When Jesus was asked the question by a
lawyer, “Who is my neighbour?”, the Master Jesus told the parable of the
Samaritan, who stopped on the roadside to help an injured traveller.
Many people of different religions and
status continued to walk on the other side of the road, but the Samaritan
didn’t hesitate and took care of the traveller.
Jesus makes it very clear that all souls
are our neighbours and that we all have a duty, in the eyes of our Father, to
look after their needs and, by so doing, we can all live in peace and harmony.
With the massive
amount of media attention on the air waves, it is difficult not to know about
the distress that is common around the world.
The Middle East is in constant turmoil, because of the Arabs and the
Jews.
The Arabs have many different states and
differing levels of wealth according to where exactly the oilfields are located
and the Jews are constantly trying to acquire more land to house their people.
All of them are
neighbours to each other and despite their religious differences, there appears
to be little love between them, even though they have scriptures based on love
and not fear and hatred.
Every November there
is held a Poppy Day, where for the most part of the British population buy
poppies. They remember those who died
fighting for peace in Europe during two World Wars.
Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed
in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to remember
the members of their armed forces, who have died in the line of duty.
Veterans Day is
distinct from Memorial Day, a U.S. public holiday in May. Veterans Day
celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day honors
those who have died while in military service.
Here we honour our own
and seem to conveniently forget that we are commanded not to kill and that we
are all our neighbours, who we are commanded to love.
Looking around the world, we are opposed to
so many peoples and nations that it is hard to understand how hatred and fear
can be turned by love into a balanced harmony among all nations.
The leaders of nations are all afraid that
they will be attacked and will go to many lengths to safeguard themselves by
whatever means they come to believe in.
The wealthier they are the more they spend
on weaponry, either to defend themselves or to fight smaller nations, who
cannot beat them but cannot win either.
The Americans are past masters of this
strategy and parade around the world building airfields and naval harbours to
defend themselves from their neighbours.
We all need to understand the effect that
this has on our neighbours, who end up in refugee camps, where nobody seems to
want to take responsibility for these mainly women and children.
Ten-year-olds are taught to hate and to
know no other life than what they have found in these camps and it is no wonder
that despite the work that charities do, they are taught to hate their
oppressors.
We all have a duty to stop the hatred of
war dead in its tracks and act together as one human nation brought together by
the Father Creator to live in love and peace for the benefit of all.
Jenny and Michael Ayers
Monday, 11th November 2019
