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A letter from Rev. Marya DeCarlen
Dear Beloved of St. James,
In the musical, “My Fair Lady” Eliza Doolittle forcefully tells Henry Higgins, “What turns a flower girl into a duchess isn't how she behaves but how she's treated.” The same is true of us all. What makes us the people we are is how we are treated. If others treat us badly we more easily turn into aggressive, nasty people. If others treat us well we more easily turn into people at peace with ourselves and at peace with the world.
The Holy Week story tells about how we are treated by God. The passion and resurrection of Jesus reveals how God deals with human beings.
• God treats us with understanding. St. Paul writes, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” God understands what it means to be human. He knows that we are prone to foolishness, wickedness, and selfishness. Jesus came to bring personal and social reconciliation.
• God treats us with mercy. St. Paul writes, “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” God is not an angry, tyrannical deity who seeks to do us harm. Rather he seeks to forgive and heal us despite who we are.
• God treats us with value. Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” To Jesus the thief was a human being to be valued. To Jesus every individual was of worth.
• God treats us with the perspective of eternity. St. John writes that God gave Jesus, “so that all who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life.” God does not treat us as if we are meaningless creatures here today and gone tomorrow. Rather God treats us with the dignity of those destined for eternity.
The Holy Week story reveals a God who treats us with love, understanding, mercy, value, an eternal perspective and much else. If we can respond to that revelation it can help turn us from the diminished people whom we often are into the splendid human beings we are called to be.
Eliza Doolittle got it right. It is all about how we are treated. The call of this month is to engage with the Holy Week story and so discover more clearly how God treats us. In doing so we can also discover how to treat others. For in treating others as God treats us with love, understanding, mercy, value and an eternal perspective we can help them grow in their humanity. And if everyone grew in his or her humanity, I know you know that the world would be a better place for everyone to live in.
Faithfully,
Marya+ |
