Losing Face.

Two years ago I strode through the bustling streets of Boston, swimming through crowds in Quincy market, standing shoulder to shoulder with strangers riding the T, joining hundreds of onlookers on the Freedom Trail.

This last weekend was different. For the first time since the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic, I traveled back to the historic city. Strange, spaced-out lines formed around favorite establishments, hundreds of “temporarily closed” signs hung on shops and restaurant’s, the chatting was muted, we weren’t allowed in many of the famous historical buildings, and the facial expressions of the strangers passing by were hidden and unidentifiable.

Smile they say, and the world smiles with you.
Unless you’re wearing a mask.

When masks go up, not only are smiles concealed. But so are frowns. Lip movements. Yawns. Twitches of disgust or distaste.

Though many would argue that the identity and expression of another person are still carried in their eyes, spend a day in the city watching crowds of people with their masks and you’ll notice it’s blocking something important about our humanity.

It’s dulling a channel of communication between one person and another.

It’s concealing the window to our soul.

It’s hiding what God says is made in his image:

The face– in all it’s beauty, and fierceness, and kindness,
and singleness.

Concealed. Masked. Silenced.

Swipe through the following pictures. What is lost in the faces of the crowd wearing the masks? What remains of their humanity?

C.S. Lewis’s book, Till We Have Faces, is a mystifying, beautiful work. In it, Lewis connects the discovery of self through the gods to ultimately discovering the One True God. Toward the end of the book, Orual, who wears a veil which symbolizes her blindness to the effects of her actions says, “How can the gods meet us face to face till we have faces?” The connection between the immortal and mortal becomes fully concrete in the Incarnation-

God becomes man and bears a human face.

In an article published at Target Liberty, a Jewish man named Rafi Farber wrote about his experience defying a mask mandate in Israel at the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic. In it he says this:

“I hate masks. I hate them so deeply it’s impossible to put it into words. But I’ll try. When I see a mask it’s like a gut punch to my soul. In Hebrew, the word for soul, Neshama, is the same as the word for breath – Neshima. It has the same root. According to Genesis, when God gave the first man life, he breathed life into none other than his face. Life is breath. It is a Divine kiss from the Creator.

It’s so obvious now that masks do absolutely nothing health-wise against this virus that it’s not worth repeating. What masks are – their entire essence – is pure dehumanization. You order someone to cover his face, and you are telling him to cover his humanity, to hide his soul. If you cannot see someone’s face you cannot see what they’re feeling or thinking. You can’t see them smile or frown. They become blank. You can still say words to people, but you can’t really communicate.

I know dehumanization when I see it. I know it well. Whether it’s a yellow Star of David on your chest, a tattooed number on your arm, stripping you of all clothing and shaving your head, or a damn mask right across your soul, it’s all the same thing. Your rulers see you as less than human. They always have. Now it’s just more obvious.”

I see the occasional mask wearer during daily life in North Idaho, but I don’t see crowds and crowds of them. Because of this, sometimes I can almost forget our world is in “crisis”. However regardless of if there’s a pandemic or not, when walking through the streets of Boston, it certainly looks like there is one.

COVID is declining but the mask movement seems to only be gaining traction.

But this new normal is not normal at all.

It’s not healthy. It’s not helpful. And it’s not honoring to the God who designed our faces, to the image of whom we’re designed after.

The mouths God gave us express joy, curiosity, anger, grief, thought, fear, astonishment, peace. Our noses are each unique, some with freckles, some shaped like a button, some turned up, some lopsided, some flat. Cheeks, chin, lips, teeth- every component of our faces is precious in His sight and fearfully and wonderfully made.

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A few weeks ago I would have said I didn’t support masks because I didn’t think they were effective against the spread of Coronavirus. Today however, I think there is something more significant at stake.

Facial coverings are robbing us of our humanity. They are blotting out the face of God from our sight and isolating us from one another more than ever.

I urge you then, don’t lose your face.
Don’t let this pandemic steal your smile.
Celebrate who God made you.

Without a mask.                                 

 “Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord.” -Psalm 4:6