Charity is the outward swing of prayer toward all the world…embracing and caring for all worldly interests in God's name." (Ways of the Spirit, p. 142).
"Half an hour spent with Christ's poor is worth far more than half a million spent on them. It is necessary to a sane Christianity." (Letters of Evelyn Underhill, August 29, 1908 Letter to M.R., p.50)
In 1921, Underhill was looking to explore Christianity more deeply, and she found that the Catholic theologian Friedrich Von Hugel would be best to direct her in her discovery of God. It is not that Underhill didn't have roots in religious experience, but she returned to the Christian/Catholic traditions after both her studies and her declared vision that convinced her that she had found truth in these traditions. After finding Von Hugel, Underhill grew in her desire for Christ and in her understanding and what I would call embracing of grace. Although Underhill didn't "embraced grace" lightly, we can conclude from her writings that she did come to understand the theological quality of grace.
In 1924, Underhill responded to a letter from a person who struggled with spiritual inadequacy, not unsimilar to her own struggle of 1921. In this letter, she distinguishes between self deprecation (a grace killer) and the outflow of a Christian life serving others. Underhill gives this spiritual direction:
"And (as regards specifically Christian beliefs) it means getting beyond the idea of Christ as a "perfect example,"
"spiritual genius" and so forth, to a realization of the principle of incarnation (and as a derivative therefrom, of
sacramentalism also) as involving the special self-expression and self-imparting of the Infinite God, in humanity and
for humanity." ("Letters of Evelyn Underhill: June 20, 1924 to W.Y. p. 155)
In just a matter of three years, it seems that Underhill was able to move from a place of intellectualizing Jesus to practically living out the life of loving and being loved. I believe the key is found in her last statement "self-expression and self-imparting of the Infinite God, in humanity for humanity". Grace is found in the gifts that are imparted to the world without expectation of return. One will quickly move from spiritual inadequacy to spiritual dependency on Christ in serving others. In 1925, Underhill continues to show her lesson learned in not over intellectualizing God, as seen is that additional letter providing spiritual direction:
"I would like to advise you at the moment, not to dwell too much on theological difficulties, Christology, and so forth.
Your intellectual side is already sufficiently alert and does not need stimulating! Feed your soul quietly on those
things that are already clear to you, but don't make theories etc... All this will grow in you as you humanize and
spiritualize your experience; practising together prayer and the service of others, especially children and the poor."
("Letters of Evelyn Underhill: Sept., 1925 to W.Y. p. 165)
Underhill is giving direction, in fact, the same direction that her spiritual director gave her years earlier; "Serve the poor". What Underhill learned in this time was that the mind is powerful but cannot lead one to fully ascent to the ways of God or even submit to God Himself. Often there is a humility in serving the poor that teaches us to treat others with kindness without anything in return. In other words, we learn a graciousness that can hardly be taught any other way. Even though I don't think that those who have studied her life would disagree with Underhill's commitment to the poor, the argument is whether she internalized grace or only continued to intellectualize it. My argument is that one cannot serve the poor and continue to "only" intellectualize grace. Do others recognize her heart for the poor? We see glimpses in Annice Callahan's "Evelyn Underhill: Spirituality for Daily Living":
"She fostered her personal relationship with God in her daily life, and found her fellow Anglicans turning to her for
spiritual direction and retreat work. One can detect characteristics of her spirituality for daily living which are
aspects of contemporary Christian spirituality:
* Meeting God in daily life: seeing the spiritual in the pratical;
*Choosing the disciplines of prayer, worship, service, and work with the poor... p. 230
Also in the Biography of Evelyn Underhill by Margaret Cropper, she is recorded to have accompanied serving the poor with her friend Laura Rose:
"Evelyn found a good deal of very solid comfort in Mrs Rose, to who she used to recount many of the tiresome and
ridiculous encounters with people...The whole relationship with her poor people was very natural and loving and
humble." p. 133
She even writes a book on the theological action of Christ's grace toward the world in a book called, "The School of Charity'. One of the arguments for Underhill not showing signs of accepting God's grace is in how self critical she was on her own life and disciplines. In 1923, Evelyn Underhill writes to Baron Von Hugel with a clear struggle in embracing the kind of grace that Christ offers:
"The chief point is, am I simply living on illusion...[I mean] to be certain my own experiences are not
imaginary...during the war, I went to pieces as I told you: though with several vivid calls back [from God] which I did
not respond to. Now I have got back, but what seems to me so strange and makes me nervous is that I should
have expected to have to fight my way back inch by inch...Instead everything has been given back to me that I
ever had--and more." (Evelyn Underhill by Margaret Cropper, p.71)
"What ought I to do? I am having too easy a time and ought to do something hard--some modern equivalent of the
hair shirt that would keep on reminding one. And being naturally self-indulgent and at present unfortunately
professionally very prosperous and petted, nothing will get done unless I make a Rule."
