Every human tragedy is a tragedy of all humanity. All mankind shares a common human nature. The fact that we do not often recognise ourselves in people of other tribes, nations and cultures is among the greatest of our human tragedies. How is it that we so seldom understand from the heart that all humans feel pain, hopelessness, despair, love, joy, hope and aspirations in the same way? Is it not because we also act with fear, malice, hatred and prejudice in the same manner?
Every nation, every tribe, every race and every era produces great humanitarians and savage tyrants, and every form of character in between. The constant struggle of mankind is to become fully human, to recover the image and likeness of God in ourselves, in which likeness we are all created, and to learn to see that image in every other human being. We can validate our own humanity in no other way than by fully acknowledging from the heart the equal humanity of those whom we consider to be enemies. This can hardly be accomplished until we, altogether, liberate ourselves from the tyranny of the past.
(Vladika Lazar)
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