Brotherhood Then Peace
Much has been said and written – especially by the young – about peace in the world, but as Max Lerner said, “You may call for peace as loudly as you wish, but where there is no brotherhood there can in the end be no peace.”1
We all have need to improve our relationships with one another. We all have need to be more aware of the urgent need for brotherhood.
It is unfortunate that that which becomes commonplace in life, often tends to become unimportant. Many of the problems of today’s society have been with us for a long time, and because they have, we tend to become less concerned about them than perhaps we ought to.
Today we give little more than a passing thought to men circling the earth and travelling to the moon. Yet contrast this to the early days of space travel when all the world seemed to take notice. Not many months ago three Americans on the Apollo 13 flight were making an emergency return trip to earth because of an explosion in their spacecraft. For several days the world united in a brotherly concern for those three astronauts. Like Aristotle said, “A common danger unites even the bitterest enemies.”2
Why can’t we have the same unity, the same sense of urgency in expressing brother hood in our lives, at times when life is not so dramatic but when the results are just as important? There is a need for brotherhood all over the world and we cannot and should not ignore it.
“It’s easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends,” said Gandhi. “But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion.”3
There are those with whom we disagree, and those who disagree with us, but those differences do not mean there cannot be brotherhood among us. Of all we have in life, a universal brotherhood of man is probably our most precious possession, yet also the one we seem to guard the least.
“You may call for peace as loudly as you wish, but where there is no brotherhood there can in the end be no peace.”
1Max Lerner, “The Gifts of the Magi,” Actions and Passions
2Aristotle, Politics
3Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violence in Peace and War
April 23, 1972
Broadcast Number 2,222