In all faith traditions, respect for the sacred involves both worship of God and love for one’s neighbor. In fact, all of the prophets tell us that the two are actually one and the same.
The following include examples of what it means to have “respect for the sacred.” The absolute, irreducible, non-negotiable requirement for recognizing the sacred and respecting the sacred is to acknowledge the infinite value of every human being. Not just the ones who share my blood or my background or my belief. Not just those who are intelligent or courageous or kind. Not just those who smile back at me when I smile at them. But each and every person, starting with those who can offer me the least: the very old, the very young, the very sick; the fearful, the mentally disturbed, the just plain mean and hateful; the prisoner, the homeless person, the stranger, and even the enemy, especially the enemy. These human beings are the ones who can teach me respect for the sacred, because I recognize their worth and value not on the basis of what they can do for me, but simply on the basis of the gift of life that God has given them.
French Jewish philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas has said that “ethics is the first philosophy.” When I look at another person face-to-face, I see a vulnerable human being who has a claim on me. I am responsible for my neighbor. Why? We might say we are responsible for each other because God commands us to love one another. However, Levinas suggests that it works in an opposite fashion. Precisely in the face of another is where God speaks to me. In other words, my relationship with the person starts first and subsequently leads to my relationship with God.
Christian monk, St. Pachomius, was a founder of a large monastery in Egypt in the 4th century. There once was a man who went to Pachomius and asked to be shown God. St. Pachomius decided to oblige the man and proceeded to take him out to the monastery garden and show him an elderly, unkempt, and unpleasant monk. He told the man that if he could not see God by looking at this monk, it would be impossible to see Him anywhere else.
Drawing upon Jewish and Christian philosophies, I now quote from an Islamic source. A hadith (saying of the Prophet Muhammad) further explains. “He is not a believer who eats his fill when his neighbor beside him is hungry.” Note that the Prophet does not just say that believers ought to feed the hungry as though faith in Allah comes first, and then the believer decides whether or not to feed the hungry person. The Prophet says that the person who fills up on food while the neighbor goes hungry is not a believer at all. I am not a scholar of Islamic literature, but the meaning seems pretty clear. Seeing a hungry person and sharing food from one’s own table is what makes someone close to God, a believer if you will, and not the other way around. Actions of mercy and compassion toward one’s neighbor come first and foremost, which then lead further into a relationship with the One who is All-Merciful and All-Compassionate. End of story. So be it. Amen.
This article has been adapted from the Reverend Arthur G. Holder´s speech during Pacifica Institute’s San Francisco Friendship Dinner in 2006. The Reverend Arthur G. Holder is Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Christian Spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He is a priest of the Episcopal Diocese of California. Dean Holder received a bachelor´s degree from Duke University, a Master of Divinity degree from the General Theological Seminary in New York City, and a Ph.D. in Historical Theology, also from Duke. He has published translations of medieval Latin Christian texts as well as articles on biblical interpretation, pastoral ministry, and education in early and medieval Christianity. He is also the editor of The Blackwell Companion to Christian Spirituality (Blackwell Publishers, 2005). Dean Holder lives in Albany, California with his wife Sarah and their son Charles.