When Did We See You?
Two best friends go to a party (Pretend the whole viral danger has been virtually eliminated, as it will one day). They walk into the lovely gathering. One interacts well, and in lively fashion, so socially engaged. She has some great conversations, but after about an hour she is spent and looking to thank the host and leave. Her friend is also interacting and enjoying herself talking to lots of guests. Her energy is building as she goes. She was tired at first, having spent all afternoon in her study, finishing a project, but now, sixty minutes in, she feels the party has just started. Clearly, people are not all the same.
Why do we do the things we do? I am curious about how all the factors of thought, emotion, history, and personality swirl around together in our inner workings and influence our will and actions. In hypothesizing about this, theorists in psychology recognize people show certain preferences built-in or developed in their personalities. Various internal and social elements of our make-up steer us toward action and thought. Elements of functional preference take shape: cognitive processing, energy gain from interaction or from solitude, leaning on broad or detailed planning, and the use of intuition. I know precious little about it, but I can tell there is a lot to it.
Here is a narrow application of this loose and broad consideration of personality variances. Within all that goes into different tendencies, what steers some people toward compassion and action toward others? All of us know we cannot do for others all the time. We have to do plenty for ourselves, for whom we are chiefly responsible. Remember the once common saying, “Look after yourself carefully, nobody else will.” None of us can rescue anyone, actually. People decide what they can do and want to do, and they choose that. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, two of the characters step around the man helpless after the abuse of robbers. One character stops and helps. And in our situations of life, there are all kinds of human predicaments small and great. We are free to respond to some and ignore others.
I am intrigued and perplexed by the story Jesus tells in Matthew chapter 25 about the sheep and the goats, the righteous and the accursed, a story that comes up for us this Sunday. I am left convinced I have been a sheep and a goat alternately through countless situations in my life. Something about the people in the story, the people held accountable before the Son of Man, the King who is judging, interests me deeply. None of the people being separated as the sheep and goats are aware of what the judge is recalling. They are all told they have met with the King throughout their lives and seen him as one hungry or thirsty, naked, sick, or a stranger. None of them, those who stepped over him, or those who took action know what he is talking about.
When he speaks to the righteous, they respond, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?” They ask when they ever saw him in all these other conditions of need. And he tells them when they did helpful things for the lowliest, it was for him hey did them. We hear the same with the accursed. They don’t remember ever seeing him in any situations. And the king says to them, “I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” They are perplexed about this and he adds in explanation, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
None of us have the same personality. None of us have identical life histories. There are similarities, but we are all as unique as our fingerprints. All of us will have unique approaches in responding to needs we see as we move through life. I do believe there are practices we can take up, regardless of our preferences and personalities, that can move us toward the greatest responsiveness possible. For myself and for the church, all believers, I believe in regular prayer, regular study, regular outreach, and consistent tithing commitment. If anyone of us is giving from our treasure to God through the mission of the parish, if we are maintaining practices of service, study, and prayer, we will be clearer on how to reach out when we see someone we want to help.
The Risk of Open Hands
What am I going to do?
I am all tangled up in
schedules and details
Managing all in store
Trying to be responsible
There is me; there are mine
There are these and those
O how to spend myself?
Tugs and pulls this way and that
Nibbles and bites; I’m so used up
Unrecognizable
Will there be anything left?
I feel, but can I afford to feel?
I care, but that leads to giving
Perhaps to loss
Something or someone may come around
with serious demands. What then?
Offering and protecting:
I don’t know what to do
Who can guide?
DWP+ November 2020