Sandy Schadewald rscj  | I wonder have we all had the experience of meeting someone who has impressed us by his/her serenity. Such a person for me was a university lecturer who gave a clue to the deep peace that pervaded his life in a remark he made one day following a discussion on the work of a modern French writer. 'What better thing can a man do with his life than lay his own particular flavour at the feet of Christ?' he commented. This not only gives an insight into his life but it touches, perhaps, on the greatest need of all of us - the realisation that we each have a particular flavour that is worth laying at the feet of Christ. I think Christ himself said the same thing indirectly when he told us to love our neighbour as ourself.
'Loving one's neighbour' in the terms of modern philosophers and psych therapists is 'confirming him or her or establishing a helping relationship.' It is accepting the other as he/she is and not as we feel they ought to be - judging them for the sort of person they are and not according to the image we have created. We can probably remember how at school, for example, we reacted very differently to different teachers. We easily recognised those who were prepared to accept us as we were and those who judged us according to the picture of the person they thought we ought to be. Christ gave us plenty of examples of how to confirm the other; of how to establish this helping ¬relationship. He started loving people at the level they stopped developing because they thought no one cared or because they felt already judged and put aside. Zaccheus is a case in point. (i) Being a tax-collector for the Romans he was rejected by his own people. Christ met him, saw through to the good in him and loved him because of it. Having been confirmed by the friendship of one man Zaccheus was ready to open himself to all and promised to right those he had wronged and to give half his good to the poor.
The woman who came to the house of Simon the Pharisee (ii) to see Christ was condemned by the other guests because, as Luke tells us, 'she had a bad name in the town'. Jesus did not judge her on her past life but looked only at the love that gave her the courage to approach him amidst such a group. He upheld her action and silenced the criticism of those who never allow a person to forget what they have been.
The confirmation we have to give to another we also have to give to ourselves - 'love your neighbour as yourself,' said Jesus, which can be interpreted as love yourself as you love your neighbour. One of the most difficult things we have to do is to know and accept ourselves. St Augustine, I think it was, who used to pray 'Lord, that I may know Thee and know me.' It is difficult to do both honestly. Voltaire made the point that God created man in his own image and likeness and in return men have been doing the same thing to God ever since. If we create a god to our own image and likeness, then we can equally well create a false image of ourselves. Yet even when we know ourself, it is another step to accept ourself, but it is only by this acceptance that we can become free because it is only thus that we can have peace and experience any feeling of achievement in our lives. So many people are insecure; are never satisfied with what they do because they have their sights fixed on a goal which is not for them. If we have to accept others as they are then we must begin by accepting ourselves as we are; if we are to see through to the good that is in others, then we must be prepared to admit that we, too, have something of value in ourselves. The Canaanite woman, (iii) who demanded from Christ the cure of her daughter was conscious she was not of the chosen race of the Jews, but she had sufficient belief in her own worth in the eyes of Christ that she went on begging, despite the hostile reception from the apostles and the seeming rebuke from Christ. She won through because she had the honesty, and the humility, to accept her limitations and be discouraged by them.
It is only when we have the honest and humble acceptance of ourselves; when we have the courage to be what we are that we have something to offer to Christ and to others. What this something is, is, in one sense, of little importance. Christ's praise was for the widow (iv) who gave all she had to the temple fund, though the amount was small. It is a temptation to give nothing if we cannot give what we should like to give, if we cannot give according to the image we have of ourselves, of the person we should like to be. Zaccheus may have preferred to come to Jesus like the rich young man who had kept all the commandments from his youth and who had not injured any man, but Zaccheus came as he was and gave away his possessions. The rich young man turned away from Jesus because he wanted to hold on to his possessions.
It matters little whether we are a rich young man, a Zaccheus or a woman of Canaan. What does matter is that we come to know and accept ourselves as we are so that we live at peace with ourselves and others, confident that we have something of value to offer to others - something that we alone can offer - for what better thing can we do with our life than lay our own particular flavour at the feet of Christ.
Mary Shanahan rscj
Province of Australia - New Zealand (i) Luke 19;1 -10
(ii) Luke 7: 36 - 50
(iii) Matt.: 15:25 -28
(iv) Luke 21: 1 - 4
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