THE SACRIFICE OF RECONCILING MEN AND WOMEN
TO GOD, AND TO ONE ANOTHER AFTER THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST: IMPULSE FOR INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE
PRESENTED BY
CORNELIUS AFEBU OMONOKHUA
AT THE INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE SEMINAR
FOR THE NIGERIA CONFERENCE OF WOMEN RELIGIOUS (NCWR), KADUNA, SEPTEMBER 4, 2008
Introduction
May I begin this reflection by first thanking and congratulating the Nigerian Sisters on behalf of the Department of Mission and Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria! Inter-religious dialogue is a committee in the Department of Mission and Dialogue.Other committees are Ecumenism and Mission. On Wednesday, the 20th of May, 2008, I called Sr. Julie Osiyemi, EHJ and asked: Who is your audience in this seminar? She replied: The female Religious. I asked further: What is the aim and objective of the seminar and workshop? On the 21st of May, 2008, she sent me ananswer through an e-mail. In her own words:
The objective is to have a 5-day training and formation in Inter-religious dialogue for sisters. The goal is to promote Inter-religious dialogue in Nigeria through the different apostolate of the sisters in the rural and urban areas. Many Nigerian sisters work in different parts of Nigeria where there is strong presence of people of other religions, especially Muslims and followers of African Traditional Religion (A.T.R.). All these people come to the sisters for health, social and educational services. Sisters are very effective in reaching out to women of other religions, especially Muslims. This programme will help to prepare the sisters for such apostolate which is assuming a place of vital importance in the life of the Church in our time
My immediate reaction to this is to prepare a paper that may help us discover who we are as human beings and the power in the female gender especially in this era of women empowerment in the Nigerian context. The reference point of our enquiry in this discussion is: After the example of Christ. The implication of this is that the ultimate goal of the Nigeria Sisters is to be like Jesus in words and deeds. This is not impossible. A lot of women have been shining examples and models in almost every aspect of human life. We are aware that in the march of Jesus to Calvary, Veronica penetrated the crowd and the armed soldiers to wipe the face of Jesus. May the Nigeria Sisters in dialogue imitate the boldness of this woman, Veronica to bring succor to the bleeding hearts of our people!
It was the dialogue between the angel Gabriel and Mother Mary that gave us a Redeemer with the fiat of Mary. Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word. (Luke 1:38) The Old Testament reported the dialogues of Queen Esther and Judith. These at different times saved the people of Israel from peril and destruction. Women are powerful! This power can destroy if it is not properly channeled in love and peace. So, our prayer is that the strength of our Consecrated women may yield positive results like women in our contemporary history who have proven that it is possible to live after the example of Christ who is our Lord and Saviour.
(1) The Anthropological foundation of Dialogue
Anthropology is derived from two Greek words “anthropos” άνθρωπος and logos -λογος. Anthropos-άνθρωπος means man, human being, and person while logos (λογος) means word or discourse. Anthropology is the study of the human person or the study of a people or humanity.This study also includes the community and the environment where the human person lives. This human person has a goal and a destination that terminates at a final end or destiny which in Greek is telos -τελος.
There are many different types of anthropologies. For example, “Physical anthropology studies features of the human body, such as types of blood, the form and colour of hair, and the shape of the skull, which often showsrelationships between different groups of people or races. Cultural anthropology is the study of the life style of a people. The anthropologist can learn about this by studying objects which man / woman makes and uses. Social anthropology is concerned with the way people live together in organized societies, and with the customs and rules that are kept in these societies. Ethnology is an aspect of anthropology that studies particular societies or distinct groups. It is a comparative study of cultures. Theological anthropology is an enquiry into the nature of the human person as a creature of God. Michael J. Scanlon defines anthropology within the context of Christology. He says that,
For Christian anthropology, Jesus Christ is the focal paradigm. The Christian is in the most literal sense the disciple of Jesus, the one who learns from Jesus how to live authentically. The biblical elaboration of this Christian structure of existence is rich and varied, and it includes both testaments since Jesus was a Jew, and his basic religious formation came from the traditions of Judaism, especially from the Hebrew Scriptures. It was the prophets of Israel who first introduced that structure of existence which we call personhood. Jesus would pioneer a “post-personal” form of existence demanding self-transcendence empowered by the Spirit and actualized in love of neighbour…. This new knowledge has obvious consequences of a Christian anthropology for which Jesus is the illustration of a life well lived.
