Hymn of Freedom, Face to Face Practice

When we look into the face of the other, truly look, we see them in all their vulnerability, in their unique beauty, in their richness of thought, their complexity. We see how easy it is to kill them in the many, many ways we can do this, and we see that they are asking that we do not. When we look into the face of the other, we see that they, like ourselves, were woven together in the depths of the earth by the unseen hand of God. We see, as Jesus saw, that they, like we, are beloved.

To love the other, as we are asked to do, is to see the other. Not in categories, or tidy boxes, this colour, that colour, and by the way, since when was there white, and then people of colour, as though white was the gold standard against which all others are measured. A deeply offensive idea.

 To look into the face of the other, emptying ourselves of all that we are, spiritually naked, is to stand in the presence of God, the living I-thou, it is to know our mutual divinity and our collective humanity reimagined.

 We need to practice this over and over and over again. The Christian faith is a faith of practice, practice and reflection, practice and reflection, leaving ourselves ever ready for the terrifying on-going transformation that is demanded in our faith.