I am a human person person.

I am a people person.

But I would like to become more of a human person person.

“Human person” seems to reach a little deeper into the gut.

We are simple really.

While still wonderfully complex.

No one could be compared to another…  but we all boil down to a simple commonality: we are each a human person.

Something in us makes us completely irreplaceable, unrepeatable, exclusively favored, and charming in and of ourselves alone. You could marvel at the uniqueness of one person for a lifetime – perhaps this is what the love of a mother and father feels like.

It is actually one of the four cardinal virtues that requires this - justice.
(Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance… easily remembered by the acronym PJFT – Praise Jesus For Tacos. You’re welcome).  
JUSTICE – to give someone what they are due. What are we due? Dignity and honor. Why? Because we are made in the image and likeness of God. What?? Inorite… Stay with me…

“Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church - CCC #1934)

The same nature and the same origin = we all came from and are going back to the same place therefore our nature is the same... so we "enjoy an EQUAL DIGNITY".

Hard part: this means everyone. Everyone deserves this justice merely because they are a human person. No one is excluded. All must be loved. Do we welcome each other with this warmth regardless?

A single human person deserves dignity and honor because they are a human person who was born, lives, and will one day die… just like you… born, lives, and dies. It’s so short!  St. Teresa of Avila said, “Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life… If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.” PREACH GIRL!  We die – then what? What will we say to explain the people we were? Would you be proud of yourself if you were stripped of your job, friends, status, stuff, looks? If you stood naked, could you say “I never needed the stuff, I was always about the other and the soul?”

I visited a new church last week and I was smacked in the face by this reality of "same nature, same origin, equal dignity". It was the Church of St. John the Baptist run by Capuchin Franciscans with a special devotion to St. Padre Pio. When I walked into the double door entrance, there was a homeless man with his face leaning too close to the door and talking to himself. I went next to him to open the door to enter and he turned toward me, leaning too close to me while still talking to himself. Truthfully, he scared me and I rushed into the church hallway. He stayed outside and I was thankful. 

I entered the church and there were about thirty other people already in the pews waiting for Mass. A few of them were homeless and sleeping on the pews, a few mentally disabled were muttering prayers until they would get stuck on a certain word, a few just stared, a few were physically deformed. The church smelled of ointments and unwashed bodies. As I was looking around, I realized all of them, except for maybe five, were in some way mentally or physically handicapped.

As I sat among them, I was overcome with the sensation that I was finally at a church that Jesus would be proud of. Jesus would have been smiling and welcoming me to His true home, His home of "living waters".  All of these people found refuge in Jesus and the care of the friars. No one was rushing them out, no one was treating them strangely. Many of them had roles in the church service or around the facility. When they began to pray the Rosary, I nearly wept. It was beautiful. I'm sure Mama Mary's heart was moved by the sweetness.

Shame on me.

Shame on me that my first reaction towards them was fear and rushing away.

“What is at stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly in debt.” (CCC #1939)

When I say “I am a people person” there seems to be a glimmer of pride that comes with that. Implying that I like to interact with others, make them laugh, and hear about their lives. Somewhere in there, as innocent as it sounds, it all points back to me. It’s all about me.

I want to be more of a human person person… there seems to be rivers of humility and smallness that comes with that. Implying I am about the other – ensuring that they know they are loved, wanted, and good. Somewhere in there is the core of every human.

No one is excluded. All must be loved – straight, gay, in the womb, out of the womb, healthy, handicapped, young, old, rich, poor, any race, any religion. We are all human persons.
Do we welcome each other with this warmth regardless of these?
Or do we cower from some sort of unknown and rush away?

“Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as 'another self,' above all bearing in mind his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity." (CCC #1931)

Another self… YOU are ME… the thought of someone rushing away from me in fear makes my heart totally break. How humiliating. HE, leaning too close to the door and talking to himself, was ME. Father, forgive me. Enlarge my heart with mercy and warmth. 

I spent the weekend the with the Sisters of Life and got to experience in the flesh what this "charism of life" looks and feels like. You walk away rejuvenated, restored. These Sisters gaze with the most gentle of eyes into your heart and truly care. They have dedicated their entire lives to get to the essence of how to show this love for each human person. Blessed are these women who are clothed in this mercy and warmth, receiving all as welcomed and wanted.

May we receive all people as our brothers. May we be able to say to anyone “you have a home here”.  And if it backfires? Maybe it will. May we be unafraid to be saints and martyrs for the sake of love.

Rather than bragging about how we engage people as "people persons", let's only brag about how much they feel loved as "human persons".

May we be unafraid to look each other in the eyes, to speak truth, to be a living hope, to bring buckets of "living water" to the thirsty saying I would not let my brother thirst.

May we be unafraid to claim ourselves as a human person person.