In South Africa, Freedom Day is April 27, which marks the anniversary of the end of apartheid in that country. In Afrikaans, the word apartheid means apart-hood. Under this system, ethnic groups did not share real connections and were to be kept apart.
An exhibit in the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg shows a rebuke to that practice and tells the story of peoples uniting against apartheid. Their efforts brought a wave of freedom in the 1990s, although struggles for united and prosperous societies still continue in the country.
As Christian Science shows, the answer to healing apartness is in becoming more conscious of God’s infinite goodness that is naturally shared by everyone. The Bible introduces God as the infinite, divine Spirit or Love, constituting all Life. The essence of each of us is the expression of this Spirit through its qualities such as goodness and intelligence. We’re each part of the infinite expression of intelligence or Mind, and we can think of the universe as one boundless consciousness maintained by divine intelligence.
Mary Baker Eddy’s textbook on Christian Science explains the effects of the one God or Mind that we share: “One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself;’ annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, – whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 340).
This means that universal unity is not a condition we have to create but a reality we can understand and prove. In this spiritual reality where we all share the same spiritual source of our lives, apartness from God or each other is an impossibility. We all have the ability to demonstrate this relation to divine Spirit and more naturally and consistently find fulfillment together.
One’s individual consciousness is not an island pitted against others. While we are all individuals, our true individuality, our spiritual identity, is the unique reflection of Spirit, the divine good that God is expressing universally. So, we don’t secure goodness or safety or joy by setting ourselves apart from others, or by thinking that we can be advantaged at the expense of others. The permanent good in our lives is God, and experiencing more of it is something that everyone, everywhere, has an inherent ability to do through understanding and proving that the unfolding of divine good is what’s truly going on.
These ideas point to the need for a deeper sense of love. God is Love, and we’re all expressions of Love. Out of this truth come the two great commandments we have from Jesus – to love God and to love our fellow man. The Bible says, “He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (I John 4:20). Knowing God and His good reality means practicing universal love, which includes finding more good in our neighbor and for our neighbor, and working together toward finding the permanent good that exists without limits or barriers.
My experiences continue to show me that there’s a connection between embracing the divine Spirit that connects us all and finding healing. We are blessed the more we see that the divine Love that connects us is the essence of each of our lives. Then feelings of separateness are ruled out of our hearts, and practices of apartness out of our lives, as we effectively continue a deeper, divine anti-apartness movement together.
