Daily Meditation: Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Equality - a notion which must unite with that of fraternity

11/22/2005

The equality expressed in the motto of the French Republic does not refer to natural equality, which does not exist, but to equality before the law. But even this equality, is it attainable? No, because citizens are not all equally armed before the law and are not provided with identical possibilities. A large fine owed for speeding in an automobile, for example, does not mean the same thing for a millionaire as it does for someone with barely enough to live on. True equality is unattainable and must always be complemented by brotherhood. Human beings are equal only in terms of their dignity, and this dignity can be understood and experienced only insofar as they know themselves as children of God and brothers and sisters to each other. Not only must the most privileged feel they are brothers and sisters of the most destitute, but the most destitute must feel as well that something within them makes them equal to the greatest sages and geniuses.