The vocation of the Women Religious can be described in the context of anthropology. A Sister is first and foremost a human being. She is a complete woman of substance, born into a particular culture and society. A Sister has a double heritage from the society and from the Church. Her character has been formed in the course of history. This she contributes to the ongoing formation of a community. She is a woman who heard a call to follow Christ and like the Blessed Virgin Mary gave a fiat by accepting baptism, confirmation and profession to a consecrated life as an immaculate bride of Jesus Christ. Consequently, to be a good professed sister, she must first and foremost be a good human being who is cultured and at peace within herself, with herself, with the people around her and with the secular society. Thus, a sister is different from every other woman because she is a testimony and a witness to eschatology and beatific vision.
Have you ever bothered to ask any of your parents the events that surrounded your birth? The popular ideas at the time you were born and the people that moved the world around you. These questions can contribute to the affirmation of who you are as a person and your latent potentials to make the world around you a glorious blissinstead of a blaze. Your “person” can create heaven in a wounded broken world through your presence, your smile, your touch, your attention, your care, your tolerance, your patience, your total being, readiness to be the bread broken and the wine poured forth for the world around you irrespective of tribe, colour and religion. The life you live isa dialogue since what you are and who you are speak louder than what you say. You must make a difference to change the world around you. You need to begin from where you are and as you are. You are surely in the right place. This place could be your immediate community. The power in you must be seen in the way you share love, peace, joy and attractive attitude of reconciliation in the place where you live.
Once upon a time, Aloaye the hunter went into a very thick forest for hunting. He saw something very unusual – the egg of an eagle bird – eagles normally laid their eggs in a nest and neatly placed on top of a very tall tree. Aloaye carried the egg gently and added it to the eggs of his turkey. The turkey incubated its eggs along with the egg of the eagle. The eggs were hatched together. The poults (baby turkeys) and the eaglet (baby eagle) lived and roamed together. One day, the eaglet saw a mother eagle soaringabove the clouds. He wanted to fly but was very afraid because it had not learnt or discovered that it was capable of soaring. The eaglet was so sad and asked the mother turkey, why is it that I can not fly like that bird that lookslike me? The mother turkey replied: it is hard to soar with the eagles when you have to live with the turkeys.
The eaglet ran into the forest wondering when he could really actualize its potentials by soaring above the clouds into the sky. One day, an eagle was soaring in thesky and looked down to see a bird that had a resemblance. He came down picked the eaglet up on top of a tree. After some training, the mother eagle carried the eaglet up to the clouds and said: you either fly or you cry because you have the potential to soar like me. It is your nature to grow above the turkeys, so fly. The eaglet was released only with an option to fly or die. It opened its wings with courage lest it crashed. It did not only fly but soar like every other eagle.
The power of Christ is in each and every one of us. This means that to change the world around us positively, we must be a step ahead of the world with the power of Christ in us. We are not ordinary people. We are images of God. We are people who are wonderfully made to make the world a peaceful home and a heaven to live in. We must define who we are and whose we are. As Christians, we are called to be different from every other human being because we share in the divine life of Christ who is a model of a life well lived. We must fly as our nature dictates and embrace divine grace irrespective of what every other person is complaisant with. We Christians are children ofdestiny. We ought to constantly reflect on where we arecoming from, where we are, and where we are going. In God’s plan everyone was created with a divine origin and a divine destiny. The first two questions in the Catholic Catechism are:
Who made you? God made me. Why did God make you? God made me to know him, love him and serve him in this world, and to be happy with him foreverin the next.
