Article January 31, 1970 Issue

Healing the Community

JOHN H. WILLIAMS

The charge to heal the community was given by Christ Jesus when he stated as the second great commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."^{ Matt. 22:39;} How can the student of Christian Science follow this admonition by healing not only the individual neighbor who comes to him for help but also the troubled community whose problems cry out for solution?

He can begin by praying. He has learned that this is fundamental to any right accomplishment. Effective prayer in Christian Science is based upon an understanding of God and of man made in His image. God is the Supreme Being, divine Mind, Truth, and Love, who has created all and governs all in perfect harmony. Man, therefore, as God's eternal expression, must be spiritual, flawless, forever impelled by his Maker to reflect wisdom and love. He dwells in unity with all God's creation. He is immune from evil, for evil is not of God and hence is without verity, power, presence, or intelligence.

That these basic facts are true in spite of all sense evidence to the contrary is proved by every healing of disease in Christian Science. These same facts can be utilized to solve any problem, whether it has to do with an individual, a community, a nation, or the world. The first step, as the Christian Scientist knows, is to allay fear, to see that fear is unreal because it cannot exist in the omnipresence of Love. Love exempts all its ideas from danger and affliction. The next steps include a perceptive affirmation of God's exclusive control over all and a denial of evil and its claims to power and reality.

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