hating the enemy personal-like.''
Yet this is precisely when a new, spiritual vision of life is most needed, to bring healing and restoration. Spiritual sense reassures us that God is Life and Love, and that we cannot be separated from Him. Prayerfully insisting that divine Love is always present and supreme is not only relevant to the resolution of international conflicts but brings practical solutions to our personal lives. As we recognize that divine Love determines the only legitimate conditions of man, we will stop thinking of man in terms of vulnerability or victimization. We will instead begin seeing ourselves and others as who we already are -- loved sons and daughters of God.
In her Message to The Mother Church for 1902, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, shows why we can be assured that war need not forever blind us to God's mandate of peace. She writes: ``Our heavenly Father never destined mortals who seek for a better country to wander on the shores of time disappointed travellers, tossed to and fro by adverse circumstances, inevitably subject to sin, disease, and death. Divine Love waits and pleads to save mankind -- and awaits with warrant and welcome, grace and glory, the earth-weary and heavy-laden who find and point the path to heaven.'' Because divine Love is actual and powerful, those who yearn to experience more of God's love, regardless of surroundings or circumstances, find themselves empowered with the God-given opportunity and ability to do so. This brings a new view of the world, where peace and concern for the welfare of all characterize the way we live.
One year ago, on April 11, 1990, the President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, spoke to the World Media Association about a new world order. And President Bush of the United States has repeatedly spoken of a new world order ``where brutality will go unrewarded and aggression will meet collective resistance.'' But above any political and military alliance intended to help stabilize the world, we each must realize the choice and ability we have to order our world according to what has been called the Golden Rule. Christ Jesus' words are recorded in Matthew's Gospel: ``All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.''
Such an approach to daily living not only makes us more caring and sensitive to the concerns of others; it spiritually empowers us to see more of our own true spiritual individuality. It lets us see all those we come into contact with as truly our brothers and sisters. It aligns us with divine Love's new world order.
