A WING AND A PRAYER - "One Body, Many Members"

The governing principles of God's reign aren't designed to make any of us particularly comfortable. When we think about the poor, captives, blind, and oppressed, do we know they have need of us? All are members of the body of God's creation, all have a need of one another.-p. 9

Our Presiding Bishop has just returned from a meeting of the primates of the Anglican Communion in which the notion of needing those with whom we do not agree or who understand God's revelation differently has not just drawn lines in the sand, but also built walls that seem to grow taller and thicker each day. There is a desire to cocoon ourselves, to circle the wagons, and to keep out those who make us uncomfortable or who force us to see ourselves, taking us out of our comfort zones. Still, the charge is to recognize that our notion of being the "Body of Christ" may well be greater than our notion of "Church." If we recognize the dignity of every human person, then we have to recognize the interrelatedness of each of us to each. We also have to see a requisite reciprocity as well, and know that while someone in need has need of me, I, too, have need of them, as uncomfortable as it might make me.

Riding the subway in N.Y.C. is challenging at best. You learn how to look but not to see, to glance around but not make eye contact, to respect the idea of being alone in a very public space. A few years back, a man passed by me, holding a can with some small change, and wearing a sign that read, "I have A.I.D.S. Can you help me?" He didn't say anything; he didn't extend his can into anyone's personal space. What was most noticeable were the number of people who looked at him, but refused to see him, and essentially ignored him to the point of removing him from their existence. Ignoring needy doesn't just remove them from the list of human persons; it also removes us from God's gifts of empathy and sympathy.

Who have we chosen to remove from the list of "human"? Who is not worthy of our sight, let alone our gaze? And what is the personal price we pay in order to have the "privilege" to ignore others out of existence?