The condition and quality of being human, our humanness, draws us into connection, exchange, and shared experience. Humanity is what we are – the energy we contribute – so let it be a flow of compassion, a stream of kindness, the presence of God moving through us to touch another.
Being human, responsible to and in service of others, is a practice, and we are graciously given examples of what this looks like in action. For instance, Jesus was never hurried, but He was consistently, purposefully on the move. That is, Jesus’ mission was to touch as many people as possible, and even in His quiet, contemplative retreats into active prayer, He was considering and discerning next steps in the grassroots work to educate and liberate one community at a time.
In John’s narrative, we find Jesus returning from an intense trip of teaching and transforming. Passing through Samaria, He sits down at a well, “weary from His journey.” Tired, parched, and thirsty, Jesus asks the lone lady at the well for a drink. She was stunned by the request, not that Jesus was wanting water on a hot day, but because of the caste confines that restricted the exchange.
“You are (Jewish),” she said. “How can You ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?”
Samaritans, marginalized and misunderstood, were excluded, not invited to associate with their Jewish neighbors; furthermore, Jesus’ students were surprised to find Jesus talking to a woman.
Jesus dismantles social categories; the focus is salvation. Thus, He continued the conversation at the well without addressing its culturally radical nature and moved to the heart of the matter.
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth,” Jesus said. “God is Spirit.”
The lady returned to her Samaritan town and told others the story of what happened at the water well. Many believed. Interestingly, it is unclear if Jesus ever got a cup of water. Clearly, that cup wasn’t the point.
Jesus went specifically by ordered steps in search of souls, to find the lady at the well, and if He knew that His “food is to do the will of (God) who sent Me,” then did He also know His thirst would only be quenched in the outpouring of mercy and compassion with the unexpecting woman?
When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can’t otherwise see; you hear things you can’t otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.
Bryan Stevenson
A Reciprocal Choice
Faith sets us free when we believe in the One who breaks down the bars of class and culture.
With “faith that one is loved, the faith that one is loved by God,” said Thomas Merton, the boundary-breaking Cistercian monk, “the idea of worthiness loses its significance.” And we are invited to freely give the indispensable measure of grace and mercy poured upon us, such that when we identify differences in our neighbor it does not become a barrier, point of personal pride, or stepping stone, but a pathway for connection.
“We have a choice. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. Or we can deny our brokenness, forswear compassion, and, as a result, deny our own humanity,” said Bryan Stevenson, who founded a legal practice to defend the poor and advocate for the wrongly condemned. “There is no wholeness outside of our reciprocal humanity.”
Unity is a choice, and it’s free. We discount our ego and decide to look for common ground.
In a world of difference, imperfection is one trait we all share, and the beauty of our brokenness is the faith through which we are restored, our pieces made whole in the perfect bond of Love.
