SERVICE TO OTHERS is the one authentic way towards a knowledge of God. When we serve someone, we see him face to face, and as we lose ourselves in love for him, so God shows Himself to us in that person, whoever he may be, and in the relationship between ourself and the person. Neither the deepest meditation, nor the most ardent prayer, nor techniques for the development of the most profound self-knowledge pass beyond academic remoteness until they have been fertilised by service in the world.
The way of service is also the way of love. To serve with resentment or a cold heart is tantamount to cursing the person or institution one is assisting. We should not venture into service - and I speak here of spiritual service, and not the obligatory service we all have to perform in order to survive in the world - until we are prepared to give unstintingly of ourselves without counting the cost. Service expects no reward, looks for no approval or gratitude, and has no recompense other than seeing the other person happy and more complete in himself. This is the ideal of service; of course it cannot be followed all at once. Nevertheless, if we serve in humble, self-giving obedience, a radiance will in due course emanate from us to inflame the world.
Service does in fact benefit the aspirant directly by altering his attitude to life and broadening his sympathies for others. His sense of perspective is widened. A person in the throes of darkness and near despair following a severe personal disappointment or a tragic bereavement will eventually be released from his suffering by serving others. During the early stages of grief the person is usually paralysed emotionally, and can do very little other than remain alive; it is at this period particularly that the fellowship and prayers of friends can be of great help. But a time must come for a more positive approach to the world, and this is where the sacrament of service begins: it is making oneself available to other people in order that they may be released from suffering and inner imprisonment. The Holy Spirit is our guide and mentor in service. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath appointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound" (Isaiah 61:1). This is the meaning of service, and as one serves, so one is served by God to become a full person.
Life spent in the world is a continuous and arduous process of self-giving to the world. The world is assuredly our material for experimentation and self-expression, but it too has demands to make on us. We have to raise it from the corruption of mortality to the eternal life known to the children of God. We redeem the world by giving up ourselves to it, in following the way of Christ Who gave up His mortal life for the redemption of mankind. Thus the life of service is also the life of God made flesh. "Among you, whoever wants to be first must be the willing slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give up his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:43-45).
This is the way of love.
The Meaning of Love
God alone can define the depths of love. To us it is an attitude of mind that finds its expression in a way of life. It begins in the personal experience of losing oneself in the presence of another person, in whom one identifies one's noblest aspirations and deepest hopes. At first one sees the beloved as the embodiment of all that is finest in oneself, so easily are all thoughts projected on to him. But such an image of perfection is remote and static until a real, living relationship has commenced. It is now that the beloved steps down from his position of unearthly paragon to the solid earth with a body and mind of his own. To accommodate oneself to a self-governing person who does not, after all, conform entirely to one's own opinions, beliefs, and habits is the real test of love and the criterion of authentic service also.
Love proves itself in service; there is no more testing service than being close to another person through life's various vicissitudes. Such service is the heart of the all-important marriage relationship. It is one thing to live together with no ties other than mutual affection, so that the association can be broken at will as soon as one tires of it. It is something quite different to be willingly bound by a legal contract, so that one is obliged to go on with the relationship even when circumstances are difficult. But such a personal commitment in service is the way of mutual growth and understanding through the valleys and mountains of worldly life.
A very important stage in the growth of every person is the realisation that no outer circumstance of a material type can release him from his responsibilities. One has to proceed even in the darkness of life - including that of difficult relationship before one's own defects are brought into the light of consciousness. To understand that our source of help lies within us - whence it proceeds from God - is the beginning of wisdom, and the life of service teaches us this great truth.
