'To Bless All Mankind' October 12, 2015 Issue

Neighbors at peace

Susan Stark

Originally printed in The Christian Science Monitor, September 1, 2015.

A young Palestinian asked me for directions at a street corner in the US city where I live. As we talked, she told me that she was a leader of an Israeli-Palestinian group working for peace.

That’s why I paid special attention to a quote from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. He says that the Abrahamic faiths should bless the world by practicing their shared teaching that man is God’s image and likeness (see editorial on facing page.)

In the Bible, the words image and likeness describe the purely spiritual identity of each individual as God’s reflection (see Genesis 1:26, 27). The spiritual truth that we each are the likeness of the same immortal Mind and divine Love has more than once stopped me from treating someone as an enemy working against my best interests. Most often in those cases we’ve discovered a way to live or work together.