Monday
27th of October 2008
(President
of the Pontifical Council for Inter Religious Dialogue)
Inter religious dialogue: a risk or a
blessing?
We
evolve in multicultural and multireligious societies. This is an evidence. No
religiously homogenous society exists. In
However,
since the XIIIth century, in
Man
is self-sufficient. No need asking explanations to religion about his origin,
or expect happiness beyond this earth. Man is thus placed in the centre of the
world, and the supernatural is eliminated. On the level of ideas, this vision
of things will lead to Scienticism (all that cannot be justified by human
reason does not exist) and, in the field of realisations, to the French
Revolution (the organisation of society without God). Finally, it will end up
in the XXth century’s two totalitarianisms (Marxism-Leninism and the Nazi’s
ideology).
Of
course, the Church has always contested such a vision of things and maintained
that to exclude the religious from reason is an amputation of man, created to
the image of God. Pope John-Paul II, in his Encyclique « Fides and Ratio» says
“ In God resides the origin of all things, in Him, the plentiful of the mystery
is found, and in this, His Glory is constituted; to man is left the duty to
search Truth with his reason and there lies his nobility” (n.17). And now it
happens that this God, which had been dismissed yesterday, is back in the
public debate. In the kiosks, there is an overflow of books and magazines
treating of religious subjects, of esoterism, of new religions. Allusion is
made about “The revenge of God” (Gilles Képel)
To day,
the world cannot be understood without religions, but they are frightening. And
this – the big paradox of the actual situation – is due to the perception in
which they are seen: fanaticism, fundamentalism, terrorism have been and are
still associated to a perverted form of Islam. But of course, this is not the
real Islam as the majority of the adepts of this religion practise it. In fact,
still today, killing is done for religious motives (assassination of the
archbishop of Mossoul). I read that in 2001, 123 christians have been killed
because they were christians, in
We
are thus in a world where, on account of the material and human precariousness,
of the dangers of wars and of the hazards of the environment, facing the
failures of the big systems of the past century, the men and women of this
generation are presently asking again the essential questions about the sense
of life and death, the sense of History and are concerned about the drifting
that may be applied to the wonderful scientific discoveries. It had been
forgotten that the human being is the only creature capable of interrogations
and of interrogating himself. It is quite remarkable that the Vatican II
Council’s decree relative to the inter- religious dialogue 1« Nostra Aetate»
underlines this aspect of things straight away in its preamble: “ Men expect
from the diverse religions the answer to the hidden enigmas of the human
condition, which, yesterday as to day, disturbs the human heart: what is man?
What are the origins and the purpose of suffering? What is the way to reach
real happiness?”
We
are thus condemned to dialogue!
In
dialogue, we, Christians, we feel quite at ease:
-
Our
God is by essence dialogal (Trinity).
-
We
know with Peter that “God does makes acceptation of no one, that in all
nations, whoever loves him and practises justice is welcomed by Him” (Ac 10,
35).
For this
reason, other believers should not disinterest us!
For
us, dialogue is founded on our God unique and Trinitarian.
Jesus
has revealed to us that God is « dialogue » (it is the very substance
of the Trinity) and we, christians have the duty to imitate this dialogue of
the communion of love that we confess each time we say: ‘ I believe in one God,
almighty Father… I believe in a sole Lord Jesus Christ, the unique Son of God…
I believe in the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son” And with
Paul we recall that “God wishes every man to be saved and to attain the
knowledge of truth” (1 Tim 2,4), and to this finality he has sent his unique
son Jesus, “the only mediator between God and Men” (ibid. 2,5). This is the
reason why this Jesus holds a unique place in religious history. He is more
than a wise man and a prophet. He is, in his very person, “Real God and real
man”. This is what He is by unique right: on one side, he is the “unique Son”,
participating in the divine Uniqueness, and on the other part he shares the
human condition as being among them a unique individual, who has lived in a
determined place, and at a determined time in our history. Finally, his
resurrection will confirm this salvation uniqueness in making Him “the first
born among the deads” (Col 1,18). This is our faith, this is the Church’s
faith, which we are proud to proclaim, to which we cannot renounce, and which
we propose to all those who agree to take it into consideration.
