Prayer and Politics (II)

Extract

For some people the worlds of prayer and politics stand in direct opposition ; there can be no question of passing from one world to the other; prayer means a flight from activity, and if it attempts to pass over into the world’ of activity it destroys itself. Now this is the typical Eastern view of prayer ; it is not the Christian view. Indeed in Christian eyes it is the great mistake of the East, just as a zest for action without prayer is the mistake of the West. The Christian ideal is neither action without prayer nor prayer without action, but prayer overflowing into action. And the reason why is not difficult to see. Let me put it in three points. First, the Christian holds that the world about him is a world of real things and real persons, made by God and loved by God, but fallen upon evil days. Then secondly, he believes that God so loved the world that He took upon Himself our humanity to heal it, so that all men should be won back to sanity and peace in Him. And thirdly, the prayerful Christian not only knows about God, he knows God : he has the knowledge that begets love and is begotten by love ; and because love means union of will—we “want to do the will of those we love—he is driven to work for the fulfilment of God’s desire, he cannot but try to help and serve the world ; and the more he is filled with God, the more he will love the world and spend himself serving it.