What A Pleasure to See You

It had been months, and I had wondered about him. When you go out early on the trail, you get to know by sight the regulars. He was easily recognized: hunched over from (one surmised) an injury or disease along life’s way, yet persistent and cheerful, generally looking up and waving at passers by.
    It seemed his daily walk began somewhere near my apartment, so I started saying “Good morning, neighbor,” as we passed each other. After a few weeks of that, he replied in a voice that was resonant and deep. I didn’t quite get it. I stopped and he repeated: “The name’s Dale” [I’ve changed it for this blog post]. Again, “The name’s Dale.” We shook hands and I told him mine.
    He was better at remembering than I. He’d see me, wave, say, “Good morning, Victor.” But after some embarrassing days, I finally remembered. “Good to see you, Dale.”
    And then Covid came, and he was gone. I didn’t know his last name, didn’t know where he lived, didn’t know if he had moved away, or was ill, or for that matter even alive.
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    Then, last week, there he was. We stopped and I said, “Dale, what a pleasure to see you!” He asked how I had been and, when I inquired, told me he had had a bit of trouble—not specified, and I suspect it was more serious than he let on. But now: “I’m back.” He seemed to be standing straighter than I remembered. He lifted a hand to the sky, already light in those final minutes before sunrise. We agreed it was a beautiful new day.
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    Ordinary life is full of people like Dale, people whom we see regularly and enjoy light, friendly conversation with. We know a little bit about their lives, and they know a bit about us, but mostly we are just friendly. It is pleasant to see them. We do not exaggerate when we say “What a pleasure to see you!”
    All this is true even though we are barely known to each other. These small connections are hints that God plants in our lives of the connections of which the kingdom of heaven is made. Oliver O’Donovan has a lovely line about this. When we are friendly with someone, what we are saying most deeply is: Although you and I are not actually friends in this world, if in God’s providence it should turn out that we became friends, that would not be a bad thing!
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    We are already beginning to come out from the Covid pandemic. Re-emergence will not be smooth: it may happen on a time-table that is faster than some approve of, or slower, and in any event it will not be an entry into a world that is safe. There will be disagreements about what risks are appropriate to take, and about who are the proper agents to decide about the taking on of risks. But let us not allow such disagreements to cheat us of the joy! The distance between us will collapse, our masks will come off, we will see each other face to face, and our hearts rightly will say, “What a pleasure to see you.”
    I didn’t know if Dale was still alive. And then I saw him.
    Mary Magdalene did not know Jesus was alive on that Easter morning. And then she saw him. I think what she and all the disciples said that day was: What a pleasure to see you!
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    Out & About (virtually and otherwise). This Sunday, March 14, at 6 p.m. at Incarnation in Dallas, I will give the spring theology lecture: “The Long Game of Friendship.” This will be both in-person and on-line; register at incarnation.org under “events.”
    The following Sunday, March 21, I am to preach at the traditional services at Incarnation: 7:30, 9, and 11:15 a.m., all in-person (no sign-up required); the 11:15 is also on F-book.
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    On the Web. I have an article in The Living Church on the two parts of forgiveness (compassion and absolution) and why Christian ethics does not require us to offer absolution unconditionally. https://livingchurch.org/2021/03/04/ethics-forgiveness-in-three-parts/

 
Posted by The Rev. Canon Dr. Victor Lee Austin with

Who Looks Like Me?

It’s gathering steam and not going away, the notion that we are significantly defined by our sex, race, and class. But while there is point to the claim that such matters influence us to a significant degree, to go further and claim that such matters are definitive is incompatible with Christianity. It is also a Bad Idea.
    Yours truly is a skinny guy, eligible for senior citizen discounts, once married, pale-skinned and long-haired (at least that part of the hair that remains). I am male, white, and a member of what is called the knowledge class. Undeniably, those characteristics shape who I am.
    But they do not shape me entirely. I can see myself, and have, in a woman, in a non-skinny person, in a young person, in a bald person, and in a person of color. It often happens after a conversation where we find we have some deep commonalities of belief. Sometimes it happens after worship or singing together (O for the days of singing together!). Yet it should happen in lots of other times.
    Who looks like me? If I take Christianity seriously, I need to say that every human being looks like me.
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    Good fiction takes us inside people of many sorts and makes them come alive for us. I can have sympathy for the monster that Victor Frankenstein created (it’s important for yours truly to remember the scientist’s first name). I can share the moral anguish that Emma goes through as she comes to see the harm she has caused. I can feel with Jim his love for Huck Finn as well as his bewilderment over some of Huck’s actions.
    But this “getting inside another person” is not limited to fiction. There was the ancient Roman who said, “I am human, and therefore nothing human is alien to me.” No human deed (good or bad) is beyond my imagining, no circumstance outside my mental circle—at least in principle.
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    Christianity proclaims that Jesus Christ offers salvation to and for every person. At Vatican II this was expounded as follows: “By virtue of his Incarnation, the Son of God has in some way united himself with every human being.”
    Who looks like Jesus? Every human being looks like Jesus.
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    At an impressionable age I started going to the Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe. Above the altar is a bronze triptych, in the center of which is Jesus. The image struck me as oriental, and at that time I found it strange. I am not oriental; I’m Oklahoman. Jesus is not oriental, he was from the Middle East. Why did the artist take the liberty of making him strange this way?
    Fortunately, I was not offended by this. When a decade later I went to seminary, the cathedral in New York City had an art exhibit of “Christa,” a female Christ on a cross. There was outrage everywhere, and everyone, even the New York Times, was talking about it. A friend of mine, however, shared with me how he had thought through this matter. Of course we do not depict Jesus in historically accurate detail. There have been white and black Jesuses. There have been crucified Jesuses covered with leprosy or the marks of the plague. People have realized through the centuries that Jesus stands for everyman. My friend, a conservative by temperament, said he could not find any theological objection to depicting Jesus as a woman.
    Whom might an artist depict as Jesus on the cross? Any human being.
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    When we think about representation these days, let us remember that whatever our sex, race, or class, any human being really could “look like” any other human being.
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    Out & About (virtually and otherwise). My class on Leviticus has one more session: Sunday, March 7, at Incarnation in Dallas, both in-person and on Zoom, at 10:15 a.m. To get the Zoom link, register at https://incarnation.org/event/1936191-2021-03-07-up-with-leviticus/
    Also this Sunday, March 7, I am to preach at the 4 p.m. patronal festival for St. David of Wales, Denton, Tex. This service is outdoors, having been rescheduled on account of last week’s weather. It’s fun to celebrate a parish’s patron, and there will be food; you’re welcome.
    Sunday, March 14, at 6 p.m. at Incarnation in Dallas, I will give my spring theology lecture: “The Long Game of Friendship.” This will be both in-person and on-line; register at incarnation.org under “events.” (March 14 is also the day we bid sad farewell to Standard Time.)
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    On the Web. I have an article on “Fear” as part of the “InStead” initiative in ethics and values: https://www.steadcenter.com/instead/fear/

 
Posted by The Rev. Canon Dr. Victor Lee Austin with

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The Rev. Canon Victor Lee Austin. Ph.D., is the Theologian-in-Residence for the diocese and is the author of several books including, "Friendship: The Heart of Being Human" and "A Post-Covid Catechesis.: 

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