A
Report on my Blood Brothers
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
I would like to write about my family.
It must be said from the start
that the black persons enslaved and beaten in any century, anywhere, are in
fact my blood brothers.
The members of indigenous
peoples in the three Americas - slaughtered centuries ago in the name of an
imperial church - are close relatives of mine. I’m a humble son of the six
million Jews assassinated in cold blood during the Second World War.
My family tree shows that the
twenty million Russians killed as their country defeated Nazism in the 1940s
are indeed my uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and grandparents. So are the innocent civilians who died in the
wars of the last three thousand years in every continent.
I am a brother of the
Anabaptists and the Mennonites, who follow the law of non-violence. These
peaceful members of my immediate family were fiercely persecuted, imprisoned,
tortured and assassinated by the authorities in Christian Europe, until they
found refuge in the United States and a few other countries.
The Amish and the Hutterites
are therefore my brothers. I have been learning from them and from their
accumulated experience.
My blood is the same as the
blood that gives life to my brothers and my parents of the Adventist Movement.
The millions of Andean citizens and peasants who were humiliated, arrested,
tortured and assassinated in the name of Jesus during the colonial period are
important members of my family tree. It’s an honour for me to pay my respects
to them.
My brothers were killed in the
Armenian Genocide, which started in 1915 and went on until after the First
World War.
I admit that those who were
injured or killed in every European war since ancient times are my close
relatives.
The same applies to the
citizens who fought and died for the good of Portugal and Brazil, often deluded
by some generous ideal which had no firm foundation.
I’m a twin brother of the
Chinese people, of the Japanese people, of the inhabitants of Mongolia, the
citizens of North Korea and South Korea. The inhabitants of Taiwan are dear
relatives of mine.
My family is spread throughout
every city in Israel. The closest relatives I have include the Israeli Arabs
who love peace; and the Druses; as well as every Arab, in any country, who
respects Life.
The Persians and Iranians who
want the good of mankind are my blood brothers and sisters.
So are those who fight the use
of verbal or physical violence against the Jews, and against any human being.
The members of every family on
Earth are my relatives.
The human couple is sacred.
Each family group lives a
divine adventure in its daily life, and ought to be seen as a Center of
spiritual light.
The inhabitants of countries
where Portuguese language is spoken are my cousins and brothers. I must clarify
the issue of my actual nationality. I’m Mozambican, Angolan, Portuguese and
Timorese. I’m from Guinea Bissau. I live in Cape Verde. My home is in Macao. I
live in in each little community where Portuguese is spoken.
There is no State in Brazil
where I was not born. Something in me lives in all cities and villages of
Portugal. My birth took place in the Hispanic world. It occurred in the
Anglophone universe.
However, I was not born one
time only. The truth is, my birth occurred in many different opportunities. In
fact, I undergo the process every morning.
I have come to
the world in the most different nations, and have spoken languages that I now
ignore. The forests, the trees, the oceans - just as the rain and the lightning
- are sisters and brothers of mine.
I’m a son of the Sun. I’m a brother of those who read these lines.
My nearest relatives include the stones, the grains of sand and the wind. The bonds of brotherhood make me one with the
birds and the bees. I’m a close relative of the dogs, the cats, the porcupines
- and the eucalyptuses.
The immediate family group
described above is but a microcosm. It sums up and relates to the larger family
of galaxies, to which human beings belong.
The ultimate limit of this nucleus of family ties is nowhere in
space or time. Its center, on the other hand, is omnipresent. It pulsates here and now in every place, during different eternities, for eternities are
plural.
Amen.
Shalom.
Om, shanti.
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The article The Family of a Theosophist was
published by the associated websites on 27 July 2020. It is also available on
our blog at “The Times of Israel”.
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See also “Kohlberg and the Stages of Moral Development”,
“The World War in Our Minds” and
“Humanity Defeats Nazism”.
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