Hello, thank you for taking this time for yourself. I invite you to receive what may arise in your interior, without avoiding it or judging it. Receive and discern.
Ready?
Do you remember what your experience was in the first job you had?
While you remember, I’ll share part of my own experience with you.
I was on vacation, between finishing high school and starting college, and I guess my dad saw me with a lot of time on my hands. He spoke to an acquaintance, and in less than two weeks I was working in the office of a public notary in the city of Chihuahua. In Mexico, notaries are lawyers who are close to judges in the government system, and enjoy a similar status.
My dad worked in banks, so the times when I went to his office for some reason, I was familiar with a formal environment. All employees were dressed formally and elegantly. His treatment was also formal and professional.
That was precisely the feeling I had when I started working in the notary’s office, a feeling of formality and professionalism. There was a graduate assistant, whom I will call María Luisa. What I remember is that María Luisa worked temporarily with the notary while she did her professional internship. She was very knowledgeable, and she took some time to answer some of my most basic questions. There was so much work at the notary’s office that her schedule was very busy.
On some days, I worked for periods of time in her office, and I got to see her very focused on her work. It was only when I saw appropriate to ask her something about what she was doing, that she would answered me. Since I had no foundation in law, María Luisa gave me her answer adapted to what she knew I could understand. But because she was so immersed in what she had to do, if I didn’t ask her, she wouldn’t tell me what she was doing.
This was a working relationship with communication focused only on what was necessary, and nothing more. The interaction was cordial and respectful, but there was no need to go deeper.
Perhaps what we can understand today as work relationships, between bosses and employees, are the equivalent of what Jesus refers to when he mentions “servants.” Jesus mentions that servants do not know what their masters are doing. Definitely, I didn’t know anything about what my then bosses did.
The environment in the workplace is supposed to be one of professionalism and execution. The Notary did not give the lawyer details of what she wanted to achieve in the medium or long term. Neither did María Luisa tell me what she was working on. And for me that was fine, I didn’t have any expectations beyond that, because I knew the nature of the relationship, work.
How have work relationships been for you?
If we think about friendships, or close relationships, the conversation changes.
I invite you to remember the most loving and respectful relationship you have. Friend, spouse, parents, siblings, children. Do you know what they are going through? I suppose so, and even more than that, like what they long for, want, love, search for, what hurts them, what they have lost, what they have gained. And when relationships are healthy, you can also freely trust them with the same thing, there is respect, closeness, trust, affection. And everything ideally is mutual, reciprocal, and with equality..
Now, observing your own experience of how you related to the people at your first job, and how you relate to the friends closest to you, what are the main differences that you notice?
What are the differences in your physical posture, the way you dress, the way you speak, the topics you talk about, and the quality of the conversation.
They are two types of relationships, obviously different.
Of these two different ways of relating to others, which is most similar to your personal relationship with God?
Imagine that you have your boss in front of you, and also the person closest to your heart. Which of those relationships is your relationship with God most like?
In this relationship with God, consider one or more of the following points of reflection:
– What are you talking about.
-How much honesty is on your part?
– Is there interest in discussing something in more detail?
– Do you avoid sharing time together?
– Do you feel judged or not by what you do or not do?
Take some time and find out more deeply.
God, wants to relate to you not as a boss, but as a friend. And he wants to have that closeness that you have with the most intimate of your friends. How do I know? Jesus tells us.
Nobody gives what one does not have. If God can give you love, it is because he has love (IS love). If any of us cannot give love, it is very likely that we do not have anything to give. If that were the case, the invitation is to make yourself the object of your love, so that God overflows that love to others. Fill yourself, and let that love overflow, like a fountain.
In case you feel like you have a love deficiency, I offer this to you for your consideration.
Remember what has been the most detailed, kind and loving treatment you have expressed to someone else. Remember how much you planned the details, how much you thought about pleasing them and having a great time.
Now, use that same criterion for yourself. Whatever you have planned to share with someone else, plan it for yourself, and enjoy the time with yourself.
Don’t be left out of your attention. Don’t love yourself just a little, because you will only have a little to give. Love yourself a lot, and you will have a lot to give.
Nobody gives what one does not have. Or put another way, we only give what we have. We can only give love when we have love.
And when it gets difficult, let’s go deeper. God is present in you. When we find God within, we will also find love within. Let it arise, fill you, overflow you, and reach others.
Jesus shares the love he receives from the Father. And it seems that also in this way we will be able to share the love received from God.
If you want to know God more deeply through his friendship, say it, with trust.
Breathe, slowly. And receive love from him, with trust.
Marisol.
P.S. We can hear about love in friendship in the readings for the Sixth Sunday of the Easter season, year/cycle B.
