The above quotation comes from the book, Jesus: the Son of Man, as written by Kahlil Gibran. It is important to recognize that in Matthew 22:39, we read in Holy Scripture, “A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Yet, when we look around at our neighborhood, our community, our society, our nation, and our world, we are distressed to find that how we so behave as a people does not actually reflect that we do love our neighbor as our own self. Perhaps the answer then, is to understand, that our neighbor is the same equal creation so made by God, and of which, is therefore entitled to all of the same unalienable rights that we are entitled to. Further to the point, it would behoove all of us, to thus see our neighbor as being our previously unknown brother-in-arms, now made visible to us. So then, in recognition that we are brothers, we should thus love one another, akin to how healthy family members so love one another.
After all, when we are unable to see the equal humanity of the other – no matter the behavior, good or bad, so having been displayed by them, than we have dishonored what it means to actually be a child of God – for we are all children of God, and if some of those children, are difficult, rebellious, misguided, and so on – it is not our place to condemn them for their apparent errors, but rather it is our place to treat them in the same way and manner that we would desire to be treated if we so were suffering from the same types of errors or mistakes.
There is far more power in forgiveness as well as in taking the time to learn and to discover the other, then in taking the easy route of condemning another for their faults. Those that spend an inordinate amount of time, criticizing those that they do not care for, justifiably or not, are not making any progress in helping to make this world a better place for their participation in it. Rather, we are obligated to do our fair part to help others where we can so help, and to do things that are of benefit to those that we come across, day-by-day, because to do less than that, reflects that we are not doing our fair part to uphold the significance that we are all part of the very same One.
It is important that we take the time to look at others through a prism, that perhaps we have bypassed or ignored, that permits us then to see those others, as akin to seeing our own self, in a brand new way, as if we were previously blind, but now can see. We are, in actuality, all of the same substance, which thus means that we should be equal-minded with one another, in the conscious recognition, but for the grace of God, that could be us; but also, more importantly, that each of us represents a fair reflection of how true that we are to God, and until we can see the essence of God in all that we congregate and interact with, then we have failed in fulfilling what it means to be a good and devoted child of God.