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It may not be good to classify people, but sometimes it does help us to understand people better by grouping them into types. A famous psychologist once attempted to group people into only two groups. He classified people according to how they entered a room. His first classification is of people who, when they enter a room, say “I am here.” The second is of people who say, when they enter a room, “You are here.”
The first type who says “I am here” know they’re important. They know their value and they think people miss them when they are not present. When they enter a room, they announce to one and all their arrival and put them on attention. “I am here,” they say.
The second type of people who enter a room know that there are people more important than they, and they say, “You are here.” It’s like saying, “I miss you, it’s good you are here.” It’s like saying, “I love you. You are important to me and it makes me happy to enter this room because you are here.” The first type says upon entering a room, “I am here. You should be happy that I am here.” The second says, “Ah, you are here. You make me so happy to be here.”
Mary and Elizabeth belonged to the second type of people. They entered into each other’s presence and when they did so, what did Mary do? Mary did not tell Elizabeth, “I am the mother of God.” Mary greeted Elizabeth and exclaimed, “You are here.”
And as soon as Elizabeth saw Mary, she said, “Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” It is also like saying, “You are here. You are here. How blessed I am that you are here.”
Maybe another key to being happy is to diminish the self-importance we give ourselves and look at other people as more important than us, not because we lack self-esteem, but because they do. If we are unhappy now, could it be because we still belong to the type of people who say, “I am here. Look at me. Be happy that I am here. I should be important to you.” And then we will discover that we are not really that important.
Let us acknowledge who we are—nothing, nobody—when separated from God.
YOU ARE THERE
Lk 1:39-45
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