When was the last time you performed an MRI?
I had some issues with my neck a few years ago, and after trying the least expensive therapies, I was introduced to those massive machines with powerful magnets called Magnetic Resonance Imagers. An MRI is able to unlock the secrets of the brain and the body, giving a clear picture as to what is inside without having to do invasive surgery. MRI’s probe what doctors used to not be able to find out until after they opened a patient up. Now, by use of this wonderful technology, they can peer inside a human body to find what lies within. It is an amazing science, and an amazing machine.
I used to think that MRI’s were solely the realm of doctors and skilled technicians. But recently I found out about another kind of MRI, one that also reveals what is inside a person. It is a phrase I’m told is used from time to time by some folks in human resources or team-building leadership training. MRI stands for the Most Respectful Interpretation. People who are good at this kind of MRI – the ‘Most Respectful Interpretation’ – generally become good managers of people. If a person is crabby at work, instead of presuming that they are your enemy or some kind of awful person, an MRI presumes the best, and maybe even begins a conversation to discover what is going on in that person’s life.
When was the last time you performed an MRI?
David, in the first reading, makes that choice. Saul, the first king of Israel, had grown jealous of David’s popularity. Dangerously jealous, so much so that he was hunting David to kill him. Today’s story picks up in the middle of that cat and mouse game in the desert. David has Saul delivered into his hands, but rather than view Saul as an enemy, he chooses to see him and react to him as God’s anointed. Instead of killing Saul, he takes the spear, to let Saul know he could have done so, but won’t. And you sense that he is trying to move Saul to a conversion. He gives Saul a chance to respond a different way. I am not your enemy. I am your friend, your brother. And you are not a vindictive ruler trying to hang onto power. You are God’s anointed. That is who you are. And that is what he hoped to remind Saul of in that conversation – that he was more/better than this petty
To us, Jesus gives the same imperative – to not only give an MRI, but to go further. “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who persecute you.” And that was the easy stuff. “Stop judging, and you will not be judged.”
It is so much more easier to jump to conclusions without the data. How quickly we join in the parking lot gossip, the office cooler conversations – and instead of an MRI – we jump to the MDI – the Most Disrespectful Interpretation. We question motives and make up all matter of fanciful interpretations – which may or may not be true. The truth is, we never know what is going on in someone’s heart or life.
The vision that Jesus holds out for us, as difficult as it may be to achieve, is a world where the first response and the second and the third is always COMPASSION. Always to begin with an MRI. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you. Do not judge.
The actions we can judge. We have to use our ability for critical thinking. People’s lives can depend on that judgment. But when it comes to their hearts there are several things we need to remember:
1. We don’t have enough evidence to judge a person’s heart. We never do. Ever.
A woman got on a subway car on a quiet morning. At the next stop, a tired young man surrounded by two noisy kids got on. The kids proceeded to run up and down the entire length of car, creating more and more of a ruckus. The man was oblivious. “Young YUPPIE,” she thought. So busy working two jobs, he’s probably a terrible father, divorced and doesn’t really care about his kids. Finally, after being run into for the third time, the woman said: “Sir, can you do something about your kids?” It seemed to snap him out of his fog, and he called them over. He apologized to the woman. “I’m sorry, I just left my wife in the hospital room where they told us she has cancer. I guess I am still in that hospital room…” Suddenly the woman’s perception of the whole situation shifted. His response helped her see his pain and struggle, and make sense out of the behaviors.
2. There are two – or more – sides to every story, and often the truth is complicated.
3. Everyone is in pain, everyone is hurting.
We are so quick to anger but the truth is we don’t know the stories only those hearts could tell.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed for rejecting Nazism put it this way: “We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or don’t do, and more in light of what they suffer.” Only when we can see an enemy as someone to be loved will we stop demonizing them and stop the cycle of violence that goes on and on and on. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you. Do not judge. Forgive. Be merciful. That is what it means to be a disciple.
So, this week, do some MRI’s in the situations you find yourself in. When you don’t know what is going on inside of the other, or even when you do, instead of judging them, find the Most Respectful Interpretation, and act from that space. In that way, we will learn to turn enemies into friends, and ourselves into disciples…