How are you able to "see" Jesus in everyone, including the mean/rude, etc?

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How can we help ourselves “see” Jesus in every human being like we are supposed to? What are some “tips” to remember this when we are confronted with someone who is being mean or rude, etc.?
 
One way is to read a portion of the Gospels each and every day. Pray that God will speak to us through the Scriptures, particularly in the passages that deal with love and charity for others. God will show the way if we ask!
 
One other thought – particularly when ticked off by someone while driving, I try to remember all the times when I was in a hurry or was sure that I was correct. Then I tell myself that maybe that other person is just in a hurry or is having a bad day for some reason unknown to me.
 
This is such a difficult thing to do - I am no where close to successful. Jesus is camouflauged really well in some people.

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and not take things personally, but sometimes that is a moment to moment struggle. I can usually overlook rudeness or whatever directed towards me, but it really upsets me when someone with an “issue” turns on an innocent bystander.

Very much an ongoing struggle for me!
 
HeWillProvide said:
How can we help ourselves “see” Jesus in every human being like we are supposed to? What are some “tips” to remember this when we are confronted with someone who is being mean or rude, etc.?
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'Abdu’l-Baha came to America in 1912. He “saw the Face of His Heavenly Father in every face” and reverenced the soul behind it. How could one be discourteous if such an attitude was held towards everyone!
He said:
“Dost thou desire to love God? Love thy fellow men, for in them ye see the image and likeness of God.” Is not every rough-hewn person created in the image of God? Is not the entire universe the sole possession of God, its supreme Protector and Provider?

But it requires the penetrating eye of a more than personal, individual, limited, love to see God’s Face in the face of saint and sinner alike. Must it not require, to some degree at least, that all-embracing love which Christ showered upon all alike, to enable us to see the Face of our Heavenly Father reflected in the faces of our brother men? This must be what our Lord meant when He said:

“A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you.”

A new commandment indeed, and how basely neglected! Let the condition of our pseudo-Christian civilization bear witness.
 
Sometimes, dear, you just have to be like a kid and use your imagination. 🙂
 
Father Larry Richards in his CD on Truth ( www.thereasonforourhope.org ) teaches that through baptism we are all “adopted sons and daughters” of God. Therefore just by anothers person existance, they are your brother or sister. Do we always get along with our brothers and sisters, no, but we always find a way to forgive them and love them.

Simon, who was forced to carry the cross for Jesus complained and was not a nice person at that moment of time. A few days later, he and his sons became followers of Jesus. When you have encountered rude, mean and sarcastic brothers and sisters, it is more important what you do and how you behave. Do they see Jesus in YOU ?

Jesus so moved Simon that he was converted. By our actions of patience, love and forgiveness, who can we convert back to being civil - at least for the next person if not for us.
 
It is very hard at times.
However I’ve been rude at times, and God still loves me.
I sometimes remind myself that Christ died for this person, and he’s not my problem, he’s God’s. Who am I to tell God He’s made a mistake., that this particular person wasn’t worth His dying for?
There must be something valuable about everyone, it’s just that I can’t see it at the moment.
 
It helps me to refer to my fellow humans as brothers and sisters… usually I’m much less likely to say some pretty nasty things about or to them. Another thing that helps is to remind myself that everyone is made in both the image and likeness of God, and that they’re not the same thing… Everyone, by virtue of being sons and daughters of God, has that image stamped into their soul, but not everyone has that likeness. Perhaps part of my job is to help them, through my own prayers and charity towards them especially when I don’t feel like it, recognize their own likeness of God and act upon that likeness.

Also, I remember what a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest has told me a few times, everyone is an icon (or image) of God. Knowing, and praying for God’s grace to do so, that the reverence that I hold towards icons is the same reverence I should show towards others, regardless of how difficult they are to deal with has enabled me, at least a bit more than I have in times past, to do just that.
 
HeWillProvide said:
How can we help ourselves “see” Jesus in every human being like we are supposed to? What are some “tips” to remember this when we are confronted with someone who is being mean or rude, etc.?
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You don’t see Jesus in them in the sense that they behave in any way that you might recognise Him in them, but in the sense that the person is our brother/sister whom God loves. It’s not for us to concern ourselves whether or not Jesus shows in them but that He regards how we treat them as how we are treating Him. Jesus didn’t say, “love your brother/sister as yourself if he/she seems worthy or not,”, but only "Love others as you love yourself. He also said: “pray for you enemies”

When He explained the judgement of souls in Matthew 35 verses 31-46, Jesus didn’t say, he will only take into consideration whether the person was good, He spoke of practical kindness to anyone, (including those who are not good perhaps, like prisoners, who are possibly criminal of some kind perhaps) as being the basis of His judgement of souls according to practical love.

So no, we can’t see Jesus’ characteristics of love and goodness in someone who is rude or horrible in how they treat us or others…but intrinsically, simply as fellow human creations, whom He will judge in the end, according to their charity and their repentance regarding their unkind acts and attitudes. We can wisely avoid them if it’s reasonable, but we can’t judge them and we cannot not treat them with kindness…and if they or ourselves can’t safely handle that, we are left with the responsibility to pray for them.
Praying for them is an act of practical charity we can offer those who are effectively our enemies, and in doing so we are ‘seeing Christ’ in them.
 
