Human Fraternity an Experience of Daylight

A childish story? No, it is not! It has a Jewish origin.

In a training class of Jewish rabbi a question, a philosophical one, was asked: when do we know the night is gone, and it is now daylight?

An equally philosophical answer came up quickly: when you can see that the animal is a cow and not a horse. No way, says the master rabbi. Another hand came up: when you can distinguish a plant from a flower. Still, No! So, what’s the answer, Master?, said the class in a chorus.

In a clear magisterial tone, the head rabbi said: “When you meet a fellow human being and you discover that she/he is a sister or brother, then it is daylight! But when meeting a fellow human you cannot recognize a sister or a brother, it is still a dark night! And you might bump into the fellow violently and hurt her/him.

The story underlines the essence of human fraternity. And this is what our Holy Father’s Encyclical Letter FRATELLI TUTTI is all about.

In fact the sub-title of the papal document is Fraternity and Social Friendship. It affirms what for 40 years in Mindanao we Catholic Bishops, Muslim Ulama and Protestant Bishops and Pastors of the Bishops-Ulama Conference had been experiencing. It had been often our happy declaration that the only way – there is no other – to resolve human problems and controversies, is through authentic dialogue; and the bottom line of authentic dialogue is human friendship.