Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality

by Richard Beck

The issue does begin with empathy, seeing my need reflected in the lives of others. But it doesn’t stop there. Mercy is costly. True love moves me into need. Which is, admittedly, a scary prospect. It is an act of faith and it requires a community, a “fellowship of neediness” to use McGill’s phrase.