Greeting the divine
HAVE YOU BUMPED INTO any “others” lately? In the ministries I’ve worked in over the past 58 years, I’ve met a variety of children, adults, and elders who definitely were considered “others” until I got to know them and they got to know me. In retirement now, I find myself missing the wonderful mix of race, age, religion, and culture that was open to me over time. Now, because of COVID-19 safety protocols, I find myself pretty much isolated from the so-called “others.” It will be interesting and, I think, refreshing to see what happens later this month when 70 plus Sisters from my community come together for five days of meetings where we will decide on a direction as a religious order and where we will elect new leaders for the next four years. (The current leadership team has put in an extra year of service, and I admire them for their graciousness and perseverance during these challenging times.)
The older I get and the more I’ve had to live and work with a variety of people, I’ve become convinced that I really don’t know the other until I’ve shared life with them in some way. One of my favorite ways to get to know people is to share a meal with them or even just an ice cream treat. Talking and mostly listening has helped me to gain insights into their lives when I spend the time to do so. Time is a big part of this getting to know folks. Sometimes I “miss” an official prayer time because I’m listening to someone’s sad story or a happy one as the case may be. I think in the spiritual realm time has no place, so prayer and eating, talking and listening, working and playing, crying and laughing all take place together. That’s how I like to think about my life, and lest you think this is easy or that I do it all the time, let me tell you what a challenge this can be.
Getting to know the other can sometimes be challenging at best. I find myself getting impatient if the story they are telling seems to be getting too long to listen to. I want to help them move it along so I can get to my next task. With my elder friends I try to be more patient because I know that they need to repeat their stories over and over again. It’s part of their life review, which is an important task in the later years. That’s what I taught in my gerontology classes. It’s one thing to know this and teach it and another thing to practice it in real life!
As far as finding something “divine” in others, as St. Augustine suggests, I find this very difficult especially when the other is not someone I naturally want to know. I agree with the idea and just know that I will fail on this challenge from time to time and hope and pray that I can pull it off at least once in a while. Digging deep can become a habit if I practice it often enough. I know it is not possible to find the divine in others all the time and I find a good start is to literally greet the divine in them aloud or to myself when we pass one another in the hallway, in the office, on the road, in the cafeteria. During COVID time, I like to imagine that they are smiling behind the mask and I literally smile at them behind my mask. I consider this an acknowledgement of something divine in them. Lately I have been able to “see” the smile behind the mask of some people. Perhaps I’m really seeing it in their eyes, but I do sense a divine presence there at such times.
So here is another grace received from this pandemic time: learning to greet the divine in others when I may not ordinarily have even thought to do so. It is also another reminder that we are beautifully, powerfully, and wonderfully made and so diverse that the Creator and we can enjoy one another in our otherness. As the hymn says, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
Sister Mary Thill is a Sylvania Franciscan Sister. She can be reached at mthill@sistersosf.org.
Dig deep enough into any human being and you will find something divine.
+ St. Augustine
The more we bump into the folks who are so-called “others,” the more we are stretched, the more we are pulled out of bias and have new truths because we have tangible evidence of the beautiful, powerful creativity of our God who made all of this diversity for us to enjoy.
+Jacqui Lewis
