All in One Family<br/><br/>
Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard is a director at a Jewish Centre in New York, United States. He is in charge of promoting education and leadership training programs. He shared with us his experience at a seminar discussing the future directions of Catholics and Jews (the 40th anniversary of the declaration on The Relation of the Church with Non-Christrian Religions - NOSTRA AETATE proclaimed by His Holiness Pope Paul VI on October 28, 1965) at Washington on March 10, 2005.<br/><br/>
“I recite a quote from the Old Testament at least twice a day: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might.’ And I added: ‘Love my neighbor as my own soul, my everything.’ But I haven’t been very successful. After I was married, I hoped that my spouse could satisfy my own wishes, but things did not work out as expected.”<br/><br/>
“I start to understand that love has to endure and accept others’ irrationality, others’ way of expression, and others’ misunderstandings. The Jewish Holy Books teach us: ‘I have to love these people and attend to their needs whether I like them or not.’”<br/><br/>
“The justice and well-being of society depends on our ability to love others with all our hearts and with all our means. God created us in His own image to let us explore toward the far horizon, which include other lovely fellow human beings aside from ourselves. This God who created the humanity to become one loving family is indeed lovable.”<br/><br/>
After reading the witness by this rabbi, I realize that Jesus’ teachings are not in vain. Although Jewish people still have not accepted Jesus as the Messiah, but the Messiah’s wish for “that all may be one” is close at hand. Let us strive to live according to Christ’s teaching: “Love one another as I have loved you.”