Reflection
The distinctions that we make in our human relationships do not apply when we put them in the eyes of God. We divide one another by race, nationality, and language. In God’s view all people are one. We divide one another socially, ethnically, educationally and economically. In God’s vision it does not matter whether we are rich or poor because we are all cherished. In life we are male and female and we are different. But, when it comes to being part of the human family, it makes no difference. God has no bias based on the color of our skin, or our wealth, or which sex we happen to be. God is the loving Originating Mystery who holds all things in being. We all belong here and earth is our home.
Prayer
That all may be one.
Action
Sort out your feelings. How does your vision mirror God’s vision? Where are there areas of disconnect?
Suggested Reading
Brothers and sisters:
Through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person,
there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendant, heirs according to the promise.
Gal 3:26-29
We must overcome all forms of racism, of intolerance and of the instrumentalization of the human person.
Pope Francis
We are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.
Thomas Merton
We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.
Kofi Annan
We ought to think that we are one of the leaves of a tree, and the tree is all humanity. We cannot live without the others, without the tree.
Pablo Casals
We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.
J.K. Rowling
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.
John Lennon
The more a person becomes spiritually minded or advances towards
God, the more tolerant he becomes and the less differentiation he sees.
Meher Baba
A spiritual sensibility encourages us to see ourselves as part of the fundamental unity of all being. If the thrust of the market ethos has been to foster a competitive individualism, a major thrust of many traditional religious and spiritual sensibilities has been to help us see our connection with all other human beings.
Michael Lerner
I know that my unity with all people cannot be destroyed by national boundaries and government orders.
Leo Tolstoy