Ethics of the Fathers - ARC Library - `top ten'

“IF I AM NOT FOR MYSELF…WHO WILL BE?
IF I AM FOR MYSELF ONLY…WHAT AM I?
IF NOT NOW…WHEN?”

Ethics of the Fathers 1:14

In the lifetime of your children…?
In your lifetime…?
This year…?
This day…?
If not now…when?

Look at your hand…
You can move it…as a caress or as a fist;
to build up or to tear down;
to give or to take.
Always, your hand can make a mistake or correct one.
Or it can do nothing.
So with your heart and your mind,
as with your hand.
They can serve your need alone…
or serve another…
or serve no one.
The decision is yours.
This is the wonder, and the challenge, of our lives.
For the harsh fact of our lives is how free we are to do nothing.
Or to do the wrong thing:
to hurt not only others but ourselves.
Yet the great thing of our lives
is how free we are to start again;
to find a better path from whatever wrong turn we,
or our world, may have taken.
We are not caught forever in any effort or confusion.
The power is ours to move again.

“IF NOT NOW…WHEN?”

Look at yourself…

For whom has the power to move been given
if not for you;
so that you can be responsible for meeting your own needs.
You have every right – indeed, the obligation – to do so:
- the right to use your heart,
and your mind, and your hand,
to advance your standard of living;
to enjoy the blessings
which today's world makes possible.
the right to seek and earn the respect of those around you;
to achieve recognition of
your talents and efforts.
And who but you
should strive for a better life for your family,
a promising future for your children?

“IF I AM NOT FOR MYSELF…WHO WILL BE?”

Look at your neighbor…

Aren’t his children as dear to him
as yours are to you?
Isn’t his self-respect as necessary to him as yours to you?
And if he is denied
the freedom and opportunity to serve his own needs,
to fulfill his obligations, to enjoy his rights,
what happens to you?
For you are your neighbor’s neighbor.
And it is only together
that you can possibly achieve the kind of community
you want for yourself, for your own family,
and for the family of man.

“IF I M FOR MYSELF ONLY…WHAT AM I?”

Look at the world…

Even as we can reach out our hand
to give or to take,
to build up or tear down,
so men everywhere can now easily move their ideas,
their values, and themselves,
to any corner of the earth –
to give or to take, to build up or to tear down.

We are no longer alone;
whether as an individual,
as a family, as a community, as a nation.
We all live in one place.
What is happening “there” is happening here.

Thus, there is no longer any such thing as poverty “there.”
It is poverty here.
There is no such thing as oppression “there.”
It is oppression here.
There is no such thing as ignorance “there.”
It is ignorance here.

Again, this is the wonder and the challenge of our lives.
As we seek wisdom, and freedom,
and sustenance for ourselves,
we can only hope to reach and maintain these goals
as we are concerned that others achieve them too,
creating them together.
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“God: we’re in trouble down here.
Please send help”.
“I did: I sent you”.
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