The Gaze / The Face-to-Face encounter with the Other

The Gaze / The Face-to-Face encounter with the Other, Emmanuel Levinas tells us, is an invitation to relationship that puts who I think I am in question and demands justice. This living presence, the face of the other, challenges our hegemony with moral demand and responsibility when we can see the vulnerability and interdependence of one another. 

At our own peril, we avoid this gaze into the face of the other!

Nora Ramirez holds up the last photo her son Christian sent her before he disappeared as a migrant fleeing the poverty and violence in Honduras. Nora along with 8 other family members and friends have just finished resting here in Puebla before I see them begin their walk again toward Mexico City and the United States they hope. 

If only more of us could gaze into this living presence and receive her moral demand of us all!

#caravanademigrantes
#HopeInFocus

— at Puebla, Mexico.