I have always found it near on impossible to see Jesus in another person; however, I have no difficulty in regarding others as absolutely beloved by God as I am. That sort of adjusts my perspective and deflects from any unhappy qualities I may seem to sight in another. Another matter that can help my perspective re others is to remind myself of the times I have been the source of unhappy qualities. We are all ‘poured in the same mould’. As a Benedictine prioress once pointed out - “we are all weak, we are all strong”. We all have a good points, and we all have our failures. These may differ only in kind from one individual to another including oneself.

TS
 
HeWillProvide said:
How can we help ourselves “see” Jesus in every human being like we are supposed to? What are some “tips” to remember this when we are confronted with someone who is being mean or rude, etc.?
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See a person next to you in a chair/pew (depending on the day of the week in my closest parish)
And realize that person could be me.
 
TiggerS said:
I have always found it near on impossible to see Jesus in another person; however, I have no difficulty in regarding others as absolutely beloved by God as I am. That sort of adjusts my perspective and deflects from any unhappy qualities I may seem to sight in another. Another matter that can help my perspective re others is to remind myself of the times I have been the source of unhappy qualities. We are all ‘poured in the same mould’. **As a Benedictine prioress once pointed out - “we are all weak, we are all strong”. **We all have a good points, and we all have our failures. These may differ only in kind from one individual to another including oneself.

TS
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That would be a quote from Paulus of Tarsus. “When I am weak I am strong”

She forgot to tell you that point. Pity.
 
I’ve been considering this question too, it is often on my mind.

There was this person at work that I didn’t readily get on with. So one day I decided I was going to ‘see’ Christ in him. It may have showed somehow because from that time on we got on really well. It seemed like he had changed but it was I who had changed.

One of the residents in our care was so cruel in the words he used to nearly all the staff. The words he called people were shocking. He was sexist, racist, prejudiced … you name it. Even when he was being nice there was a sarcastic edge to it. He was close to what I would call ‘malignant’. I wondered where Christ was hidden in him. One day I saw him tenderly caring for this nesting swallow and saw a side to him I would never have imagined. He did have some sort of frontal lobe damage and even though I still walk cautiously past him when I have to, I know that Christ is in him deep down somewhere.
 
TiggerS said:
I have always found it near on impossible to see Jesus in another person; however, I have no difficulty in regarding others as absolutely beloved by God as I am. That sort of adjusts my perspective and deflects from any unhappy qualities I may seem to sight in another. Another matter that can help my perspective re others is to remind myself of the times I have been the source of unhappy qualities. We are all ‘poured in the same mould’. As a Benedictine prioress once pointed out - “we are all weak, we are all strong”. We all have a good points, and we all have our failures. These may differ only in kind from one individual to another including oneself.

TS
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I like your quote, “We are all weak, we are all strong.”
The OP asks a great question with which we all struggle. The Epistle of John says, “How can you love the God you have not seen, if you hate the brother you have seen?”
There are times when we become angry with each other. An interesting statement I heard a few months ago was that we cannot become angry with somebody without a vested interest in that person. Think about how angry we get with our spouses, and how the grudges we hold in cases of divorce can last for years.
Your quote also fits with a homily from a few weeks ago regarding marriage. Marriage is not a partnership. It is a covenant. Each spouse is called to be strong where the other is weak. God is strong where both are weak. I don’t want to take this thread off track even as I remember a quote credited to St. Benedict regarding marriage. “Enter with your eyes wide open. After that keep you eyes half closed.” The arguments I had with my husband generally revealed a personal fault of my own that I saw in him.
I worked at a 24 hour convenience store for a while. Retailers are told to smile even at the rudest customers. “Maybe they had a bad day.”
 
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HeWillProvide:
How can we help ourselves “see” Jesus in every human being like we are supposed to? What are some “tips” to remember this when we are confronted with someone who is being mean or rude, etc.?
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I don’t have any difficulty seeing Jesus in most people and not only in the helpful, the generous and those who go the second or third mile. For me it also includes those who are being judgemental and those who expect people to be perfect as I picked up these sides of Jesus from Bible readings and stories from my childhood onwards.

I was the one who identified with the older brother in the story of the Prodigal son, who felt sympathy for the man who buried his piece of gold because he feared his reception if he lost it rather than take the risk of rejection and invest it, who felt sorry for the goat in the story of Abraham and Issac.
 
Salonika said:
I don’t have any difficulty seeing Jesus in most people and not only in the helpful, the generous and those who go the second or third mile. For me it also includes those who are being judgemental and those who expect people to be perfect as I picked up these sides of Jesus from Bible readings and stories from my childhood onwards.

I was the one who identified with the older brother in the story of the Prodigal son, who felt sympathy for the man who buried his piece of gold because he feared his reception if he lost it rather than take the risk of rejection and invest it, who felt sorry for the goat in the story of Abraham and Issac.
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you felt sorry for the goat and not Issac??

Well, that is a different take.

I dont understand your rendering of the prodigal son either. :eek:
 
StrawberryJam said:
That would be a quote from Paulus of Tarsus. “When I am weak I am strong”

She forgot to tell you that point. Pity.
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Or perhaps she did and I have forgotten it! I wouldn’t know. But I think what she really did mean is that we all have strengths and we all have weaknesses and we differ only in kind. TS
 
TiggerS said:
Or perhaps she did and I have forgotten it! I wouldn’t know. But I think what she really did mean is that we all have strengths and we all have weaknesses and we differ only in kind. TS
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Each of us has different gifts or talents to be used for the betterment of one another. Some people are great athletes. Others are artistic. Some people are gifted listeners while others know how to organize people to get a project completed. Yes, “we are all strong. We are all weak.”
 
I had a priest tell me once “Just remember, Jesus died for her, too”
 
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