The Presence of People…
03.23.25
(From Chapter Seven of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero.)
As emotionally maturing Christians, we recognize that loving well is the essence of true spirituality. This requires that we experience connection with God, with ourselves, and with other people. God invites us to practice His presence in our daily lives. At the same time, He invites us to “practice the presence of people” within an awareness of His presence in our daily relationships. The two are rarely brought together.
Jesus’ profound, contemplative prayer life with the Father resulted in a contemplative presence with people. Love is “to reveal the beauty of another person to themselves” wrote Jean Vanier. Jesus did that with each person he met. This ability to really listen and pay attention to people was at the very heart of His mission. It could not help but move Him to compassion. In the same way, out of our contemplative time with God, we too are invited to be prayerfully present with people, revealing their beauty to themselves.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day, the “church leaders” of that time, never made that connection. They were diligent, zealous, and absolutely committed to having God as Lord of their lives. They memorized the entire books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They prayed five times a day. They tithed all their income and gave money to the poor. They evangelized. But they never delighted in people.
They did not link loving God with the need to be diligent, zealous, and absolutely committed to growing in their ability to love people. For this reason, they criticized Jesus repeatedly for being a “glutton, and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” (Matthew 11:19) He delighted in people and life too much.
Jesus refused to separate the practice of the presence of God from the practice of the presence of people. When pushed to the wall to separate this unbreakable union, Jesus refused. He summarized the entire Bible for us: “Love the Lord your God with all the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
When we love someone well, treating them as a THOU and not an IT (Martin Buber I and Thou) it is such a powerful experience. When genuine love is released in a relationship, God’s presence is manifest. The separate space between us becomes sacred space.