Myths and stories have been used to answer the puzzle of human nature. It was when the people of Israel were in Exile in Babylon, they first started to ask themselves about their origin and destiny. These reflections gave rise to the inspired myths of Genesis 1-11, using the Epic of Gilgamesh as a major source. The contents and purpose of the book of Genesis according to E.F. Sutcliffe, “is to trace the descent of the ancestors of the people of Israel from the beginning of the world down to the twelve sons of Jacob who were the eponyms of the twelve tribes and to their immediate descendants”. The doctrine of genesis manifests a lofty conception of God:
He is one and there is no other beside him. This fundamental truth is taught not by abstract propositions but in more telling fashion. He it was who created the beings elevated by pagan nations to divine rank. As the Creator of all, he is the supreme Lord and master of the world. He is the omnipotent.
The divine nature of the human person enables him/her to enter into dialogue with God and the entire creation. The human nature has the capacity to dialogue with the created order. Fulton J. Sheen says that,
We are to some extent like the rest of creation. For example, we have existence, or being, like stones, oxygen, and sand. But man, also has life, which makes him like flowers and trees, which vegetate and grow and reproduce. Man, also has senses like the animal, by which he enters into contact with the great external environment, from stars to the food that lies at his fingertips. But man has something unique; he is not just the sum of all of these. What man has peculiar unto himself is the fact that man is thinking and a willing being…. But he also has freedom. He can choose, decide, and determine his targets both near and far.
It is when a human person is in union with the source of his being that he/she can find true happiness. To find the source of life, truth, and love that is in the world, Fulton J Sheen says that
We have to go to a life that is not mingled with its shadow, death; to a Truth that is not mingled with its shadow, error; to a love that is not mingled with its shadow, hate. We must go out to pure life, Pure Truth, Pure Love, and that is the definition of God. He is the ultimate goal of life; from Him we came, and in Him alone do we find peace…. When are we most happy? When we do that for which we are made, as the microphone is happy when it does that for which it was made. Then there is a thrill and a romance to life.
(2) The Reconciling Mission of Jesus
The word reconciliation implies a broken and fractured humanity. God created the world good. The story of the Garden of Eden symbolizes peace happiness and contentment that human beings would enjoy. The sin ofAdam and Eve symbolizes the inclination which the human person later acquired freely to disobey. Consequently,hatred and jealousy were displayed in the story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 3). The result of the sin of Adam and Eve was a serious rivalry and hatred. The scattered smoke of Cain’s offering was an expression of the burning jealousy and anger he was already nursing against his brother Abel. Otherwise, he would have tried a better offering when the former was rejected and if need be, ask his brother Abel for assistance. The case of Cain and Abel is an expression of the passion in the heart of human beings today. God asked Cain: where is your brother? In response to God’s question, Cain asked in return: Am I my brother’s keeper (Genesis 4:10).
God took the initiative to restore the broken and fractured humanity to grace again. To do this at many moments in the past and by many means, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the final days, he has spoken to us in the person of his son whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made all things (Hebrews 1:1-2). Jesus came to give life and he gave it abundantly (John 10:10). He came as the fulfillment of the promise made by God to his people. After preparing himself through fasting, baptism and conquering the devil that tempted him with food, fame and power, Jesus referred to the prophecy of Isaiah and declared:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me; for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord (Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61:1-2)
This called for a community of discipleship. Jesus therefore had a community of the twelve apostles and others including women who ministered to him (Mark. 3:16-19; Luke. 8:1-3). Luke specifically mentioned some women whom he had healed and who contributed to the support of the group apart from the twelve. What is unique in the community of Jesus is that he made reconciliation, forgiveness and peace a condition even for the acceptance of the offering. Jesus’ community was to be a model of true love and a perfect agape whereby,
If you are bringing your offering to the alter and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother or sister first, and then come back and present your offering” (Matthew.5: 17-18).
Jesus prays for the unity of this community and the future ecclesiastical community (Cf. John. 17). Jesus did not intend his followers to be in conflict with the civil and political society. In obedience to the political set up of the Jews under the Roman government, Jesus allows the payment of the temple tax (Mark. 13:9) since both Caesar and what belongs to Caesar belongs to God.
