The human face . . . is a synonym for the incarnation of uniqueness.
~ Abraham Heschel
To see a face is already to hear ‘You shall not kill.’
Emmanuel Levinas
Any human face is a claim on you,
because you can’t help but understand
the singularity of it, the courage and loneliness of it.
~ Marilynne Robinson
Brother Weeps once said to his teacher Brother Po, “Brother, you have always taught us the importance of the question.”
“Yes,” said Brother, “that is so.”
Brother Weeps asked, “So, what is the question to which you want your life to be a worthy response?”
“That is a good question, Brother. May I have another?” asked Brother Po.
“You mean you want a different question?”
“No, no. I mean may I have two questions?”
Oh, of course. Certainly,” replied Brother Weeps, humbled that the elder monk had even asked.
“The first question I want my life to be a response to,” said Brother Po, “is What does it mean to be holy? And the second question is like its fraternal twin: What does it mean to be human?”
Brother Weeps looked pensive. “May I ask you why those are your questions?” asked Brother Weeps.
“Because, as you’ve heard me say many times before, our being here—it’s all about love,” said Brother Po. “To be human,” he said—”deeply, fully, truly human—is to know oneself as lavishly loved.” He paused briefly, watching Brother Weep’s face relax. “To be holy—genuinely, profoundly, wildly so—is to respond wholeheartedly to this ridiculous, borderless love.”
After a pause, Brother Po said,
“Let me say it another way. To be human is to have a face. To have a face is to be graced and obliged. To be holy is to turn our face again and again and again toward the Face that beholds us with gratuitous, boundless love, the Face that will never go away.* And then, to let the light of that Face reflect off our face onto others—many of whom feel unseen, rejected, unworthy, or defaced—or who don’t know the loveliness of their face. Just as the face of the moon is lit with the light from the sun which it then reflects onto the earth, so too the face with which we are looked upon and beheld by the Face that will never go away is meant to reflect the radiance of that light onto others with reverence, kindness, compassion, and love.”
© Daniel J. Miller, 2022. All Rights Reserved.
NB! Brother Po’s response is based on the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas’ understanding of the face and the ethic he built around it. By “face” Levinas means the human face (or in French, visage), but not thought of or experienced merely as a part of the human body or as an aesthetic object. Rather, the first, usual, unreflective encounter with the face is as the living presence of another person. The eminence of the face signals the mystery of the “other,” an allusion to the divinity from which s/he comes forth, the invitation to relationality, and the inherent obligation and demand for justice that comes with it.
* The term “the Face that will never go away” I learned from my teacher and spiritual guide Dr. James Loder. It refers to the trustworthiness and incomparable fidelity of the Holy One.
ARTWORK: (Top) Dan Miller; (Bottom) Lee Lawson. Used with the artist’s permission. You can find Lee’s art here.
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