A Single We

Last week Pope Francis invited people of faith around the world to rededicate themselves to supporting migrants and refugees. Many remember that shortly after he was elected Pope in 2013, he visited Lampedusa in Italy where thousands of migrants were arriving by boat and, many more, perishing at sea. “We have forgotten how to cry,” he said. He challenged all people of good will to counter “indifference” with an “awakening of conscience.

For his annual message this year the Pope went deeper. "We are called to work together so that there will be no more walls that separate us, no longer others, but only a single we, encompassing all of humanity.” The Pope directed his message to Catholics but then appealed to “all men and women of our world, to advance together towards an ever wider we.” His words are echoes of a mystic’s intuition that we are all bound together, part of something bigger, all capable of what Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault describes as an “all-suffusing sense of intimacy...the complete, numinous mutuality that...earns for itself the name ‘love.’”

What could sound more out of touch with the culture of our country today than the idea of advancing toward an “ever wider we” built by an “all-suffusing sense of intimacy? ”We seem to be on the opposite path to an ever narrower me rather than an "ever wider we." Almost all Americans agree that the divisions in our country are destructive, but sadly, few of us can imagine an alternative. The trap of the way things are seems everywhere to be more and more difficult to escape: pain breeds blame, blame breeds defensiveness, defensiveness breeds shame, and shame breeds pain and blame. Everyone agrees that we have a problem but almost no one thinks they’re responsible for changing it.

But change happens in ways that are difficult to predict and the seeds are often planted quietly and gently, outside of spotlights. Here in Washington, D.C., where my wife Linda and I live, our Bishop, Mario Dorsonville, led a mass on September 26th for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, where he preached that “polarization is isolation” and called on his flock to make alliances with other faiths and other communities. The service included: the Sufi mystics Rumi and Hafiz; Haitian music; lyrics in Zulu, Spanish, French, and Arabic; and a mesmerizing performance by Tabla for Two, with Afghan Masood Omari and Abigail Adams Greenway. The two of them “play for peace” and hold to the conviction that artists will transform Afghanistan.

Some will dismiss prayer and music as ineffective gifts to counter injustice and demonizing in the world. I get it. The Taliban is unlikely to change because of music. The despair and hatred in our country is unlikely to be changed by prayer. Pope Francis may be an inspiration to some, but to others, he’s a troublemaker.

But while few of us can imagine the pain and terror endured by the millions of migrants, maybe we’re all migrants and refugees in a way, on a journey from places of despair to some new home that we can’t yet imagine. Maybe we all need to set out from where we are to some new destination suffused with love. Maybe the call to an "ever wider we" is not just for migrants and refugees but for all of us. The biggest barrier may be our own fear of leaving home.

But in another way, I think we’re on the road already and the new home we seek is actually being built all around us. Few of us will bear the title “mystic,” but who among us hasn’t recently felt the hunger to be part of something bigger? We can live into it. Few of us will speak with the authority of a pope, but who among us hasn’t recently reached out to someone in pain or someone in need? We can do more of it. Few of us will be gifted musicians, but who among us hasn’t recently cried or smiled or danced when music touched our soul and bypassed our fears? We can let it transform us more!

If you don’t think that’s possible, check out my friend Debbie Allen’s stunning speech at the Emmy’s where she received the Governors Award because of her lifetime achievements as a dancer, choreographer, actress, director, producer, and more. She was introduced as a role model of an artist who found common ground by “lifting up the talents of those around her.” When Debbie spoke, she said she was “trembling with gratitude and grace,” and attributed her success to “courage and creativity and fight and faith.” She told us all to tell our stories, to claim our power, to make this moment our own. It was a flash of insight: the solutions are all around us. In fact, the solution is us.

Debbie’s right: this is our moment and, I believe, it’s our moment to travel the sometimes trembling road to the “ever wider we.” To support the refugees arriving at our doors right now may well be the best preparation to help us join them on the road to the new home we all want. We either stay trapped in division and shout and spit and hate our way into an ever smaller me or we open the eyes of our hearts and play and pray and dance and teach and sing and work our way into a "single we." We is the better way. Take it from Debbie. Or Cynthia. Or Pope Francis. Or Masood and Abigail.

Or yourself.