The Greatest of These

“Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.”

While there is a lower class
I am in it.
While there is a criminal element
I am of it.
While there is a man in jail
I am not free.

Thus spoke a man whose life, whose deeds
These words fulfilled.
Contacts across all barriers abound
Where the world is narrowed in fact and dream.
If there is found no will to love
To make an act of grace toward fellow men,
Contacts degrade, outrage, destroy
The tender shoots of simple trust.
Love abides where all else dies
From sheer revulsion and disgust.
The fruit it bears sustains the nerve,
Strengthens the weak, the insecure,
Breaks the chains of fear that
Holds the minds of men in hate’s embrace,
Condemns the things that shrink the soul.
It is the “precious bane” for those who seek
To know the way of God among the sons of men.
It meets men where they are, cruel,
Lustful, greedy, callous, of low design—
It treats them there, as if they were full grown
And crowned with all that God would have them be.
For love’s own sake and that alone,
Men do with joyous hope and quiet calm
What no command of Life or Death could force of those
If Love were not.
To be God’s child, to live with steady mind,
With fervent heart, this is to know
The Truth that makes man free.

(For the Inward Journey: the writings of Howard Thurman.
Selected by Anne Spencer Thurman. pages 177-178)

I studied acting with Maxine Klein, and became a central part of her Little Flags Theatre, a company producing works around the stories of working people and the struggle for social change. One of the texts that Maxine used in an early acting class was that quoted by Thurman, “While there is a lower class, I am in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it. While there is a man in jail, I am not free.” This statement was made by Eugene V. Debs, the labor leader and Socialist Party presidential candidate who argued that working people needed to grow in their respect for each other and identification with each other. He said, “Years ago, I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth.”

Something magical (graceful?) happened to me when I began to meditate on this notion. My dream life changed and I began to have vivid dreams of being with my working-class family. The first baseman’s mitt my dad gave me turned a vibrant orange; the grass where he taught me to throw a ball and play first base green and wet. My desire to love the working class—even the criminal element—deepened so that I could even love myself, even when I was occasionally arrested, occastionally called to speak before a judge. (insert smile emoji here)

“Love abides where all else dies from sheer revulsion and disgust.” Thurman reminds me that the revulsion I experience, the disgust I sometimes feel, indicates that Love is somehow not present. The Love I hope to find at the center of my life, like the Universal and All-Conquering Love that my theology demands is at the center of All That Is, leads me to identify with all living things. Leads me this prayer time. Leads me to prepare to meet with and better know you.

Did you know that our country had a five time Socialist presidential candidate that, when in prison, received almost a million votes? I work joyfully to make this a not uncommon occurrence.