If we cannot face this truth, and terminate abruptly what is unpleasing to us, we cannot grow into a full person, or even lead a happy, successful life on a worldly level. We will drift from one unsuccessful relationship to another, always emerging wounded and resentful at our "bad luck" in forever encountering difficult, brutal, inconsiderate people, whether they be employers, working colleagues, or partners in marriage. How often have I met people who have never really made the grade! They are notorious among their own colleagues for their unpleasant personalities as well as their very modest professional ability, but they see nothing of this at all. Their lives are a dreary dirge of resentment and hatred of others whom they believe have betrayed them and robbed them of the success that was their due. They cast a malign psychic influence in their environment, and make everyone else unhappy also. It is from this morass of human inadequacy that political and racial hatred stems and bizarre religious cults and fanaticisms arise. These people have never known what true service means, and have regarded life as merely a means to their self-satisfaction and self-aggrandisement. The interesting thing is that not a few of them are ardent religionists, punctilious in outer orthodoxy (as were Jesus' opponents also). Bad religion (which is found in all the higher religions of the world) can be an impenetrable smoke-screen to conceal God and His searing truth from the sight of the believer.
If we persist in faith despite betrayal, disappointment, and disillusionment, we will be able, in the fullness of time, to transcend purely personal demands for happiness and fulfilment to gain an understanding of the wider issues of life. This is the fruit of service patiently carried out despite frustration and insult. We cannot know the reality of life while we continue to act as spoilt children for whom the world exists merely to amuse us. The bitterness of love is the reverse side of its sublimity; the arduousness of service is the source of unending joy in life.
If I really love someone, though my personal loyalty will not deviate from that person, my love will never remain attached to him exclusively; it will overflow to many people and become universal in sympathy. The type of affection that is restricted and exclusive does not deserve to be called love. It is really a physical and emotional attraction to some other person without whom life would scarcely be possible. Such egoistical possessiveness at best separates lover and beloved from wider participation in the world and so limits their growth into full persons. At worst it strangles the other in a web of jealous domination, so that it is a means of death. Indeed, devoted "love" of this restricted type often kills the second partner when the first has died, so meaningless is his life when bereft of the other. Real love, which follows long, arduous service, brings the person into deeper fellowship with many different types of people. It makes him less exclusive and more understanding. It breaks down denominational barriers, and brings people of different religious traditions into closer harmony.
This is the deeper meaning of tolerance. It is a real appreciation of the validity of another person's beliefs and way of life through the ability to identify oneself with him. There is no condescension in tolerance (as opposed to toleration, which is cold and has undertones of arrogance), but a lively participation in the views of other people so that one's own understanding can be enriched by them. And yet love in the form of tolerance does not annihilate the separate witness of any person or religious group. On the contrary, it draws into sharp relief all that is really vital and unique about the person and his tradition. If we could only speak of the various higher religious traditions in terms of their transcendent greatness, as witnessed by their mystics and saints (the two are often one), we would find a common denominator: the Christ within each one of us and the Holy Spirit that proceeds from Him. Then we would know the perfect love that casts out fear, a fear of personal annihilation into nothingness (which is the common view of physical death) or of incorporation into a system of belief in which the person ceases to exist (which is the end-result of atheistic collectivism). It can be seen that love is the way towards mystical union, a state of being in which the isolated self ceases to exist, but is raised to the spiritual stature of a real person in communion with all other selves in the love of God. This union is a gift of grace from the Word of God, and issues from God's love in the all-embracing fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
The Severity of Love
Love is warm and ardent, but it has on occasion also to be cold, even forbidding. The prophet Hosea speaks of God's love to Israel despite her frequent apostasies and gross idolatories. Hosea had understood the meaning of love through his own unhappy marriage with a prostitute. Despite frequent betrayals, he had never ceased to love his wife, for he was a man of love. This means that he was receptive to God's love, which is the source of the love we have one for another (1 John 4:10).
