This particular sanctified Peter lived in 14th-century Luxembourg. There is a piece of this Peter’s life that is worth considering–the fact that he chose from an early age to make sure that he spent his time only with good and edifying people. Butler writes of Peter of Luxembourg:

His watchings and fasts were very austere, and he made no visits but such as were indispensable, or to persons of extraordinary virtue, from whose conversation and example he might draw great spiritual advantage for the benefit of his own soul. [emphasis added]

What, what, what happens when people make the decision to surround themselves only with those people who will help keep them “the same, only more so”? What happens when a particular kind of Christian only spends time with others who are the kind of Christian that she or he is hoping to become? What happens when liberals or conservatives only spend time (real or cyber) with others who help confirm them in their thinking–and even help deepen it, concretize it, entrench it? Whose soul is benefitted in this way?! And what, pray tell, is the benefit?!

Inevitably, such persons get in their heads the idea that Others (those who aren’t cast in their idea of a “righteous mold”) are (a) potential distractions; (b) possible sources of infection; (c) threats to their way of thinking; (d) enemies to their way of life; (e) evil; (f) need to be destroyed. These are all stops on a continuum that has become altogether too familiar in our own personal and national lives.

It is, I would suggest, one thing to find those people with whom you share a communion of values and hopes, aspirations and sensibilities. It helps to be understood without having to explain everything, to be respected without having to fight for it, to be appreciated for your thoughts and ideas and heart and soul…and others with whom we share such a communion help us to live in a fuller, more grounded way. For ease of discussion, let’s refer to this as our own community.

Yet what happens when we cease allowing others who are different into our communities? Writ large, what happens when we close the border to immigrants from other countries? Writ personally, what happens when we cease creating friendships with people whose values do not intersect ours “enough”? What, after all, is “enough”?

This is a new line of thinking for me, even as I write this blog post, and I don’t know where my thoughts will eventually lead me. Yet I see a correlation worthy of contemplation between a decision to isolate oneself within a group-think community and a closing of borders in our world. Note: Many who oppose President Trump’s approach to immigration from Central and South America are VERY QUICK to defend themselves against his and other Republicans’ charges that they want “open borders”! Ironically, it is as if everyone is ready to agree that “open borders” is simply preposterous, and that the real argument is about how to handle “the immigration problem”! It is as though the extremes meet at last in common cause–agreement that the question is how best to regulate and control access to us.

Luxembourg Peter limited access of others to himself–he would spend his discretionary time only with Christians even more Christian then he! Ironic that Jesus didn’t take such an approach to his own life, huh?