Essay…


The meeting, of man with MAN…


I think most of us have sat, at some point, and thought how much a meeting/a certain meeting meant/weighed in our life!…
And, yes, clean thing: a real meeting is very important in our life!…
Starting from the meeting with God, the Mother of God and His Saints and reaching the meeting with people, especially with Man, and not anytime or anywhere but at the right time and place!
Practically, our life is a path that consists of such providential/pronatory encounters, which, if correctly perceived and seriously assumed or appropriated, are crucial, leading to change, transformation and, why not, even to our transfiguration, they being moments /occasions of sincere and deep revelation or discovery, of God, of our peers and, in particular, of us, of our ego and self, of each one!…
Among other things, what brings people closer in different meetings, which, if we miss them, we lose a lot, maybe even everything, is love, love, and here we must all remember the beautiful meetings when we were in love – what states of bliss we were experiencing then, what thrills all these wonderful events produced and what makes a person move away/estrange himself from the other, from his brother and fellow man, thus affecting/altering the communion and, therefore , destroying the community, is the bizarre, hypocritical and hypocritical behavior, meaning the insincere and duplicitous attitude, which destroyed families, nations, peoples, empires, communities, teams and institutions and, more than that, attracted the anger of many and the hatred or revenge of others! …
Basically, in a world full of loneliness and selfishness, of brutality, cynicism and dualism, cunning and pettiness, it is worth living and consuming, to the end, the opportunity or the chance of meeting, which actually leads us to man and , especially to God, Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition being full of such memorable, sanctifying, healing and, above all, saving parables/examples!…
Most of the time, someone’s healing can be achieved after a very useful meeting, putting to the test the man in us who (still) has the gift, strength or ability to listen to the one in suffering, helplessness, lack and illness, of whatever it is, who can still share a sincere and genuine smile, who can laugh with the one who laughs, sing with the one who sings and cry with the one who cries!…
Otherwise, who does not remember the meetings with chosen, special, sincere, dignified, correct and honest people, with true heroes, saints or symbolic people, with discreet but concrete people, hardworking but simple, capable but modest, humble but altruistic , hardworking and generous, frugal but dynamic and what joy they all caused us!
Where are all these people today?
They (still) are, still exist, this category of people, noble and elegant, delicate and sensitive, but we don’t (anymore) have time to see them and meet them, without realizing that it could be the last , the only or only chance, in this sense!…
Later we might regret it but it will be too late, maybe much too late!…
In a different order of ideas, but in the same context, we will remember the fact that after the Resurrection of Christ the Savior, those who saw Him had discoveries related to their own person and then their eyes, described by the evangelists „as bound” , they saw in the One who was in front of them God – the resurrected Man and bringer of new and eternal life. This is what happened with Mary Magdalene, who mistook the Teacher for a gardener, with the disciples who had gone fishing and mistook Him for a merchant who wanted to buy their fish, with Luke and Cleopas on the way to Emmaus, who they confused with some traveler. The disciples in the pavilion were not convinced that the Teacher entered them through the locked doors, and therefore they could not convince Thomas either, who was not with them, as it was necessary to feel the wounds. Only after the discovery and „untying of the eyes”, people understand Who visits them and Who is the One Who discovers the truth about eternal life!…
In other words, the Samaritan woman did not know the prophet Jesus of Nazareth. Perhaps he had heard of Him, because the news of miracles travels at a very high speed, regardless of the historical period in which it takes place, both then and today. At Jacob’s well, she meets a stranger who asks her for water, despite the strict rules related to the attitude of the Jews towards the Samaritans. Only after a long discussion with this foreigner, who talks to her about worshiping „in Spirit and in Truth” or knowing God in the concrete circumstances of life, as Father Dumitru Stăniloae would later define it, does the foreign woman know Him her personal Savior, whom she follows, as Tradition tells us!…
