Our readings made clear that any attempt to resolve problems spiritually should not include retaliation.

One member briefly toyed with the statement: "Living well is the best revenge,"but realized that letting his attitudes and actions result from vengeful thoughts — themselves motivated by painful memories — was not Christian Science. This exchange followed: "But it could give you a lift."So could a shot of heroin!"He quoted Mary Baker Eddy: "Mind is its own great cause and effect,"(Miscellaneous Writings, p. 173) and added, "We don't so much work out from God as we just let Him be the substance and action of all."

The group then discussed "A Rule for Motives and Acts"(see Readings from the Manual of The Mother Church). One of the "sweet amenities of love"is to rebuke sin. Could that be stretched to include retaliation? No one present thought so. Rebuking sin with Science is an impersonal activity, denying in prayer any validity, operation or presence to sin or dual thinking. Retaliation on the other hand is a highly personalized action of paying someone back in kind for their violations. "It's day and night. Rebuking reduces sin to nothing, while retaliating builds it up,"is how one member saw the difference.

Do we then love our enemies? Yes and no. As one member put it, to love an enemy might be to embrace what a mortal appears to be doing. What's really entailed here is to behold man in Science where the material belief called a mortal seems to be. One member added, "By the way, this material belief of a mortal could show up as either friend or foe — so proceed carefully and with spiritual vision."Anyway,"added another, "why treat a foe better than a friend by seeing the foe's divinity while we relax into dualism with our friend!"

We moved on to a much grander idea. All the energy involved in avoiding retaliation (from roots meaning to lift, support or weigh) or undertaking rebukes (from Old North French for chopping wood) might better be expended in joyously bringing spiritual consciousness to all venues of our lives. Why wait around for something awful to happen and then rebuke the sin? Why not go forward proactively proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven on earth? "Is that our version of a pre-emptive strike,"asked a member. He read this from Science and Health: "The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the preventive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian Science, as would be readily seen, if psychology, or the Science of Spirit, God, was understood."(p. 369:23)

This led naturally to a brief discussion of the second UN resolution covering intervention in Iraq. Here are a couple of reactions:

• "Mortal mind has been weighed and found wanting. I keep my focus on reports from divine Mind about the situation."
• "The introduction of a second resolution with all the negotiations, support and opposition is dualistic language for the oneness and allness of divine being taking control of the human belief."

1) A member was doing some prayerful work to support the health of his brother. He was having trouble getting a clear vision of what to address. At a Christian Science branch church Wednesday testimony meeting he heard readings about the brothers Esau and Jacob. (see Genesis, chapters 25, 27, 32 and 33) and Mrs. Eddy's comment on the story (Science and Health, pp. 308-309). It's all about Jacob's trickery to wrest Esau's birthright from him, the ensuing fear and hatred between the two and their eventual reconciliation after heartfelt appeals to God. After the readings from the desk a branch church member gave a testimony of how she'd been healed of a fierce tussle with a credit card company by realizing the divine birthright of everyone involved.

After pondering what unfolded at the church meeting our member realized that he and his brother had gone through a kind of Esau-Jacob role reversal in their youth and were still carrying some largely unconscious wounds from it. But the needed Science was clear — they and all, whatever the human roles and wounds, were of divine birthright. Instantly all confusion and fear departed from our member and he was able to see the reality of being for himself, his brother and all.

2) A member telephoned in his testimony. He was grateful for relief from a longstanding problem of judgmentalism, which had subjected interactions with friends and even walks along the street to a constant stream of very unkind observations about himself and others. Recently he discussed Christian Science practice with another student and came away with some helpful pointers about praying universally for the whole congregation of mankind. He was encouraged to see God as doing the praying and constituting the being of everyone. His false views of people have more or less evaporated.

3) Another member found during the week that he was carrying around some five pounds of "winter fat". Having recovered from mammoth obesity 25 years ago, he was unsettled and planned draconian measures to reduce food intake and increase exercise. As he went on and on to another member of the group about the threatened return to corpulence, this member said he thought our prospective dieter seemed caught in a time warp — treating himself now as he might have all those years ago before he had any real understanding of Science, not to mention proper food and exercise management.

Our member bearing the extra weight had to agree and did feel some relief. He could manage this crisis and be kind to himself in the process. Then underneath all the alarms and calls to action he found the real culprits. It was a bunch of voices, particularly from his teenage years, of his peers and even parents taunting him for his overweight and yes his queerness as well. All the abusive memories needed eradication. This he's now doing based on the Science of true substance and action.

4) Last week a member reported the healing of some bad memories of a slippery lawyer who had just passed away (see [#topic=20030220#]). This week the lawyer's son called our member, reaching out for warmth and comfort in his grief. Our member regards this as further evidence of the extent of the healing.

For next week our topic is Prophecy.