Universal fraternity is and has been a deeply human aspiration present in great people’s hearts. “I have a dream,” Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “that one day men will come to see that they are made to live together as brothers and sisters,” and that “brotherhood will be the first order of business on every legislative agenda.”(1)

Mahatma Gandhi affirmed: “My mission is not simply to promote brotherhood in India. Through the achievement of India’s freedom, I hope to develop the mission of brotherhood among all people.”

Universal fraternity has also been the objective of people who were not motivated by religious instincts. The French Revolution bears witness to its central importance. Its motto—“liberty, equality, fraternity”—summarizes the great political objective of modern times, an objective which, in part, has been disregarded. While numerous countries have succeeded in achieving some degree of liberty and equality, the same cannot be said of fraternity.

The one who proclaimed universal fraternity and who showed us how to implement it was above all Jesus. In revealing to us God as Father, he broke down the walls which separate friends from enemies. He carried out an authentic existential, cultural and political revolution. And many spiritual currents sought to bring about this revolution down through the centuries.

To accomplish universal fraternity Jesus offered us an instrument: love, a new kind of love. In fact, he brought the way of loving from heaven to us here on earth.

This love requires that we love everyone, not only relatives and friends. It asks that we love the pleasant and the unpleasant, our fellow-countryman and the stranger, those of our religion and of another. Europeans should be open to those of other continents, according to the vision of Europe’s founders.

The love that Jesus brought on earth is selfless; it does not wait for the love of the other, but it always takes the initiative as Jesus gave his life for us when we were still sinners and, therefore, not loving.

This is not an idealistic and sentimental love. It needs to be expressed with deeds. And this is possible if we make ourselves all things to all people: sick with those who are sick; joyful with those who are joyful; worried, insecure, hungry, poor, feeling in ourselves what they feel, and acting accordingly.

When this love is lived by a number of persons it becomes reciprocal. And it is what Jesus emphasized: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34). Not only individuals, but also groups, movements, cities, regions and countries are called to live out this mutual love. It is urgent and necessary that we love other people’s country as we love our own. The love that Jesus brought is indispensable if Europe is to become a family of nations.

It is this love that the Holy Spirit wants to multiply on earth through our movements. It is God who acts in them, even though their members are nothing but poor instruments. These movements came about to oppose secularism and materialism by putting the Gospel into practice, and this generates fraternity. It heals families, thus recomposing the social fabric. It brings about a sharing of goods, and those in need are cared for. It brings about love of neighbor and people come out of their isolation. It brings harmony between generations, it forms people who are capable of reaching out and, it calls individuals to a total gift of self so as to serve humanity more fully.

1) 1967 Christmas Sermon on Peace.