I have heard that when Mother Teresa met someone they first found a quiet place and prayed – they greeted one another in quiet and in prayer. They stood together in the presence of the eternal Presence. The mystics, the people of prayer (you and me?), who deeply touch their own faith-tradition as they meet and greet those of other faith-traditions are the ‘glue’ (role models) that keeps us connected by demonstrating connection to us.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s daughter tells the story of a Christian minister preaching on ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ He expertly developed his points around the idea of the need to love ourselves before we can love our neighbor. At the close of the service Rabbi Heschel approached the minister and commented that he found his sermon interesting, but he had always understood the text to mean that ‘my neighbor is myself.’ To what extent do I take the time to meet and greet myself? To what extent do I make sure that I take time for quiet and prayer in order to be in the presence of the eternal Presence prior to meeting and greeting myself?
Anthony de Mello was a Hindu (and later a Buddhist and Christian). As a Hindu he expected God to come to him in others. Mother Teresa strove to see the face of Christ in the face of each person she met during the day. Howard Thurman believed that within every person there is a core (not unlike the Quaker view, ‘There is that of God in everyone’) and that it is the charge of human beings for ‘core to salute core.’ As I reflect on this, it appears to me that this is what we are invited to do when we meet and greet.
How do we meet and greet. . .with affection. Affection is a by-product of the relationship I have with myself (self-love) and is a by-product of the relationship I have with the other. Affection deepens as a result of our working through the ‘tough times’ and of ‘staying the path’ (our life’s journey) and of discerning what is most important (that which is before us at this moment) and who is most important (the one before us at the moment). In meeting and greeting we do so with deep appreciation of the other as the other (or of self as the self).
I recall an interesting paradox: We never meet and greet the same person more than once (even ourselves). So meeting and greeting also involves preparing for the unexpected, for the surprises that will be there for us if we are awake and aware, present, pay attention and notice. New possibilities also come with each meeting and greeting. Will this meeting and greeting nurture me or deplete me; will I-You-We be diminished or enhanced? Will our hearts open or close? I love Douglas Steere’s expression: Will we have a hardening of the categories? Will we move toward the sacred or the profane? Will we bring more light or more darkness?
In meeting and greeting we share our very being with the other. Is our gift of self, received and embraced? Do we experience and embrace the ‘whole’ of the other? Every meeting and greeting affects us such that we are changed, for good or ill. Meeting and greeting are never neutral. We leave the experience more at ease or more at dis-ease.
I leave us with two questions: Did I take time to meet myself today? Am I more at ease or am I more at dis-ease as a result of my meeting (or not meeting) myself today?