Interfaith Harmony Week: Strangers No Longer Day 3 Posted February 3, 2025 by admin@interfaith

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February 3, 2025

Today is the third of our daily reflections for Interfaith Harmony Week. (If you missed any of the other days, you can find them in the blog section of our website, interfaithpeaceproject.org . ) The Interfaith Peace Project is pleased to offer you these reflections for each day of Interfaith Harmony Week, February 1-7, 2025.

Thomas P. Bonacci, C.P
[email protected]
925-787-9279


STRANGERS NO LONGER
INTERFAITH HARMONY WEEK
Day 3
by Thomas P. Bonacci, C.P.

Adobe Stock 999454357 By KayExam/peopleimages.com

I was a stranger and you welcomed me
Jesus the Nazarene

Reflection

The call to live beyond our own flesh and blood is ancient. It echoes down to us on the lips of the indigenous leaders, spiritual teachers, and social reformers through the centuries. Guru Nanak called us to see no stranger, Buddha to practice unending compassion, Abraham to open our tent to all, Jesus to love our neighbor, Muhammad to take in the orphan, Mirabai to love without limit. They all expanded the circle of who counts as one of us, and therefore who is worthy of our care and concern. These teachings were rooted in the linguistic, cultural and spiritual contexts of their time, but they spoke of a common vision of our interconnectedness and interdependence. It is the ancient Sanskrit truth that we can look upon anyone or anything and say Tat Yvan asi, “I am that.” It is the African philosophy: Ubuntu, “ I am because you are.” It is the Mayan precept: In La’Kech, “You are my other me.”

Valerie Kaur
See No Strangers:
A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love
One World Press 2020

A Deep Invitation

There are no strangers here,
Only friends you haven’t yet met.
                                          William Butler Yeats

Response

I will no longer be a stranger to myself so that I will not be afraid to be a friend to others who might be afraid to be themselves.

Today I will remember the friends in my life who blessed me. I will bless them in a spirit of gratitude and love.

I will strive to live in this world as its best friend.