The Church is the body of Christ. Theological anthropology sees the human person in the context of the community of Jesus who came to establish the kingdom of God. Before Jesus left the realm of time to eternity, he advised that we should follow him, the life, the way and the truth. He encouraged his followers not to worry. Jesus was fully aware that every community depends on sacrifice to live in peace and harmony in time. To live in eternity a supreme sacrifice is required. However, Jesus did not make this sacrifice outside himself. He was the priest and the victim. He willingly offered himself for his community to be reconciled to God and live in peace and harmony. This action was consummated on the cross. It was after the resurrection and ascension of Christ that the members of Christ community were called Christians. “As things turned out they were to live together in that church a whole year, instructing a large number of people. It was at Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians’” (Acts 11:26).
The approach of Jesus was both in teaching and in acting. The end result of all reconciling mission is peace: Peace of mind, soul and body. When the human person is at peace on the inside, this peace can now radiate and affect the world around the person. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God (Matthew 5:9). Jesus in action makes peace our inheritance: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27). This peace does not rule out the trials and frustration that the world can make us go through. “I have spoken to you, so that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).
Persecution is part of the Christian mission because some people may even hate you without reason or hate you for following Christ. Some may not even like to see your face. The fact that you are alive alone can disgust some people. But we can be consoled and courageous with the words of Christ:
Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, when people insult you and persecute you and say all manner of evilagainst you for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who came before you (Matthew 5:10-12). I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16). Whoever will save his life shall lose it; but whoever shall lose his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel shall save it (Mark 8:35). If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world for, I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember what I told you: the servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do to you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. (John 15:18-21)
In the face of these obvious possible events, St. Paul says: who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us (Romans 8:35-37).How should a follower of Christ handle or respond to this tribulation and persecution? The approach of Jesus at first instance is very frightening and almost a contradiction to reason. Jesus said:
If anyone strikes you on your right cheek; turn to him the other also. And if any one sues you at the law, and take away your coat, let him/her have your cloak also. And whoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him two. Give to the person that asks you, and turn not away from the person that would borrow from you. You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, “you shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you; that you may be the children of your father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what rewards have you? (Matthew 5:39 cf. Luke 6:35-36))
This passage does not rule out possible enquiries into the injustice we suffer from people. If your brother or sister offends you, rebuke him or her and if he or she repents, forgive. If a person offends you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again saying; “I am sorry, you must forgive the person” (Luke 17:3-4). When the soldier slapped Jesus, he demanded for a reason for the slap. At these words, one of the guards standing by gave Jesus a slap in the face, saying, is that the way you answer the high priest? Jesus replied, ‘If there is some offence in what I said, point it out; but if not, why do you strike me? (John 18: 22-24) But Jesus did not revenge by slapping back. Earlier during his arrest, Simon Peter drew a sword and struck the high priest’s servant whose name was Malchus, Jesus said to Peter, ‘put your sword back in its scabbard(John 18:10-11).
Jesus was very emphatic in his teaching regarding mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Matthew 5:7). If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses (Matthew 6:14-15). Then came Peter to him, and said, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how many times should I forgive him, as many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I say to you, not seven times, but seventy times seven times.” (Matthew 18:21-22). Before you start praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses (Mark 11:25-26). Jesus put into action his teaching. While in pains and dying on the cross, Jesus prayed for his executioners and even excused them. Jesus said on the cross; “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). This is in line with the Leviticus law, “You shall not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of yourpeople” (Leviticus 19:18).
(3)The Sacrifice of reconciling men and women to God, and to one another
To be able to practice the teaching on reconciliation and to reconcile others, the Christian must be a reconciled reconciler. This calls for real sacrifice. In reconciliation,something must be sacrificed: Ego, pride, position, time and energy. The tongue must be properly checked. Formation of Character must be a watch word. Character is manifested through the things we say and do. When wealth is lost, nothing is lost, when health is lost, something is lost but when character is lost everything is lost. We must therefore be charitable with the things we say. Our attitude and our manner of approach must be seen and experienced in the ways we treat each other in our immediate communities.
As Religious, you must fight the weaknesses which are often identified with women. The law and the wisdom writers have this to tell us: You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people (Leviticus 19:16). Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry. (Psalm 34:12-15). A soft answer turns away wrath, but harsh words stir up anger (Proverbs 15:1). All these will prepare you as women of substance for dialogue with people outside our community, culture and religion. Let us therefore take a brief look at dialogue in general.
