As we celebrate Human Rights Day [December 10], let us listen to Pope Francis’ lament on how human rights are discarded or violated:

“It frequently becomes clear that, in practice, human rights are not equal for all. Respect for those rights is the preliminary condition for a country’s social and economic development… We see numerous contradictions that lead us to wonder whether the equal dignity of all human beings, solemnly proclaimed more than seventy years ago,¹ is truly recognized, respected, and promoted in every situation. In today’s world, many forms of injustice persist, fed by reductive anthropological visions and by a profit-based economic model that does not hesitate to exploit, discard and even kill human beings. While one part of humanity lives in opulence, another part sees its own dignity denied, scorned or trampled upon, and its fundamental rights discarded or violated.” (Fratelli Tutti 22)

The lack of respect for the dignity and rights of others, as well as the inequality, the injustices, the violent conflicts, etc., is associated with the failure to regard one another as brothers and sisters, and as friends belonging to a single universal family and community. Fraternity and social friendship² based on love and communion is the basis for engaging in dialogue with one another that can lead all of us to collaborate in addressing the crisis that we face. It is also the basis for conflict-resolution and achieving peace and justice.

What happens when we are able to tell others: you are my brothers and sisters, you are my friends? We realize that we belong to the same family and community. We are all interrelated, we are interconnected. We stop seeing them as strangers, as enemies, as threats. We do not kill them, we do not rob them, we do not exploit them, we do not oppress them, we do not spread lies about them. We care for them when they suffer, when they are sick, wounded, hungry, victimized, enslaved, oppressed, or impoverished. If they are addicted, we help them to be freed from their addiction, instead of making them targets for extrajudicial killings. We share with them what we have. We respect their rights and defend them when their rights are trampled upon.

If we are able to see all human beings and other creatures this way, we will live in harmony, peace, justice, and freedom. This is what it means to live in love. This is what communion is all about. This is the vision that Pope Francis promotes in Fratelli Tutti and also in Laudato Si’. This is the vision that will help address the crises that we face: the pandemic, the economic crisis – poverty, wars and armed conflict, migration, climate change/ecological crisis.

What is the basis for regarding each other as brothers, sisters, and friends? It is the recognition of God as the creator and source of our being. Because we have one source – then we are all inter-related. God is Father, and we are His children, and we are brothers and sisters. God created all of us in his image and likeness. This is the basis for human dignity and human rights. Equality in dignity. God created us to be in communion and harmony with Him, with each other, and with all creation. Unity in diversity.

Since God is the creator of all, God is the owner of all. God created all the world’s goods for the benefit of all. No creature, no human being can claim absolute ownership of the world’s goods – the land, the air, the sea, the trees, the forests, etc. We are called to be stewards: to nurture and develop these and to share these with one another and with the generations to come. Mahatma Gandhi reminds us: “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.”

We are called to live in harmony with nature and with all living creatures. This is God’s will for all: universal communion. Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ affirms this and shows the consequences when this is not followed:

“Human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbor, and with the earth itself… These three vital relationships have been broken, both outwardly and within us. This rupture is sin. The harmony between the Creator, humanity, and creation as a whole was disrupted by our presuming to take the place of God and refusing to acknowledge our creaturely limitations. This, in turn, distorted the mandate to ‘have dominion’ over the earth. As a result, the originally harmonious relationship between human beings and nature became conflictual (cf. Gen 3:17-19)… Sin is manifest in all its destructive power in wars, the various forms of violence and abuse, the abandonment of the most vulnerable, and attacks of nature. ” (LS 66)

Thus, sin is the rupture of communion. It is the curvature [bending inward] of the self upon self instead of living in love with God, others, and creation. This results in alienation from God, from others, and from creation. Instead of being in communion with God, there is a turning away from God and the worship of idols – the idolatry of wealth and power, and even making oneself or another human being a god. Instead of loving communion with others, there is separation, division, and enmity. The other becomes a stranger, an enemy, an object of exploitation and destruction. One becomes blind and deaf to the suffering and cry of others. Instead of recognizing God as creator and owner of all things and acting as stewards, there is the claim of absolute ownership, the drive to monopolize the wealth and resources of the earth, depriving others of their share of these resources. Economic and political systems as well as the underlying culture can reflect this sinful condition. Pope Francis, for example, alludes to the neoliberal³ capitalist system as “a profit-based economic model that does not hesitate to exploit, discard and even kill human beings.” Thus, what results is inequality, injustice, violence, and violation of human rights. This also leads to the disregard of nature and the destruction of the Earth, our common home. These are manifestations of sin which is the rupture of communion and the failure to love. Redemption or salvation has two aspects: 1. freedom from sin and its evil manifestation (this requires personal conversion and social transformation) 2. restoration of the broken relationship or communion. (This means turning towards God, to others, and the rest of creation.)

The Christian vision of communion – of universal fraternity and social friendship – which Fratelli Tutti promotes is essential for the progress of humanity. Without this, we cannot survive and thrive as a species. The recognition that we are interconnected and that we are brothers and sisters belonging to a single family is vital. But something more needs to be done. Relating to each other as brothers and sisters is not enough. The cultivation of social friendship is the ideal that we have to strive for. We have to become true friends. This bond of friendship is greater and stronger than just being brothers, sisters, and neighbors. True friends are closer and dearer than relatives and comrades. Genuine friendship transcends personal, social, religious, ideological boundaries and differences. This requires building bridges rather than walls, calls for encounter and dialogue. It is easier to come to an agreement and work together when friendship develops. At the same time, working together, journeying together deepens the bond of friendship. To become a universal community of friends – where we are one heart and mind, and share everything we have. All this may sound like an impossible dream or a utopian ideal but this is what we keep striving for no matter how long it takes.

Fr. Amado L. Picardal, CSsR

¹ The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948, was a milestone document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings.

² A love capable of transcending borders, where everyone goes beyond differences to work for the common good

³ Favoring policies that promote free-market capitalism, deregulation, and reduction in government spending