The Brotherhood of Man – Sunday, January 10, 1982
That which appears simple in theory is sometimes complex in its application. The principles of flight, for instance, were expounded decades before they were finally applied in that first manned flight at Kitty-Hawk. And Einstein’s theories on spatial relativity may not find full application for years or even centuries.
Man’s attempts at world brotherhood have also proven to be easy to idealize but difficult to apply. The League of Nations, formed at the close of World War I, was promoted as the means to international peace. The lofty ideal of universal brotherhood, however, soon foundered in the reality of world politics as armed conflict once again swept over the globe.
This is not to say that world brotherhood is a false or unattainable ideal. It is to say that talk and rhetoric alone will not bring about international understanding. The individual and collective love of our fellow man must form the foundation for laws, politics, treaties, and diplomacy.
It was for this reason that Christ issued the mandate that “we must love one another.”1 We must love one another because we have the same Father in Heaven and are thus brothers and sisters in the family of man. We must love one another because every human being, regardless of race or nationality, is as deserving of life as are we. And in this world of modern warfare where hate and provocation could spell the end of human existence, as we know it, we must love one another because our very survival depends upon it.
In truth, we are all citizens of the world. No person’s life is completely circumscribed by the geographic confines of a community, state, or nation. No person exists alone, detached from the concerns of his fellow men. The composition of the universe is eternally changed with the alteration of a single atom. Likewise, the happiness and fortune of each member of the community of man are inseparably entwined with those of every other. The plight of the Peruvian farmer, scratching the rocky Andean soil for a livelihood, is shared by the housewife in California. The businessman in Toledo is a party to the good fortune of the native fisherman in Iceland.
What is unique to each of us is at once common to us all.
Each of us is responsible. Not one is immune. The ideal of world peace will only be achieved through the application of world brotherhood.
As we hear the words of John Greenleaf Whittier may they become our personal motto for the establishment of world brotherhood: “0 Brother Man! fold to thy heart thy brother…Love shall tread out the baleful fire of anger, And in its ashes plant the tree of peace!”
1 New Testament, John 13:34.
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January 10, 1982
Broadcast Number 2,734