But the story of Israel was a sad one. Much suffering was illuminated by only scattered peaks of national triumph. This was not due to God's wrath, but to the inevitable results of violating God's law. If we choose anything other than the highest we know - and the children of Israel had that knowledge incontrovertibly fixed in the national consciousness from the time of their deliverance from Egyptian slavery - we fall from God's grace and suffer. The law is cold when it is disregarded and it brings suffering with it. This law is reflected in our lives today also. If we betray love, those around us will sever their fellowship with us, and we will be diminished. Likewise in any personal relationship, it is right to show displeasure when the other person acts selfishly and inconsiderately. It is by this almost automatic response that we can re-direct him on to the proper path. There may be times when a more severe degree of disapproval and remonstrance becomes necessary. This is a much more loving response than a mute acceptance of wrongful behaviour which can often signify a cold hostility or a deadly apathy. The law is clear: if we act anti-socially, we alienate ourselves from society, and deprive ourselves of the warmth of supporting love from our fellow men and from God. When the suffering that follows our selfish attitude to life has taught us our lesson we can be humble enough to confess our fault and receive forgiveness. This is the obvious way of self-understanding, and it is the duty of those who love the offender to treat him with the necessary severity until he comes to himself. But he should never be forsaken.
It is a strange paradox of the Bible that, while the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7) and is indeed wisdom (Job 28:28), perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Both theses are profoundly true. We begin to fear God when we see, through a shaft of intuition, the scheme behind the marvellous array of natural phenomena that confront us all the days of our life. It is fear of self-destruction that keeps us obedient at least to the physical laws of the universe, while the bitter fruits of immoral and socially unacceptable behaviour teach us about the psychic and spiritual laws of God also. But as we grow into full persons, so our perspective is dominated less by considerations of survival and self-expression and more by a loving concern for humanity and the world we live in. It is at this juncture that we are prepared to give up our very lives for others; all personal clinging, which is the outer form of fear, is transcended by a self-giving love to the whole creation. This was the zenith of Jesus' life, and is repeated in the lives of even the humblest people who sacrifice themselves willingly for the good of their fellows.
The Forgiveness of Love
While it is important always to respond positively and decisively to a hostile or selfish action, there is a time when forgiveness and magnanimity should prevail over personal resentment and anger. To be aggrieved by injustice and seek redress is human; to respond to it in warmth and forgiveness is divine. But there is a spark of divinity in all of us, and at times even the most unlikely people may be inspired to act with a love and constraint that is supernatural in quality. When Jesus says, "Resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also... Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matthew 5:39-44), He is giving a counsel of perfection. But perfection of this type is not visionary and impractical; it is the very way of authentic existence, and within the range of the aspiring person.
Such an attitude of joyous acceptance cannot be fashioned in our imagination by the thoughts of our minds. It comes to us as a special grace from God when we are ready to receive it. Prayer is the way for attaining the fitness necessary to receive God's grace; we should pray constantly that we may be able to forgive our enemies and turn their antipathy into love.
The occasion in any person's life when he can pass beyond the desire for retaliation and self-justification to an all-embracing love that asks no questions and makes no demands is the point in his existence when God has made Himself fully known to that person and is dwelling within him. Now at last the great injunctions of the Sermon on the Mount can be followed, not with the sense of overweening condescension that would be their effect in an unredeemed man trying to follow them by an act of will, but with overpowering love and blessing to the whole world. The explanation of this difference is of great importance. What we do of our own volition, be it ever so laudable, tends to inflate us and put us on a higher level than other people, whom we can only pity for their lack of understanding. The gratitude of the Pharisee that he is not as other men are is the typical result of such personal piety (Luke 18:9-14). Despite the performance of "good works", we are as unhealed in personality as ever. The service is self-centred and vain. But when God comes fully to us in grace following the prayer of self-abnegation, He cleanses our personalities and sets in motion the healing process; the inner proof of this healing is the awareness that we are forgiven and that we have nothing to be ashamed of or to hide from others.
It is interesting in this respect to note that, when Adam and Eve had turned from their state of natural union with all things to one of self-isolation through acquisitiveness, they were aware for the first time of their nakedness and tried to conceal it and themselves, even from God (Genesis 3:7-13). This marvellous parable shows us the result of withdrawing from God's grace. The reverse action, of humbling ourselves before Him and confessing our faults in faith, brings Him close to us once more. When we are cleansed of the results of our sinful actions, we have no need to project them on to other people, and can instead pour out the love that God has given us on to the world. At this stage we demand no justice for ourselves - and who could live if God gave us our just deserts! - but give of ourselves unstintingly as a living sacrifice for all creation.
