What is happening when a Christian Science practitioner is asked for help through prayer? Is somebody with a holy thought causing something to happen for somebody with a not-so-holy thought? Such a concept would put Christian Science treatment on a personal basis, even perhaps implying that from time to time we need an intermediary to gain access to God. That belief would deny the office and mission of the Christ, the divine healing influence in human consciousness.
Each of us has an unbreakable relation to God and can therefore experience His help directly. Mary Baker Eddy points to this fact when she writes in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, "In divine Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail themselves of God as 'a very present help in trouble.'" Science and Health, pp. 12-13. But she also writes at another point in the book: "If students do not readily heal themselves, they should early call an experienced Christian Scientist to aid them. If they are unwilling to do this for themselves, they need only to know that error cannot produce this unnatural reluctance." Ibid., p. 420.
To reason correctly on this subject, we need to start with what God is doing, rather than with what we perceive a person to be doing. An account in the tenth chapter of Acts might be helpful in explaining this.
Cornelius, a centurion, described as "a devout man," one who worshiped God, saw a vision. An angel said to him, "Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God." Then he was instructed to send for Peter. Meanwhile, Peter was receiving a vision of his own, through which he gained a deeper sense of God's universal, impartial love, of the fact that all who worship God and do what is right are blessed. He was being prepared to respond to the men, sent by Cornelius, who shortly stood outside his door requesting to see him. Peter ended up preaching to Cornelius and a whole group of Cornelius's friends and household. This is generally accounted as the introduction of Christianity to the Gentiles.
Had Peter caused anything to happen? Had Cornelius? They were both responding to what God was doing, to His constant impartation of good to man. The result was a breaking up of misconceptions about His creation. Couldn't we conclude that this took place in the lives of Peter and Cornelius because each of them was humble enough to give up a sense of personal ego or ability to make something happen? One might have been tempted to think of himself as an influential somebody in the Roman Empire, the other as a select member of a "chosen people." Holding on to either of those concepts would have been a hindrance to spiritual progress.
God is the infinite I AM, the one Ego, in which all capacity and individuality reside. Capacity never originates in, nor is confined to, a particular personality. The expression of Mind, God, is infinite. When we reason from this standpoint, we see the need for healing not so much as our own personal problem for which we must take personal responsibility, but as an opportunity to bear individual witness to the power of Truth breaking up some particular false belief deceiving the whole of mankind. Thus the very act of asking for help through prayer is a response to the divine impulsion that God's perfect nature be expressed. Reluctance to respond to that impulsion would indeed be unnatural!
Releasing our sense of personal responsibility, we are led to make the appropriate contact. Sometimes we may call on an experienced Christian Scientist we know; sometimes we may feel led to contact someone with whom we're not familiar. It is not uncommon for one in the healing practice of Christian Science to find himself receiving calls from people he's never met, asking for help with troubles that directly relate to a specific line of study or unfoldment that he has been pursuing. As the healer gains new views of God's goodness, false beliefs about man that a patient may be struggling with are drawn to his or her practice to be destroyed—like moths drawn to a flame. Viewed in this way, the action of asking for and receiving help is seen as effect, not cause—the effect of responding to divine Love and its purifying, healing activity.
The very act of asking for help through
prayer is a response to the divine impulsion
that God's perfect nature be expressed.
When we recognize that there are not many different minds, but one Mind expressing itself infinitely, that the individual consciousness in which views of God's goodness are appearing is in fact the very reflection of the one divine consciousness, we are not tempted to believe that spiritual capacity resides exclusively in "my practitioner." Wouldn't seeking help from someone on the basis of a sense of personal loyalty or adulation be a form of idolatry?
The Discoverer of Christian Science was persistent in turning people away from personal reliance on her. Mrs. Eddy writes in Miscellaneous Writings: "Whosoever looks to me personally for his health or holiness, mistakes. He that by reason of human love or hatred or any other cause clings to my material personality, greatly errs, stops his own progress, and loses the path to health, happiness, and heaven." Mis., p. 308. She followed the example of our Master, Christ Jesus, who consistently claimed no personal power of his own but recognized God as the only source and cause of all good.
As important as it is to guard against personal adulation, it is just as imperative that personal antipathy not cloud our sense of what God is doing. We may not like or approve of how another may see things, but again, it is our willingness to drop the personal concept—be it good or bad—that opens our way heavenward. I had vivid proof of this many years ago.
A practitioner and I were members of the same small branch Church of Christ, Scientist. We continually found ourselves at cross-purposes and holding different points of view. I did nothing to correct my unloving thoughts about this individual, and shortly developed an active dislike for her. More than once the thought crossed my mind that if I ever got sick, she would be the last person I'd call for help.
One afternoon I was alone and became very ill. Struggling to remain conscious, I called a number of Christian Scientists, but no one was home. In desperation, I was finally willing to accept help from any direction. I called "my enemy." I'll never forget her loving words. "I'll be happy to help," she said, "and remember, when you called me, you weren't reaching out your hand to me, but to the Christ." We hung up. It wasn't five minutes before every vestige of the illness was completely gone. In great joy I called her back, and we rejoiced together. Both of us had been responding to what God, divine Love, was revealing of Himself and of His pure spiritual expression, man.
If sin and sickness were native to man, they would not cause mortals to be uneasy or diseased. Our longing to do and be better is evidence of Spirit, God, lifting our thought, purifying our motives, and transforming our lives through the ever-present Christ. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Phil. 2:13.
Our reaching out to the Christ is in response to a divine impulsion, to man's natural attraction to Spirit. It would be unnatural for us to disregard the divine impulse that would lift us higher. But our help isn't ever confined to a particular individual. It's found in God. This understanding helps put Christian Science practice on a sure foundation.