(Evelyn Underhill by Margaret Cropper, p. 73)
Early on, Underhill probably drew upon the practices of the mystics and looked to earn a place with God, rather than to receive the gift of love and relationship that Christ was offering. Interestingly enough in Baron Von Hugel's response, he directs Underhill in a subtle way in order to teach the acceptance of the grace of God:
"I believe you ought to get yourself, gently and gradually, interested in the poor; that you should visit them, very
quietly and unostentatiously, with as little incorporation as possible into Visiting Societies, etc. You badly want de-
intellectualizing, or at least developing homely, human sense and spirit dispositions and activities...For it will, if
properly entered into and persevered with, discipline, mortify, soften, deepen and quiet you..."
(Evelyn Underhill by Margaret Cropper, p.75)
Von Hugel's answer in short was that Underhill should begin regularly serving the poor, and this seems to be the answer for self criticism/deprecation. So what about her later letters that reflected on her continued struggles with grace? Again we find ourselves with encouragement toward working with the poor, but what I think ultimately happened with Underhill was a natural struggle of works rather than accepting grace. A struggle with grace doesn't necessarily mean that the person isn't accepting grace. A lesson from the mystics often taught that the spiritual life wasn't as easy as an upward movement or vertical staircase toward holiness or proximity to God. According to the tradition of St. Ignatius, the mystics often saw the spiritual life more like a spiral staircase, even though there is movement upward often people revisit themes, doctrines and lessons at different points of the spiral. Evelyn Underhill, in her letter to Von Hugel, showed that she submitted to God's grace before she even met Von Hugel (the beginning of the spiral). And now, she is revisiting with different experiences and as one who has journeyed with grace for a bit. Underhill translated grace differently after her work with the poor and though not perfectly "cured" from her self-criticism, her journey shows elements of grace as she journeyed with others.
"This awareness had developed, and under von Hugel's influence had recovered that visible, that institutional, order
which it might have lost. It included, to her degree, both the dead and the living; it meant for her now chiefly two
things--the poor and the Church. "God, Christ, and the Poor," she quoted from her master, and she attended to all.
She came, at one period, to make a habit of visiting in North Kensington and spending two afternoons a week in
the slums there. And she encouraged the same thing, whenever possible, among those who came to her for
direction. (Letters of Underhill introduction by Margaret Cropper, p. 12)
Consider serving the poor; it is so grace filled! When you do, be prepared to journal about all the ways you thought you would be the blessing and yet found that you were the recipient of God's grace through the poor. Underhill connected the essence of grace with loving the poor, spend some time reflecting on these two subjects: Grace and the Poor. Here are a few suggestions to get started:
1) Spend some time reading Isaiah 58 on what God thinks a true fast is all about.
2) Reflect on this quote from Underhill in "Life as Prayer" pp. 2-3, "A real man or woman of prayer, then, should be a live wire, a link between God's grace and the world that needs it." How does one become this link?
3) As you read Luke 15 The Prodigal Son, what qualities of grace do you find present? Does Underhill's view match up with these same qualities?