I have always been taken by the Word Namaste. There are several translations of the word, but my favorite is ‘the God in me greets the God in you’. As I was sitting at Mass this Sunday on the Feast of Corpus Christi, I began to reflect on what that meant for me, for you, and for all of us.
Corpus Christi is about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. What connection does it have with Namaste? The longer I thought, the more I realized that although we can sit for hours before the Blessed Sacrament, how do we take that prayer out into the world to our home, workplace, schools, etc? We need to become that body of Christ, His hands and feet and heart. So therefore, when we say Namaste, we would truly be saying ‘the God in me greets the God in you’. The story is told that Mother Teresa would teach her Sisters not only to genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament but that before Communion, each sister would recognize with great reverence the God that dwells within them. Didn’t our Foundress understand this when she placed on our crosses “Ecce Regnum Dei, intra vos est… Behold the Kingdom of God is within you”?
Ah, but do we truly believe that? Do we try and see the God in each other? Or do we have our own Ideas about others? Do I even believe that God is truly living and being within me when I receive Communion? I think that we can take things for granted and almost operate on automatic pilot. How can we learn to be truly alive and appreciate all that God has given us?
During this week, I was talking to a friend who was presenting on the topic of negotiating. I shared with her my word and said IF we greeted each other with that image in mind, all negotiating would be a lot easier. We would LISTEN to the other person… HEAR what they are saying and not be preparing our rebuttal while they were speaking to us! Imagine that! I would suggest that in most instances that is NOT the case. Imagine if we greeted each other recognizing the presence of God in the other person, the living breathing Corpus Christi! I think our families, workplaces, cities, churches, and the rest of the world would be much different places.
My challenge for this week is for us to see if we really recognize the presence of God in the other and treat them as the Body of Christ. NAMASTE MY FRIENDS! Let us revere one another.
Till next week,
Sister Theresita
