If we call ourselves Jews, Christians, or Muslims, we all signed up for the Ten Commandments; the divine law Moses received at Mount Sinai.
The Dual Commandment to love God and to love one’s neighbor
The double commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor are the ethical and spiritual core foundations we share across the Abrahamic faiths, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Regrettably, we often fail to practice our faith, Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike.
In our tumultuous world, marked by endless wars, we are constantly exposed to reports of the killing of hundreds of individuals, causing profound sadness and pain, adding to deaths induced by natural disasters, earthquakes, fires… more.
Some Christians demonize their neighbors’ faith and go on to commit crimes in their places of worship.
Extremists within Islam kill in the name of Allah, the Almighty. Some within Judaism wear a kippah, a sign of their reverence for God, yet they engage in acts of violence toward their neighbors.
Our daily lives
We do not kill only with arms and ammunition, drones, and missiles; the vast majority of us kill our neighbor hundreds of times in our daily lives with words coming out of our mouths, with our careless behavior; lies, envy, jealousy, misappropriation, disrespect.
We fail to view the neighbor with respect through the lens of human dignity and divine creation. Ethical treatment of fellow human beings is tied to obedience and fidelity to the covenant with God.
Amid our failures, He, God, Hashem, Allah, the Almighty, keeps knocking tirelessly at the door of our hearts and whispering: “Forget me not.”
Is Conversion Possible?
We are many, with all kinds of failures; with no exception for Saints.
Saint Paul admitted: Romans 15-20
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
Saint Augustine, the eminent Doctor of the Church and the Spiritual Father of our beloved Pope Leo XIV, wrote in his Memoir, The Confessions: Book VIII, chapter 5,
“The enemy held my will, and of it he made a chain with which he fettered me fast”
The two Saints serve as vivid examples that spiritual conversion is always at hand with the Grace of God. Prayer is a remedy. It reminds us of God’s presence and His law. It helps us refocus. Our different religious traditions underscore the obligation to pray to God daily: in Judaism, three times daily; in Islam, five times daily; in Christianity, twice daily. Let’s try to be attentive and respectful of others in our daily interactions.
At H.E Dr. Ghoulem Berrah Foundation, we pray daily for God’s guiding light amidst a tumultuous world.
Our Muslim brothers and sisters recently celebrated Eid Al Mawlid, the birth of Prophet Muhammad S, on August 25.
Our Jewish brothers and sisters will celebrate Rosh Hashanah on September 11, and Yom Kippur on September 20, the two most significant and sacred religious observances in the Jewish Faith, a profound period of spiritual renewal. We wish them God’s best blessings.
Jews, Christians, Muslims, and all people of good will, let us respond to His call “Forget me not.“