The Chambers English Dictionary defines dialogue as a conversation between two or more persons especially of a formal or imaginary nature; an exchange of views in the hope of ultimately reaching agreement. William Barclay,cited some wise men as follows: John Wesley: I have no more right to object to a man for holding a different opinion from mine than I have to differ with a man because he wears a wig and I wear my own hair. We think and let think. In other words, while we think, we should let others think their own way. T.R. Glover: Remember that whatever your hand finds to do, someone thinks differently. Abraham Lincoln: Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? Even if a man be utterly mistaken, we must never regard him as an enemy to be destroyed but as a strayed friend to be recovered by love.
Dialogue is the act of listening to each other and one another. By so doing, we understand that we are gifts to each other and one another. Life makes us complete and complement one another. No two persons are exactly the same physically, emotionally, intellectually, morally and religiously. Human beings are so uniquely created that everybody has something to contribute to the beauty of the world. No one is created to be absolutely useless. God did not create any one to destroy him or her. Every one has a special gift given by God to make the world a home for one and the same God.
Though we have different faces, we have humanity as a common factor and God as our single creator. There is no father who celebrates and rejoices at the disintegration of his family resulting from lack of peace among his children. I wonder how a parent would feel when the children fight and kill one another over who love, cherish and obey the parent best. Imagine the disposition of God when His creatures or Children or servants fight and kill one another in his name. It is wrong to use religion for political gains because the world is God’s family.
(4) Impulse for inter-religious dialogue.
Let us examine the aim and objective of this seminar, namely training and formation in Inter-religious dialogue for sisters. The goal is to promote Inter-religious dialogue in Nigeria through the different apostolate of the sisters in the rural and urban areas. It follows then that Women Religious should understand the need for dialoguing with Islam and African primal religions. Sisters after this seminar should be able to educate our people in words and action that fighting in the name of religion is unreasonable. The earth absorbs almost every liquid except blood. Very often many who fight because of religion do so for theirselfish reasons. God is immortal, almighty, and powerful. He knows everything. God may not need any one to defend him or protect him. He is strong enough to defend and protect himself. Whoever claims to be a messenger of God or a lover of God must preach peace, unity, mutual coexistence, tolerance, love and all the virtues that can make this world a home, a better place, and a paradise where God is all in all. After all, both the Christians and the Muslims greet with Peace be with you!
In bringing our potentials together and conscious of being so gifted by God, we must be known for one good thing by which others can identify us. Dialogue is an act of bringing our different ideas and gifts to a round table. Dialogue is the contribution of our latent potentials to be actualized by the human community irrespective of our different colours, race and religion. Inter-religious dialogue does not exclude proclamation but the essence is not conversion but a means of understanding each and one another.
Inter-religious dialogue is not a call to conversion. It is a call to a peaceful coexistence by sharing ideas and understanding one another. It is the sharing of what we have in common and tolerating our differences. By so doing, we make this world a home a peaceful home that is tranquil and conducive for life and human habitation. There will be no more fear, no more insecurity, no more pain as we live in love as brothers and sisters. The world is a temporary place where we learn how we shall live in heaven where God will be all in all. For a peaceful dialogue to take place we must be conscious of the fact that we are all creatures and children of one and the same God.
5The Catholic Church and Dialogue
The above expositions may help in preparing us for dialogue at various levels: The origin of Inter-religious Dialogue is God who created all people and destined them for salvation. To promote the reconciliation between man and God, Pope John Paul II called for the Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi on 27 October 1986. The Second Vatican Council taught in Nostra aetate, “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions”: “We cannot truly pray to God the Father of all if we treat any people in other than brotherly fashion, for all men are created in God’s image” (n. 5).
At the beginning of his Pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI reminded believers in the following words: “We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.” And in his Message for the World Day of Peace in 2007 he reiterated: “As one created in the image of God, each individual human being has the dignity of a person; he or she is not just something, but someone, capable of self-knowledge, self-possession, free self-giving and entering into communion with others.
