Pure Brotherhood

The William James’ quote that Wim posted makes the crucial point that a spiritual life is one of action and that such action has mainly to do with our relationship with those who surround us. I am not going to quote St. Teresa of Avila again. The venerable St. Bede conveys the same thought: “He alone loves the Creator perfectly who manifests a pure love for his neighbor.” This pure love involves brotherhood (and therefore equality), not as an end, but as a pre-requisite. I must see you as brother (or sister) before we even meet.

Brotherhood of Men

All I can tell you is the thought that with me outlasts all others, and onto which, like a rock, I find myself washed up when the waves of doubt are weltering over all the rest of the world; and that is the thought of my having a will, and of my belonging to a brotherhood of men possessed of a capacity for pleasure and pain of different kinds. For even at one’s lowest ebb of belief, the fact remains empirically certain (and by our will we can, if not absolutely refrain from looking beyond that empirical fact, at least practically and on the whole accept it and let it suffice us) that men suffer and enjoy. And if we have to give up all hope of seeing into the purposes of God, or to give up the idea of final causes, and of God anyhow as vain and leading to nothing for us, we can, by our will, make the enjoyment of our brothers stand us in the stead of a final cause; and through a knowledge of the fact that that enjoyment on the whole depends on what individuals accomplish, lead a life so active, and so sustained by a clean conscience as not to need to fret much.

— WILLIAM JAMES

Meet You There

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.

— JALAL AD-DIN MUHAMMAD RUMI

Loving

We cannot be sure whether we are loving God, although we may have good reason that we are. But we can know quite well whether we are loving our neighbor.

— ST. TERESA OF JESUS, OCD

Love, Not Toleration

I have misgivings about the notion of tolerance. I have seen the damage it does - especially to Muslims in recent times. I think Abolhassan Kharaghani’s inspiring quote is not about tolerance, but about the embracing of others, about the fraternal respect and care for them, regardless of their origins or beliefs. This is not what people do when they simply tolerate: they put up with something, they stomach it usually for the sake of political correctness, and this exterior gesture does not mean that do not have hatred in their hearts.

What we need is the truthfulness of love, not the hollowness of toleration.

Tolerance

Whoever enters this place, just treat them and don’t ask of their faiths. Because, everyone who deserves the gift of life from God, for sure deserves a piece of food in this place.

— ABOLHASSAN KHARAGHANI

Companions

Augustine is not talking about male comrades, but more generally about any fellow human being. We may even understand it as referring to any companion, human or not.

Brothers

The prophet refers to some men saying: When they say to you: You are not our brothers, you are to tell them: You are our brothers. Consider whom he intended by these words.

— ST. AUGUSTINE