The world and its peoples are our responsibility. We have a duty to humanity to care for the oppressed and afflicted. While we may not be the ones fighting the wars of our governments we are duly responsible for them. The future of the world lies in the collective hands of the youth – we will decide how our world will change around us. To quote a friend, ‘you are as different from me as I am from you’ and yet paradoxically we share so much in common. The threads of humanity that run so deep in our veins cannot be broken by culture, nationality or even religion. We have glimpses of this unity when a mother in a foreign country will voluntarily care for a stranger’s baby. We see it in times of crisis when the threats facing us supersede our differences and we join together, black and white, young and old all together to face the threats head-on.
There are evil forces around the world that aim to draw us from each other. They highlight our differences, encourage independence and coax our prejudices. They try to isolate us from each other. They promote fear, discord, anger, envy and hatred. And yet within each of us there is an echo of our common humanity. An inherent knowledge that we are all in the same boat together. We fulfil our destiny as a human race when we act selflessly. I know of no other principle or way of life that is able to do this other than love. When we act in love and care for each other, we declare to the powers that be that we will not be torn apart and lose our humanity. We will not succumb to the temptation of rampant individualism.
So much of my life is characterised by sterile indifference to the problems of strangers. And yet when we see these people through the eyes of God we will be filled with warm compassion to replace our cold indifference. I rejoice in my sharedness, my cointegrated humanity and the fact that while I may be one of billions of my fellow humans, somehow I (and indeed each of us) play an infinitely important part. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, each one of us makes up a part of the organism that is the human race. In a very real sense, you are part of my family. There is a desperate need to recognise this. We cannot let our tainted experiences of a fragile world dictate our disposition. We choose to love our fellow human beings. This is truly divine, it is God outworking His plan on the Earth. I do not know you but I love you…
Nic Spaull 