We have been made little less than the angels

Immigration is a delicate subject nowadays. Nonetheless I am wading into the discussion because I want to sponsor an immigrant. However, my immigrant is not a person who seeks to cross the border into this country. My immigrant is a word that I want to bring into mainstream use in the English language.

With Pope Francis’s approval, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith recently published Dignitas infinita, a document on the infinite dignity of each and every human being. As Catholics, we believe that we are created in the image and likeness of God. Psalm 8 marvels at our nobleness: “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”

That’s us that the author is speaking about, you and me and every human being in existence, especially since the Resurrection, when Jesus drew all things to himself. Look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that you have been crowned with glory and honor. You may not feel like it, you may not see the crown on your head, but it is there simply because we are created in God’s image and likeness and redeemed by the blood of Christ.

But do we think like that? Even more – and here is where I sponsor my immigrant – do we talk like that? “What are human beings that you are mindful of them?” To be a human being isn’t worth much nowadays. In fact, the phrase itself hardly expresses nobility and honor.

To say that someone is a human being says that he or she is more than an animal, but it certainly doesn’t give the impression that they are “little less than God.” The phrase “human being” expresses the lowest common denominator for members of our race.

That is why I want to propose to add another word to our everyday English language. English is already a melting pot of words from other languages. It began as a mixture of words from old French and Germanic languages, then, as people from other groups came to the United States, other words were added, such as café, croissant, delicatessen – a lot of them seem to have to do with food! – entrepreneur, extravaganza, fiasco…you can find various lists of them online.

Yiddish has added a rich vocabulary to American English. You will find bagels in every grocery store. (There we are back at food again!) As a klutz I often trip over my own feet, both figuratively and literally, but that doesn’t make me a meshugenah or a crazy person, just a schlemiel.

Calling up all my chutzpah, I propose that we adopt another word from Yiddish, the word mentsh or mensch. According to Leo Rosten, a mensch is “someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. The key to being ‘a real mensch’ is nothing less than character, rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsible, decorous.” Being a mensch is simply being fully human. It means being the person that we were created and graced by God to be.

It also involves seeing others as mensches or menschen, of seeing them as they are in God’s sight, as “crowned with glory and honor.” When we see people as God sees them, we will treat them as he treats them, with love and respect and dignity. We will also treat ourselves with the same graciousness. Little by little, this way of seeing one another will spread. Grace is contagious!

The more we see people as God sees them, the more we will treat them with glory and honor, and they will respond to our respect. We live up or down to how others see us. To see ourselves and others as the images of God, as mensches, changes our behavior and theirs. It can change our culture and even change the world.

Sister Gabriela of the Incarnation is a member of the Discalced Carmelites order in Flemington. Learn more at www.flemingtoncarmel.org.