Martin Buber, in one of the most important books of the century for people like us, I and Thou, showed how easy and common it is to treat people as It instead of Thou. He also showed how awful it is, turning what God created as a human community of men and women whose glory it is to love one another into depersonalized wasteland of important roles and efficient functions. Buber also conceded that we cannot continuously maintain the open intimacy of "I/Thou" in our relationship - it would be totally exhausting; we need to be able to escape from time to time into the less-demanding region of role and function to carry out some of our basic routines. But the moment that region becomes our permanent residence and the neighbor becomes and object, an It to be used, no matter how righteous and glorious our use, sacrilege has been committed.In other words, the ends do not justify the means when it comes to how we engage with other human beings. St. Augustine in On Christian Teaching wrote extensively on how all things can be divided into two groups: Things to be used and things to be enjoyed: "To enjoy a thing is to rest with satisfaction in it for its own sake." Too often, perhaps, we receive joy or satisfaction from others because of what they can do for us or produce for the organization. The person becomes an object not a subject. When we lead people we need to remember that they are not tools to be used and discarded, but individuals within the church who share the image of God and are to be loved: "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35).
On a related note, the Acton Institute produced an excellent video that answers the question, "What is a human being?" Here is the link.
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