Reflection
To follow Jesus means to be moved as he was by injustice, to see through the ignorance and selfishness that have brought us to this moment, and to do all we can to work with those who are trying to bring us all to a new consciousness. It is the call deeo within us to love our neighbors. The Spirit of God is always the Spirit of communion not only with our human sisters and brothers also with all creation. This is articulated by all spiritual teachers not only Christians. From this is born love and compassion. We are moved by the hunger of children, the suffering of victims of war and brutality, the loneliness of those who are sick, aged or abandoned, the pain of animals who are harmed by our lack of reverence and threatened by our selfish use of Earth. Called to a deep awareness that we are all one, we can no longer view these things with indifference.
Prayer
Come Holy Spirit and renew the face of the earth.
Action
Reflect on the spiritual implications of “neighbor”. How can my perspectives and actions reflect a fuller understanding of the respect and compassion due to all life?
Suggested Reading
In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to God’s purpose.
Romans 8:26 – 28
Love means putting your heart on the line for others; it means showing mercy.
Pope Francis
Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.
Dalai Lama XIV
As you would have people do to you, do to them; and what you dislike to be done to you, don’t do to them.
Kitab al-Kafi (Islam)
If the entire Dharma can be said in a few words, then it is—that which is unfavorable to us, do not do that to others.
Padmapuraana, shrushti (Hinduism)
A man should wander about treating all creatures as he himself would be treated.
Sutrakritanga (Jainism)
He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings…
Buddha
Our mission is bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on Planet Earth.
Awakening the Dreamer Initiative
The story of the universe is now being told…We begin to understand our human identity with all other modes of existence that constitute with us the single universe community. The one story includes us all. We are everyone cousins of one another. Every being is intimately present to and is influencing every other being.
Thomas Berry
The more a person becomes spiritually minded or advances towards
God, the more tolerant he becomes and the less differentiation he sees.
Meher Baba
The human being is part of the whole, called by us the ‘universe’,a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical
delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Albert Einstei
True compassion means not only feeling another’s pain but also being moved to help relieve it.
Daniel Goleman
The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
Arthur Schopenhauer