Prayer for hostages
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
Whenever people are taken hostage, our hearts go out to them and to their families no matter where they are or who they are. Prayer reaches beyond nationalities and distances to encompass all people and all nations.
As I’ve thought about hostage situations, my prayers have centered mainly on three different levels. The first is the very human level where the heart reaches out to give comfort and support. At such moments, a hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal like “O tender, loving Shepherd” might come to thought. The first verse of this hymn ends this way: “… We know that Love will guide us, / And safely lead us home” (Frederic W. Root, No. 245 ). Divine Love is able to lead all parties involved in such situations—not just the individuals who have been kidnapped but also the people who have initiated the capture. Each can be led safely home, that is, to a more spiritual understanding of his or her relation to God and to others.
This relationship—each one’s relation to God—is fixed in divine reality. Even a glimpse of that fact can touch each one involved. It purifies motives and affects one’s acts. The Apostle Paul writes, “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” This profound realization has the power to change the situation completely, and keep all safe. It can break down the negative sense that only violence can occur or that things are hopeless and out of control.
People who are taken hostage are not always combatants. They are often journalists or workers, for example, people one might classify as innocent bystanders. Their purpose may be to provide humanitarian aid or to disseminate news about a conflict. But whoever the hostages may be, they will feel Love’s protection, and the effect of our prayers. In my prayers, I affirm, in the words of Science and Health that “a right motive has its reward.” According to the law of God, divine Love, good thoughts and acts can only be and bring a blessing. They can’t bring a curse or lead someone into a trap.
The next step in my prayers is often to see that there are no “sides.” During his ministry, Jesus’ actions made this so clear when he advised against judging others and emphasized the power of forgiveness. Through prayer, we can resist the temptation to reduce the parties to combatants, attackers, terrorists, or victims. Mary Baker Eddy’s book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures brings out: “It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love.” Under one Mind, there can be no sides, and without sides there is understanding. With one Mind, God, there’s unity. With Life, Truth, and Love there’s cooperation, care, and support.
Sometimes people paint themselves into a corner—make decisions, take stands, and then find it difficult to find a way out and still “save face.” Another passage from Science and Health provides a solution to those cases. It says that Christian Science, or the law of God, “shows the scientific relation of man to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought.” Under divine law, the will of God, the Holy Ghost, there is no tangle of wills, policies, agendas, that can’t be unsnarled and harmonized to benefit all parties involved.
The next level of my prayer involves the realization of spiritual facts that bring permanent healing. Here I’ve often thought of a passage from another of Mrs. Eddy’s books, Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896. In it she posed the question, “Would you have me get out of a burning house, or stay in it?” Then she answered, “I would have you already out, and know that you are out …” (p. 335 ).
The child of God’s creating—His image, likeness, expression, idea, manifestation—is never in chains, in prison, in war. The child of God is never born into matter or restricted by matter. The expression of God has to be free, good, loved, lovable, loving. And this brings to mind another sentence from Science and Health, “According to divine Science, man is in a degree as perfect as the Mind that forms him.” This enables me to see that in the relation of God to man, degree doesn’t mean “approaching some level of perfection.” It means “an exact measure.” So man—and that’s a generic term that includes men, women, and children in their true being—is held exactly as free and safe as his Maker, God.
These thoughts and prayers pondered deeply will bring each of us a sense of peace. But they do far more than that. They also act as law as they flow out to others. Jesus’ prayer, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,” is the promise that as in heaven, or divine reality, so on earth, right here in our everyday experience, God, total good, governs and directs every event. This being the case, the outcome is assured—the love of divine Love governing all parties.
God sets free:
Science and Health
453:18-20
467:9-10
114:25-27
337:10-11
King James Bible