Emmanuel Church, Bungay, Suffolk

The Minister's Sermons

"Psychic Infection " by Revd Bruce Waldron - 31st July 2005
I was talking to a chap in a neighbouring village last Sunday and he was telling me about an American friend, a Christian man whom he stayed with, about 25 years ago. And he kept saying, "That man changed my life."
"That man made all the difference to me." "My world would be very different if it weren't for him."
Something of the grace and love and patience of his friend touched this man's life in a way that has never been forgotten, and transformed it.
An old man now, he has never forgotten, nor let go of what that encounter did for him.
Along the way we do meet people whose way of being changes our lives, leaves an impression that re-orientates our whole existence.
I've spoken to a few people over the last few years who had that experience with Mother Theresa.
How does a person become like that; to acquire something about themselves that leaves a huge powerful and wonderfully positive impact upon the lives of people they touch, even if only for a brief moment, a short encounter, a visit of a few weeks, one amongst thousands whom we rub shoulders with in our lives.
If you've read the stories of John Wesley, you will know that he was one of those kind of people. I think Paul was too. What makes these people like they are?
Whilst I've been reading and editing Sharn's academic work, a number of times I've come across the term psychic infection. Put simply, it is about the way in which we can easily pick up and feel what another person is feeling. Sometimes you will be talking to a person and without even realizing it, you start to feel quite angry. The other person hasn't even expressed anger, but bubbling away under the surface is an unspoken anger and you pick it up. Possibly you step into the car, and for a few miles, its look out anyone who fails to indicate, or drives too close behind you.
For a pastoral visitor or a counsellor, its very important to be aware of psychic infection because it is so easy to reflect back and reinforce a person's own feelings, rather than offering any alternative. It's also important to understand what is happening otherwise we can easily be caught up in another's feelings to the extent that it wrecks our own peace of mind; damages our own relationships. In lay terms, its often spoken of as taking on someone else's problem.
Who we are affects the people we interact with, and the more powerful our experiences and our feelings, the more profoundly we are likely to have an impact upon others.
So when a person has moved into a deep and powerful experience of God's love, that infects and affects the people they touch.
But how can God's love be experienced, entered into, in a way that makes a difference. Is it just about doing what we ought to do? Being the way we ought to be? Does spirituality come from inside the human structure itself, or is there an external other.
Sociologists of the last century or so have argued very strongly that God is a concept arising out of our struggle against the limitations of our finitude. If there is a divine spark it is from within, emanating from the awareness of our finitude in the face of infinity.
Christian faith has to say a firm no to that perception. I like what Pierre Teilhard de Chardin says.
"Christian love is incomprehensible to those who have not experienced it."
John Chrysostom, in the fifth century wrote "Do you perceive, the love of God is interwoven with ours, like a kind of cord binding it together. That is why Christ at one time spoke of two commandments; at another, one. For it is not possible for him who is receptive to the love of God not to possess the other kind of love."
The kind of love that Mother Theresa achieved was psychically infectious because she was the recipient of divine psychic infection. It came from without to her, and flowed out of her to others. And the more she allowed it to flow, the more powerful it became.
This cannot emerge from the self, from inside ourselves.
In his book titled "Spirituality and Personal Maturity", Thomas Merton talks about the relationship with God in this way. He says;
As long as I perceive no greater reality than myself, I have no freedom. When I am delivered from self-seeking, then I am free to seek God on whom I am dependent and who is present at the heart of my self. I discover my true self by conscious choices to love, by choices which deliver me from self seeking. This deliverance is the core of freedom.
Back in the 14th Century, an anonymous Christian mystic wrote "lift up your heart to the Lord with a gentle stirring of love, desiring him for his own sake and not for his gifts. Centre all your attention and desire on him and let this be the sole concern of your heart and mind. Forget everything else."
A little later he writes "This work of love not only heals the roots of sin, but nurtures practical goodness. When it is authentic, you will be sensitive to every need and respond with a generosity unspoiled by selfish intent. God alone is the source of all goodness and if a person is motivated by something else besides God, even though God is first, then his virtue is imperfect."
This is the basis of Paul's words to us, "that we who are strong, ought to put up with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves, for Christ did not please himself. We do not live to ourselves, but to Christ, and him alone."
It is this intense focus on the God of love that is the essence behind the incredible work that Jesus did, his immense capacity for compassion, even for 5,000 people when his resources were five loaves and a couple of fish.
It was the foundation for Mother Theresa's work, who with no resources, immersed herself into the slums of Calcutta. It was the basis of her immense capacity to impart peace.
It was the basis for that power that touched the life of our friend from the neighbouring village, transformed it, by a brief encounter with one ordinary Christian man in America; a few weeks of holiday, that shaped the rest of his life.
This is the power of the Christian life.
A small postscript. Last night, after my wife had read my address for today, I said to her, "you know, I preach this. I believe it…, but I don't feel that I have in any way attained it."
And Sharn replied "But that's the point isn't it. None of us has made it. We are always striving towards it."
And of course, she's right.