Profiling People

Perfectly profiling people like Jesus does

03/12/2019

Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus said to his disciples: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?' And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Is profiling people a good thing or a bad thing? First, let me share a common definition of profiling: “The recording and analysis of a person’s psychological and behavioral characteristics, so as to assess or predict their capabilities in a certain sphere or to assist in identifying a particular subgroup of people.” Profiling, therefore, is a kind of discrimination. There are all kinds of profiling, such as, DNA profiling, racial profiling, sexual orientation profiling, geographic profiling. Now, some profiling is bad, like racial profiling, when it merely disguises discrimination toward people of a certain race. Some people accuse police departments of racial profiling, which has become such a trend today that I wonder if some people do not profile police departments as being racist.

On the other hand, parents teach their children to profile people as either safe or dangerous. They say, “Don’t talk to strangers,” which means children must profile people into the subgroup of stranger. In today’s toxic atmosphere caused by the child sexual abuse scandal, I wonder if priests are not also subgrouped into the “stranger danger” category by some parents. Ironically, we priests can even profile ourselves into the category of the “untouchables” and hesitate to hug children because it looks bad. We profile people all the time; sometimes it is good and we should, but sometimes it’s bad and we better not.

The scripture readings also weigh in on this touchy topic of profiling people, and seem to stand on both sides of the debate. The book of Deuteronomy states: “Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty but judge your fellowman justly.” In other words, no profiling people or showing preferences. On the other hand, in the gospel Jesus seems to encourage profiling of the poor, that is, so we can see Jesus in them. Our Lord declares: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” In other words, we positively must profile people, especially the poor, so we can discriminate in their favor, that is, so we can love them more.

By the way, Jesus injunction to profile the poor in order to love them stands in the middle of Matthew 25, in the section called “The Judgment of the Nations,” where Jesus will separate all humanity into either sheep or goats, and seal our eternal destiny. In other words, the end of time will consist of the ultimate profiling of people into two subgroups by the One who knows us best. Only Jesus can profile people perfectly, without any prejudice.

Folks, I would suggest to you that profiling people is a part of life that forms and facilitates our interactions with others. We cannot avoid it. May I recommend three things we can do to harness this perpetual profiling and use it in a Christian way to build up the kingdom? First of all, become more aware of how we profile people all the time, often unconsciously. We go to the hospital and an Indian doctor sees us. We think: “Oh, all of those Indian doctors are smart!” And they are, of course. We went to Honduras and hundreds of people lined up to see our American doctors, because the Hondurans thought: “Oh, all those American doctors are smart!” And of course they are. But can you see the subtle profiling underlying those judgments?

Secondly, profile people so as to see the image and likeness of God in them. That is how each person is conceived and created, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, tall or short, smart or slow, fashionable or frumpy. Each person is a child of God, and that should never be omitted from a person’s profile. And thirdly, profile the poor because they are simply Jesus in disguise as we hear in Matthew 25.

Profiling people means looking closely at them, peering below the surface of their appearances, discovering a child of God and a brother or sister of the Lord, so we can love them intensely and unconditionally. Only then will we begin to profile people perfectly like Jesus does.

Praised be Jesus Christ!