A road was needed, a kind of inner pilgrimage, to one’s own heart, where the true encounter with the Savior Jesus Christ was to take place, both with the disciples and the Samaritan woman. The meeting with God occurs at His initiative, and our prayer is a preparation of the soul so as not to miss it, to realize it, to be open-eyed to see what cannot be seen normally and, above all, to feel what cannot be felt by the man who does not think about meeting God. The Christian’s path to this meeting can be longer, even the whole life, or shorter, according to the Lord’s will, but it must be traveled by each individual. The Savior can visit us even in the most unexpected places, the condition being our preparation to see Him, which He, as God, knows of course. Radu Gyr’s poem-metaphor about how Jesus visited a prisoner in the cell I think is telling in this sense!…
Our preparation for meeting God takes place daily, when we do our homework, go to church, or help someone. All this has the purpose of softening our heart, so that it becomes sensitive to the sight of God, feels His presence and informs the „eyes and mind” about it, so that man receives the revelation with his whole being, soul and body. Only in this way will he be able to resemble all those who met God and changed forever, starting with the disciples and the Samaritan woman, whom we commemorate this Sunday, the fifth after Holy Easter!…
In other words, the Woman of Sychar rightly became an example for Christians. He also received a name related to the light of Christ. Even if the Gospel does not show that he did anything out of the ordinary. On the contrary, she contradicted Jesus Christ – the Son of Man and talked to Him like an ordinary man. Only when he heard about her tumultuous past did he stop to think and began to ask about the place of worship. The answer of the Savior Jesus Christ overturns almost everything we believe about churches, just as it overturned the beliefs of contemporaries about prayer and man’s relationship with God. The temple in Jerusalem was for the Jewish people then a place of pilgrimage without which the Mosaic faith could not be conceived. The Samarians had formed, for historical reasons, another high place of worship. They were arguing about this place and the woman wants to ask a man of God, a prophet, who is right? The Savior does not give justice to anyone in this case. He just says that the approach is wrong!…
This speech of Jesus Christ – the Son of Man was interpreted literally especially by the Protestant tradition, when it understood that it could give up the idea of a holy place or a religious symbol and consider the whole world a place of worship. The Savior, however, does not abolish the temple, but says that man’s attitude is more important than the place where he prays and the Person to whom man prays makes the prayer meaningful and purposeful!…
In this sense, we often meet even today with people who see in churches some remnants of a so-called infantile approach to the relationship with divinity. For them, divinity can mean almost anything on earth or in the Universe, and man’s relationship with it must not be mediated by anyone. In this way, our contemporaries have turned atheism into a kind of religion in which the nothingness that fills everything becomes an echo that answers predictably to any question or call from man. To try to believe that God is a man at the same time has no point in such circumstances!…
If we return to the Samaritan woman, we will see that Jesus Christ (the Man – the Unknown) who asked her for water transformed during the discussion into a prophet worthy of belief, and at the end into the One about whom it was worth preaching in her town, even if people might not have trusted her words. Despite all these risks, the woman became an apostle and Jesus Christ made Himself known, through her appeal, to at least some of that city!…
Jesus Christ – The Man – This unknown person who can ask us for water in the most unexpected conditions is God, the One who knows our hearts and waits for us to answer Him, even if we ask questions to receive additional answers. The idea is to let Him approach us and go where He points us, after He asks us for water. Only in this way will we be able to find, in turn, the water we need so much!
In the end, let’s not forget that a meeting can be a blessed occasion of joy, happiness, communion, community, life, eternity and salvation!
In other words, let’s pray to God to give us (more) the opportunity/chance of such a real, honest, authentic and true meeting of man with MAN and we, among us, the people, to (more) meet, healthy, beautiful, happy and useful!…


Stelian Gombos


https://steliangombos.wordpress.com/

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Referinţă Bibliografică

Essay… The meeting, of man with MAN…/ Revista Armonii Culturale, ISSN: 2247-1545. Adjud, Vrancea, RO/ Ediția: 11 mai 2023