Here are inspiring human beings of today from different backgrounds who truly see and treat everyone as their own. Their lives show us that the ideals presented in FRATELLI TUTTI can really be lived out in practice.
Everybody is Mine!
I met Balwant Singh Dalwani years ago in Kochi, at the World Conference on Religion. The conference had participants from various religions. I have forgotten most of the learned papers presented there, but not a simple prayer uttered by this good man.
Every morning, people were to free to pray in their own way—which meant that each religious group met separately for their prayers. Thus, for instance, the Catholics had Holy Mass in a room, the Buddhists met to have their prayers, etc. Dalwani, instead, liked to pray with a different group every morning. And he took part respectfully.
One day, the organizer invited Dalwani to come to the stage and say a prayer. We did not understand what he said; I suppose it must have been in Punjabi. When it was translated, I found it one of the most touching prayers I had ever heard. That prayer—and the man saying it—taught me much.
What he said was this:
“When I have found Thee,
There is no ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’;
Everybody is mine.”
A few Sisters from Maharashtra who knew Mr Dalwani told us, “He not only says this in prayer. That is how he lives.”
Mr Dalwani belonged to the prestigious Indian Foreign Service (IFS). He retired early and came back to India—not to join politics or seek government posts, but to serve the needy. He dedicated himself to looking after leprosy patients in rural Maharashtra. He did not see those patients, who belonged to a different state, and whose condition made them ‘untouchable’ for most people, as ‘not his.’ No, “everybody is mine.”
………
FR JOE MANNATH SDB
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