Article May 18, 2020 Issue

“Love your neighbor” and healing go hand in hand

Juli Vice

Recently, when I was thinking about a familiar statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the word all really stood out to me from the phrase “the test of all prayer.” The full passage says: “The test of all prayer lies in the answer to these questions: Do we love our neighbor better because of this asking? Do we pursue the old selfishness, satisfied with having prayed for something better, though we give no evidence of the sincerity of our requests by living consistently with our prayer? If selfishness has given place to kindness, we shall regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless them that curse us; but we shall never meet this great duty simply by asking that it may be done” (p. 9).

We might ask, “How does this apply to prayer regarding the healing of a physical condition? Aren’t I primarily trying to see myself as the spiritual idea of God and hold to that?”

In praying for healing in Christian Science, we do start with God in order to understand our true nature as His spiritual reflection. So our prayers are primarily about healing thought, not about trying to fix a material body. We are praying to let divine Truth uncover and correct any error in our thought. And often that means praying to “love our neighbor”—other people—more. And it includes considering those questions that “test” our prayers.

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