Seeing Beyond Labels

August 24, Wednesday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time/St. Bartholomew, Apostle
Daily readings: Revelation 21:9-14 and John 1:45-51

To the one who sees beyond labels, there’s so much beauty to see in each person.

Many years back, as a young instructor at the University of Santo Tomas, a much older colleague, a professor by rank, approached me to ask, “What is your right to teach English? Are you an English major?” I politely told her I was not, to which she replied, “So why are you teaching? What right and competence have you?” I replied, “Please come and sit in my class to see what right and competence I have.”

Many of us are guilty of being judgmental. Worse, we judge based on minimal superficial stereotype information. We label people. We box people often on the negative. Jesus was not exempted.

The Gospel today tells us how he was looked down on because of the label attached to him, “Son of Joseph (a carpenter) from (a small town called) Nazareth’.

There’s so much more to Jesus to someone who sees the bigger picture – He is the Son of God, not just the son of Joseph. But there is much more to Jesus to anyone who believes. There’s much more to the labels that we attach to Jesus. We must go beyond these labels and have an authentic relationship with Jesus. Such a deep-seated relationship allows us to see greater things and have a foretaste of heaven's glory.

This goes true with our relationships with others. The labels we attach to people hinder us from truly reaching out to them, thereby limiting our interaction into a transactional relationship – something numbered, something that focuses on what one can get rather than what one can give or offer.

We are reduced to being spectators rather than collaborators. We are always on the lookout for protecting ourselves and attacking others rather than allowing ourselves to be vulnerable so we may nurture authentic relationships.

To a judgmental person, nothing good comes from Nazareth; nothing good comes from a person we have looked down upon. But to him or to her who sees beyond labels, there’s so much beauty to see in each one of us. There’s so much blessing even in small things.

Today’s Gospel invites us to ‘come and see’. Come and see the goodness of the Lord. We can’t see this from afar. We need to be immersed and have that authentic relationship with Him and others.