When you look into a child’s face
And you’re seeing the human race
The endless possibilities there
Where so much can come true
And you think of the beautiful things
A child can do
– Jackson Browne “How Long?
When my daughters were born, I knew two things for certain. I knew a depth of love I had not experienced before that moment, and I also knew when I looked into their eyes that they bore the image of Almighty God. Their whole lives were an unwritten book full of potential ahead of them. I was blessed to be part of their story.
This week I was invited to accompany an asylum-seeker who was scheduled to appear in immigration court. He was rightfully nervous, as many immigrants were having their cases dismissed only to be arrested and deported as soon as they exited the courtroom. This fear was borne out as the hallway leading to the courtroom was flanked by 25 masked ICE agents in bulletproof gear with guns at the ready. As we walked past these officers, I tried to make eye contact and say, “Good morning” to as many of them as I could. Some met my gaze and a few said, “Good morning” in return. Most averted their eyes. A few glared at me angrily.
This practice of wearing masks by law enforcement is new in our nation. When asked about it, some have responded that it is due to weather or that they don’t want to get doxxed. I fear that the practice has a far more psychological and spiritual rationale: Hiding one’s face is an attempt to dehumanize oneself. It is to remove the human-to-human interaction that would allow for honest discourse and reflection. It allows one person to dehumanize another.
I sensed these agents were trying to protect their identity, but in doing so, they were damaging their souls. Their face coverings reminded me of stormtroopers in Star Wars, who are faceless and therefore beyond empathy when the “heroes” shoot them in droves.
Our faith tradition proclaims that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God (a concept we refer to with the Latin phrase Imago Dei). We are masterpieces of the Divine Creator with inherent worth and dignity, no matter what. Our calling is to see that Divine image in one another. That means seeing it in the immigrant and the ICE agent. The doctrine of the Imago Dei reminds us that there really is no “us” nor “them,” just one beautiful Us.
For humans to forget this is the core of our bondage to sin. We want our people, agenda, religion, or nation to be special or “better than” others. We create labels to replace faces so we can harm people outside our group with dehumanizing systems. This happens in every group because it resides in every heart. The purpose of healthy spiritual practice is to shake off this tragic blindness long enough to be re-humanized to one another.
What is the root of the violence in the world, or the policies that harm the most vulnerable? It is a story—a lie—that one group is inherently worth more than another group. That lie ultimately won’t stand up to scrutiny, so we wear masks. We wear metaphorical masks with our allegiances to anything less than God, and we wear literal masks when we plan to cause literal harm.
Meeting the gaze of a few agents in that hallway shocked me. I did not expect to be moved by their humanity, which only demonstrates how much I have bought into the us-vs-them rhetoric. After his hearing, when the person I accompanied was not arrested, I was able to make eye contact with him as well. Again, I saw a child of God, relieved to be free but worried about what might happen next. I told him he was not alone and that I would see him the next time he needed us to escort him to court.
These are dehumanizing days in our nation. They are also days when God has called us to be the body of Christ in the world. This world. May we locate our own Imago Dei so we can see it in others. May we be tangible sources of hope, refusing to accept the soul-crushing power of masks. Holy Spirit, help us see what you see in each face.
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