These days I am in the process of formally learning a new language. We are 16 in the class, each one hailing from a different country, having one’s own language. On the first day of the class, we began with learning each others’ names and the countries we came from. After that we spoke more about ourselves and our country, our language, our interests, our dislikes and so on. Some of the contacts we make here will undoubtedly grow into bonds of friendship.
True friendship often begins with a common interest, a shared experience, or a collaborative project. It’s forged through appreciation of the other person’s special qualities, because of shared viewpoints or personality traits. Friendships also form out of admiration for the virtue and goodness found in another person. At the heart of a friendship is “knowing” the hearts of other people.
Our classroom is as good an example of unity in diversity as one can find. Though the outward reason for 16 people of different nationalities to come together is to learn an entirely new language, it offers a unique opportunity to talk to and share with one another the things that we may share in common. All this does not mean that we overlook how different we are from one another — even in terms of our religious beliefs.
We try to advance inter-religious dialogue and understanding among people by trying to discover what lies deep in their hearts — perhaps beliefs that are different from our own, or similar. What we invariably find is that regardless of language, religion or nationality, we as human beings share much in common.
We also find that what keeps us away from one another is our fear of the other based on our prejudices about “the other”.
The deeper one delves into these fears of “the other”, the greater is the realisation that these originate from our own deep-seated fear of the unknown, of people who are seemingly different from us. The moment we begin to relate and communicate with “the other”, our prejudices start melting away, like ice in the sun.
Friendships, like other human relationships, though complex, are beautiful gifts. Because, ultimately, we are all children of the same creator who abides equally in all of us. It is from the hands of that same benevolent author that creation itself originated, and is at our disposal for common use. The goods of creation taste and smell the same to us all. For God intends for us all to live in peace, harmony and love, while relishing the resources of his beautiful creation. A classroom is but just a tiny example of this.
Father Dominic Emmanuel, a founder-member of Parliament of Religion, can be contacted at frdominic@gmail.com
