We all want a thriving and prosperous future for ourselves, our families and our communities. Looking around at our world, don't you find the extremes of wealth and poverty we see troubling? I've always been distressed by seeing some members of our human family living without the most basic necessities while others live in exorbitant luxury. If we truly understood we are one human family, would we continue to tolerate such suff ering? Picture a lavish dinner table with your family members seated together.
Would you pass the food all around and leave out a few seated at the table? Of course not! So why is it not troubling our collective consciences enough to ensure that no members of the human family go hungry? Perhaps this is why God keeps sending prophets to renew spiritual teachings so that all can live a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous life. "Is not the object of every revelation," asks Baha'u'llah, the prophet-founder of the Baha'i Faith, "to eff ect a transformation in the whole character of mankind, a transformation that shall manifest itself, both outwardly and inwardly, that shall aff ect both its inner life and external conditions?" A recent letter from the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Baha'is, called attention to this saying: "Unconscionable quantities of wealth are being amassed, and the instability this creates is made worse by how income and opportunity are spread so unevenly both between nations and within nations." The.