Summer is a season for gatherings—block parties, reunions, and cookouts. These get-togethers often bring out the best and worst in us, don’t they? Introductions and new friendships, alongside ideological differences and stubbornness, all mixed up together. Please pass the guac!
In an increasingly isolated culture, we have fewer opportunities to interact with curiosity or diplomacy. Especially because we often choose to exist in a way that presents one viewpoint—mine. In that sense, befriending those with opposing views is increasingly rare. Yet, as followers of Christ, we believe our engagement (like His) should include more than a brush-up with others. Our interactions between “us and them” should be rooted in love.
During his papacy, Pope Francis repeatedly used the phrase a theology of encounter, emphasizing the need to “run the risk of a face-to-face encounter with others,” and encouraging a “revolution of tenderness” (Evangelii Guadium, no. 88). Meaning that God Incarnate intends to meet us in the world in surprising ways. In turn, we are called to recognize the imago Dei in all those we meet (see Genesis 1:26-27).
The Imago Dei Changes Everything
There is an individual in my community with whom I profoundly disagree. Based on the opinionated messaging that he has generously shared, I have deduced that we understand the world quite differently. You can imagine my surprise one Sunday when I came to the front of the Communion line to find him, with whom I previously found no common ground, reverently extending the Body of Christ to me. In that exchange, he was no longer the other, but rather took on a realistic, human, and relatable persona that had eluded me until that moment.
I was undone.
This is what Pope Francis had been describing, I thought to myself. Encounter. The body of Christ sharing the Body of Christ.
While we still fundamentally disagree, he cannot remain the other, which would be so easy for me to do. He is a unique and unrepeatable expression of God’s creative love, as my Vincentian friend used to say. I cannot unsee that reality, having received the Bread of Life from his hands.
Imagine the level-headedness we could channel in our relationships if our first association with those who challenge us is our common ground as God’s beloved.
Loving Our Actual Neighbors
There is a reason why Jesus implores us to love our neighbors: because we do not choose them! Unlike those we choose to associate with, our neighbors often reveal our sharp edges and judgments. As the Gospel reminds us:
“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)
While we certainly can appreciate this teaching at face value, it takes a bit more for it to take root in our hearts. I suggest it takes an encounter. Probably many encounters. Happily, there are infinite opportunities for us to encounter God’s presence within our daily interactions if we have eyes to see them. And, as we mature in our ability to do this in our families and on our block, we are called to go further, because God’s love always sends us out.
On Fraternity and Social Friendship
One major event that solidified the practice of “othering” was the coronavirus pandemic. This context explains why Pope Francis published the encyclical Fratelli tutti (On Fraternity and Social Friendship) in October 2020, during the height of intense division. Unsurprisingly, his words are as true for our personal relationships as they are for international relations:
"For Christians, the words of Jesus have an even deeper meaning. They compel us to recognize Christ himself in each of our abandoned or excluded brothers and sisters (cf. Mt 25:40.45). Faith has untold power to inspire and sustain our respect for others, for believers come to know that God loves every man and woman with infinite love and ‘thereby confers infinite dignity’ upon all humanity. We likewise believe that Christ shed his blood for each of us and that no one is beyond the scope of his universal love. If we go to the ultimate source of that love which is the very life of the triune God, we encounter in the community of the three divine Persons the origin and perfect model of all life in society. Theology continues to be enriched by its reflection on this great truth" (Pope Francis, Fratelli tutti, no. 85).
As an antidote to an “us-and-them” worldview, it is essential to remember two truths: The devil is the great divider, while our Triune God is relationship itself. While the evil one delights in isolation and brokenness, Jesus compels us to remain in relationship (see John 17:21).
In light of Pope Francis’ Fratelli tutti, and on the heels of Pope Leo’s first encyclical, we are rightly being challenged to value the people who become collateral damage to our fragmented behavior and judgment. This “theology of encounter” is at the heart of Jesus’ ministry and God’s very nature. Our cooperation in this effort is the foundation of the Christian life and our salvation. It changes everything.
“When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost’” (John 6:12).
