Prayer for the outcast

I still remember the little girl in my first-grade class who often sucked her thumb. And I can vividly picture my mocking classmates calling her a baby and making her cry. Most of all I recall how helpless I felt, understanding that something was wrong but having no idea what to do.

It’s easy to excuse a six-year-old for failing to confront this group behavior. Since then, I’ve learned that onlookers can speak up – that bullying and ostracism should be condemned. Yet Christian Science has shown me it’s possible to go further, to bring healing to social interactions.

For most of us, society represents a mix of motives and hopes, opinions and fears. Even on a micro level, it can seem beyond individual control.

Viewed spiritually, though, consciousness is the dwelling place of God’s kingdom. Christ Jesus brought this fact to light when he said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).

That God’s nature – His goodness, grace, and peace – is expressed in us is more than an interesting or even comforting truth. Seen in the light of God’s omnipresence, this divine fact challenges the supposition that mortal existence is real and substantial. As Spirit, God defines His creation spiritually, eternally supplying every good quality. As Principle, God establishes and governs all activity as purposeful, beneficial, and unerring. As Love, God tenderly blesses and comforts each of His ideas, without exception.

These verities are game-changers. In the midst of unkindness, bullying, injustice, or violence, God is present to heal. If this seems implausible, consider Jesus’ example. Petitioned by lepers, the principal outcasts of ancient times, he cured them. Accosted by a demon-possessed pariah, he effected a complete physical and societal transformation. Cultural and social convention fell before this Christly love.

Transformation of collective behavior necessarily begins with individual thought. Christian healer Mary Baker Eddy shows deep reflection to be basic to prayer: “Watch, and pray daily that evil suggestions, in whatever guise, take no root in your thought nor bear fruit. Ofttimes examine yourselves, and see if there be found anywhere a deterrent of Truth and Love, and ‘hold fast that which is good’” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 128).

When we prayerfully turn from a mortal view of ourselves and long to discern something of God’s creation, our perspective shifts. Infinite Love enables us to accept and defend not only our own God-given nature but that of every one of God’s children. We start to see one another as fellow members of a “holy household.”

One summer I was hired to lead a dozen teens to homestays in another country. Part of their preparation involved team-building strategies and group exercises. But at the first meeting, one of the 12 was so ill at ease that he physically distanced himself from everyone else and refused to communicate. Despite my and his peers’ encouragement, he wasn’t able to participate.

I knew that prayer was the only sure answer to the boy’s need to feel at home. That night I reached out to God in wholehearted prayer, with no agenda but to hear His guidance and feel His love. Soon I was filled with a deep conviction of Love’s ever-presence. All concern about the situation with the teen dropped away as I relaxed into the comfort and assurance of that spiritual affection.

The following day brought a dramatic change. Our “outcast” suddenly joined the group and started joking with the other students. Within a couple of hours he was entirely integrated into our activities. And a few weeks afterward, he was able to help a friend who was going through a mental health crisis.

What was it that turned the troubling circumstances around? To me, it was the glimpse I’d gained of God’s goodness and love as discernible and demonstrable in our daily lives. Jesus illustrated this certainty throughout his ministry, preeminently embodying Christ, “the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness” (Mary Baker Eddy, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 332).

Whenever we listen intently for God’s comfort and direction, Christ makes them clear to us right where we are. Christ decisively destroys whatever is unlike God – including distressing actions and reactions. A heartfelt commitment to embracing spiritual reality will bring healing. No one exists outside the circle of infinite Love.

Adapted from an article published on sentinel.christianscience.com, July 6, 2023.