The Catholic Church continues to defend the dignity of the human person even though this same creature, willed and loved by the Creator, now finds herself living in the ‘desert’ of this world. And there are so many kinds of ‘deserts. There is the desert of rejection, even before one is born, the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love. There is the desert of God’s darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or lacking any goal for their lives. The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast.Indeed, for the desert to become green again, man has to be reconciled with God and with the inner self.
In the reconciliation between person and person, St John writes to Christians: “Whoever says, ‘I am in the light’ while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness” (1John 2:9). Regarding violence in different places and at different levels, Pope Benedict XVI made this appeal at a traditional Christian prayer: “In the world there is too muchviolence, too much injustice, and therefore that this situation cannot be overcome except by countering it with more love, with more goodness. This ‘more’ comes from God: it is his mercy which was made flesh in Jesus and which alone can ‘tip the balance’ of the world from evil to good, starting with that small and decisive “world” which is the human heart”. Pope Benedict XVI proposed further:
(Christian non-violence) does not consist in succumbing to evil, as a false interpretation of ‘turning the other cheek’ (cf. Luke. 6:29) claims, but in responding to evil with good (cf. Romans 12:17-21) and thereby breaking the chain of injustice. One then understands that for Christians, non-violence is not merely tactical behaviour but a person’s way of being, the attitude of one who is so convinced of God’s love and power and that he is not afraid to tackle evil with the weapons of love and truth alone. Love of one’s enemy constitutes the nucleus of the ‘Christian revolution’, a revolution not based on strategies of economic, political or media power: the revolution of love, a love that does not rely ultimately on human resources but is a gift of God which is obtained by trusting solely and unreservedly in his merciful goodness. Here is the newness of the Gospel, which silently changes the world! Here is the heroism of the ‘lowly’ who believe in God’s love and spread it, even at the cost of their lives”
The Church also proposed the reconciliation between the human person and his environment. In his Encyclical Letter, Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II wrote: “Not only has God given the earth to man, who must use it with respect for the original good purpose for which it was given to him, but man too is God’s gift to man. He must therefore respect the natural and moral structure with which he has been endowed.” This is to avoid natural disasters like the tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004, hurricanes, earthquakes, typhoons and droughts which can be caused by human recklessness andlack of respect for the environmental laws.
At Inter-religious meetings Christians are advanced to show maximum maturity in the experiences of reconciliation, healing of wounds and memories. Pope John Paul II convoked: “Day of Pardon ”in Rome on 12 March 2000. The day was described as the “purification of memory”. Pope John Paul II said: “The recognition of past wrongs serves to reawaken our consciences to the compromises of the present, opening the way to conversion for everyone”. Meetings in inter-religious dialogue do not of themselves remove the pains of the past or present. For reconciliation we have to recognize that our neighbours have been victims of our injustice, our anger, our exploitation.
Dialogue becomes real when we listen with attention and be present to the other. Dialogue places the other before me. The aggrieved and the aggressors, the victims and the perpetrators may come to such meetings with suspicion. Attentive and sympathetic listening helps each to see the other as a brother or sister capable of loving, speaking the truth, seeking justice, offering forgiveness and sharing compassion. These are the basic values which all religious traditions encourage. They are paths to reconciliation and peace.
What Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote about bringing human rights to life applies equally to creating a culture of mutual respect among peoples: ‘Where,’ she asked, ‘do human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world… Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere’”. His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI repeatedly said that dialogue cannot be reduced to an optional extra. He wrote in his message for the XXth anniversary of the first Assisi Meeting in 1986… Peace is not something only to be sought in halls of government, but also in the halls of our synagogues, our churches, our mosques, our temples, our pagodas, our gurudwaras, our atash berhrams, our schools, our workplaces, our homes and most importantly in our hearts”
Conclusion
Once again, I congratulate you beloved consecrated Mothers and Sisters for this wonderful initiative. We all know the influence our mothers had on us. Mothers are wonderful in nurturing and molding the child. Sisters you are spiritual mothers. We look up to you therefore to gather all the children of God wherever you are into a peaceful and tranquil home of your heart. Like the mother hen, cover them with your wings and make them warm. Suckle them with your soothing breast and give them contentment. Sisters, you are the light, so make us see. You are the salt, preserve our lives. You are the flower, make the world beautiful.
