By Most Rev. Prakash Mallavarapu
Archbishop of Visakhapatnam
What the Holy Father, Pope Francis, has spelt out in the Encyclical, Fratelli Tutti is what we have manifested, fraternal love and hospitality, solidarity and friendship during the difficult phase of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the same should be shown in the day-to-day life as well. We need to be brothers and sisters to one another, live in fraternal love and friendship.
Replacing the attitudes of isolation, exclusion, and indifference with the attitudes of inclusion, respect, recognition, and reach out to others! This is what the Samaritan in the parable teaches, “he responded to the wounded man, a stranger, unlike the priest and the Levite that passed by! To become a neighbor to others has to be a deliberate choice, a way to see and act towards fellow human beings!
The “other” person has to have a space in our feelings, thoughts, and actions: One other theme that runs through the encyclical is about all of us being members of one human family and the need to seek “common good”: All of us are conditioned by our birth in a family and in a given society, and therefore, there is natural tendency to not only differentiate and distinguish ourselves from others but also to limit ourselves to our little family, clan, tribe or caste.
Consequence is that we feel and think less of others and more about (the so called) my or our people or group. This is where the challenging message of the Holy Father Pope Francis in the Encyclical, “space and time” we have to give to others in our life.
Here it is not a question about right or wrong. It is the question about how inclusive or exclusive we are in our relationship with the fellow human beings. What we have been familiar with all along, the Holy Father also speaks about, “the culture of love,” seeking to promote common good. No one is deliberately excluded in our relationships due to a self imposed or socially imposed limits prompted by our exclusive allegiance to our family, clan or tribe or caste.
There is also another limiting factor — the affluent and the rich versus the poor and the marginalized. This situation can change only when at the macro level the political and religious leaders think and act for the good of the common good and good of every human being. At the micro level, it is the individuals and organized groups of people in villages, localities in towns and cities who should take initiatives for promoting the sense of belonging to one common human family.
Church can or should show the way to live fraternal love and friendship
In the Church as a community of believers we are one in Jesus Christ. This unity is manifested in the daily liturgical gatherings and on the occasion of the festivals in the parish or village or at the big celebrations in the Shrines and Pilgrimage Centers. But, we also are painfully aware that the unity and fellowship among the members in the Church is not there at desired level. Socio-cultural and historically inherited identities like caste or tribe or clan or region stand as obstacles for true fraternal love and friendship. We seem to be just juxtaposed with our own identities coming from our family or clan or caste or tribe.
As in the society so in the Church or in the Christian community, unity in diversity is not fully there as yet. How we see others and relate to others seem to be very much conditioned though it is not always a deliberate individual decision to isolate oneself or exclude others.
The encyclical Fratelli Tutti is inviting the entire humanity across the nations of the world to inculcate and promote a “culture of fraternal love and friendship beyond the borders of the given socio-cultural or politico-economic identities or confines. How much more should we in the Church be united in the one Lord and Saviour; we profess one faith, and believe in common destiny. These should be helping us in living and promoting fraternity, fellowship, unity and peace! Let us take up this call from the Holy Father Pope Francis, reflect, pray, and strive to be instrumental to promote culture of love, fraternity and friendship by moving out of our socio-cultural borders that impose limits to our ability to love all!
“It is my desire that, in this our time, by acknowledging the dignity of each human person, we can contribute to the rebirth of a universal aspiration to fraternity. Brotherhood between all men and women. “Here we have a splendid secret that shows us how to dream and to turn our life into a wonderful adventure. No one can face life in isolation…We need a community that supports and helps us, in which we can help one another to keep looking ahead. How important it is to dream together…. By ourselves, we risk seeing mirages, things that are not there. Dreams on the other hand, are built together”. Let us dream, then, as a single human family, as fellow travellers sharing the same flesh, as children of the same earth which is our common home, each of us bringing the riches of his or her beliefs and convictions, each of us with his or her own voice, brothers and sisters all” (No. 8 Fratelli Tutti).