A moment’s pause ensued. “That is what makes people sick and unhappy, isn’t it, Padre?”
“What, child?” in unfeigned surprise.
“Supposing an opposite to God. Supposing that there can be nothing, when He is everywhere. Doesn’t all trouble come from just supposing things that are not so?”
Whence came such questions to the mind of this child? And why did they invariably lead to astonishing deductions in 106 his own? Why did he often give a great start as it dawned again upon him that he was not talking to one of mature age, but to a babe?
He tore a strip from the paper in his hand. Relatively the paper had lost in size and quantity, and there was a distinct separation. Absolutely, such a thing was an impossibility. The plus was always positive and real; the minus was always relative, and stood for unreality. And so it was throughout the entire realm of thought. Every real thing has its suppositional opposite. The difficulty is that the human mind, through long ages of usage, has come to regard the opposite as just as real as the thing itself. The opposite of love is hate; of health, disease; of good, evil; of the real, the counterfeit. God is positive––Truth. His opposite, the negative, is supposition. Oh, stupid, blundering, dull-eared humanity, not to have realized that this was just what Jesus said when he defined evil as the lie about God! No wonder the prophet proclaimed salvation to be righteousness, right thinking! But would gross humanity have understood the Master better if he had defined it this way? No, they would have stoned him on the spot!
Josè knew that when both he and Rosendo lay sick unto death Carmen’s thought had been positive, while theirs had been of the opposite sign. Was her pure thought stronger than their disbelief? Evidently so. Was this the case with Jesus? And with the prophets before him, whom the world laughed to scorn? The inference from Scripture is plain. What, then, is the overcoming of evil but the driving out of entrenched human beliefs?
Again Josè came back to the thought of Principle. Confucius had said that heaven was principle. And heaven is harmony. But had evil any principle? Mankind are accustomed to speak lightly and knowingly of their “principles.” But in their search for the Philosopher’s Stone they have overlooked the Principle which the Master used to effect his mighty works––“that Mind which was in Christ Jesus.” The Principle of Jesus was God. And, again, God is Love.
The word evil is a comprehensive term, including errors of every sort. And yet, in the world’s huge category of evils is there a single one that stands upon a definite principle? Josè had to admit to himself that there was not. Errors in mathematics result from ignorance of principles, or from their misapplication. But are the errors real and permanent?
“Padre, when I make a mistake, and then go back and do the problem over and get it right, what becomes of the mistake?”
Josè burst out laughing at the tremendous question. Carmen joined in heartily.