I believe all mankind is destined to know this divine love. It is the impelling force for that service to God which is perfect freedom. The suffering servant described by Isaiah (53:1-12) typifies this higher love: by His scourging we are healed. The love of Jesus, that He took the burden of the psychic darkness of the whole world on Himself without complaint and with forgiveness (Luke 23:34), is a concrete manifestation of the highest service to which any man can aspire.
Contemplation and Action
To contrast the way of contemplation with that of action is to stress a very superficial dichotomy. Contemplation is the most exalted action a man can perform, for in it he comes as close to God as he can bear. But our life is not merely one of personal communion with God; it is also one of service to the world. Contemplation that does not find its expression in constructive worldly action is vain. On the other hand, worldly action, be it ever so well intentioned, becomes demonic if it is not moved by the love of God that comes to us in the self-giving of contemplative prayer. In theological terms faith precedes good works, but is always proved by good works. In the same way the grace of God precedes our own willed action, but the free will responds to grace by acting responsibly and charitably.
The work of everyday life is a marvellous illustration of collaboration between God and man. God will not act in the world unless we are prepared to play our part. But if we act without the impulse of God's grace, the results of our actions are thwarted and malign. It is the error of extreme forms of religious piety to see God as all powerful and man as a useless sinner. The final result of this view is quietism, an attitude which puts everything in God's hands and allows man no scope for action. The converse error is that of atheistic humanism, which sees man entirely responsible and in command of his own destiny depending on his innate powers. This is the prevailing view of many people nowadays, but man separated from the love and power of God is merely an intelligent animal whose works, though clever and impressive, tend to destruction rather than to life. Quietism leads to stagnation, both physical and moral, while atheistic humanism ends up in a denial of the fundamental human quality of spirituality, thus paving the way for degradation and destruction. It follows from this that the way of service should be initiated by contemplation and prayer, and fructified by worldly action.
In the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) there is a tendency amongst some people, wrongly conceived I believe, to suggest that Jesus exalts contemplation above service in the world. What he is really reproving in Martha is her tendency to magnify her labours at providing food and to claim special attention for herself on this account. If she had the still composure of her sister, she would be able to serve much more effectively and joyously, and see the Lord not only in His bodily form in her house but also spiritually in all the work of the household. No wonder Mary had chosen the better part, which was not to be taken from her.
In the seventeenth century a humble French soldier, Nicholas Herman, entered a community of Carmelites in Paris in middle life, where he was called Brother Lawrence. This lowly man combined in his person the qualities of Mary and Martha. Even in the kitchen he was full of recollectedness and heavenly-mindedness. "The time of business" said he "does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament" (The Practice of the Presence of God, end of the fourth conversation).
Humble Brother Lawrence has surely much to tell us at present about the springs of real spirituality in a world of chaos. The little book mentioned above is as clear a guide to vibrant life as has ever been produced - outside the Gospel.
Conclusion
The basis of the way of service is that every task is done to the greater glory of God. This applies not only to human relationships, but also in our everyday work with inanimate objects and abstract ideas. The immaculate cleaning of a house, the considerate service that a shop assistant gives to the customer, the care we take of our clothes and possessions (which are in a very real way an extension of our own physical body), are all prayers of praise to God for His marvellous creation and thanksgiving that we are considered worthy enough to be custodians of the creatures of this world.
A meal prepared in love tastes quite different to one hastily put together without dedication to the task. One does not need great spiritual discernment to distinguish between a home of love and a house of disharmony. When one remembers a person with compassion, one is praying for him even if one is engaged in some outer action at the same time. When we give our entire mind and strength to the work at hand, we are glorifying God and adding to His creation. To pray is an essential action of the spiritual life; to accept a sudden outside intrusion in our deepest prayers, so that we have to stop praying and pay attention to the source of the disturbance without resentment, is even more sublime. To give up our time to communion with God is excellent, but to expend ourselves fully in the loving service of our fellow men is an even more perfect way, for it is the way of prayer consummated in worldly service ("Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" - Matthew 25:40).