This
being said, we acknowledge that the Spirit did already communicate with the
world in the centuries preceding the venue of Christ who said to Nicomède that
the Spirit was like the wind: “He blows where
he wishes” »(Jn 3, 9). And, since Pentecost, we believe that this very Spirit
communicates Himself in all places and at all times to whoever wishes to
receive him. This is also why Vatican II has dared to affirm: “we must admit
that the Holy Spirit offers to all, in a way known to God, the possibility of
being associated to the Pascal Mystery” (G&S 22). As from the beginning of
John’s Scripture, we already read: “At the beginning was the Verb and the Verb
was God … He was the real light illuminating all men”
(l, 1
... 9). This means that in every human being there is the light of Christ. This
notion has consequences we have not always kept into consideration. It implies
that the entire positive we detect in other religions is not darkness. All this
positive participates to the magnificent light that shines over all lights.
Then many things are clarified: all that is true and holy in a religion is
accepted, confirmed and brought to achievement in Christ. Here we must reread
St Justin, in his first apology: “Those who have lived in conformity with
Christ are christians” To him, commentated Benedict the XVIth, “Any man, as a
rational creature, participates to the Logos, he carries in him the germ and he
may perceive the glimmer” (Catechesis du 22 mars 2007) and he quotes again
Justin “ all beauty expressed by anyone is owned by all christians” (2 Apol
13,4). You must have recognised the conception of the « logos spermatikon »! We
must therefore reread «Nostra Aetate »: “ The catholic Church rejects nothing
that is true and saint in those religions. She considers with sincere respect
these ways of living and acting, these rules and these doctrines, although they
differ in many points from what she herself holds and proposes, anyhow, they
convey a ray of the Truth that illuminates all men” (n.2).
The
Spirit, spread in the heart of men, brings alive in them the life of God. He,
who mutually unites the Father and the Son, is the principle of the relation to
others.
If
this is how things are, what must we understand by the term “religious
dialogue” and what must be done?
I
have found a definition of dialogue
in the Dictionary of Philosophical Notions (PUF
1990, vol. 1, p. 642): “there is dialogue when individuals or human groups,
disagreeing on a point they consider essential, try to resolve their opposition
by exchanging arguments and objections, instead of starting violent conflicts”
Applied
to inter-religious dialogue, this definition allows us to qualify it with more
precision. It does not mean a conversation between friends whose aim would be
to avoid the offending subjects. It does not either mean to negotiate the way
diplomats do: the solution to the disagreement is found and it is over! With
the inter-religious dialogue, it is necessary to promote all the possible
positive and constructive relations between individuals and communities “in
order to learn knowing each other and to enrich each other, while still obeying
one’s truth and respecting each other’s liberty” (Dialogue et announce, n.9).
Inter-religious dialogue always starts by the respect of the other, of his
person and his convictions. Besides, this dialogue becomes, for me, an
opportunity to deepen my convictions. It can transform me: while making me
discover that God is active in all men, it forces me to revise the given ideas
about others and to deepen my own beliefs, because I must confess that Jesus
Christ is the only mediator between God and men (1 Tim 2, 4-6). The question is
not to find the slightest common denominator between religions or to say “ they
more or less say the same thing” (Relativism!) The question is to say: “all
believers and all the seekers of Absolute possess the same dignity”! It can be
said that, since Vatican II, catholics have moved from encounter to dialogue
and learned to respect the other’s convictions. And also become conscious that
God is incessantly active in the heart of each man. And, because the human beings
have been created free, they must be free to do or not to do the choice of God
With
the Encyclique «Redemptoris Missio», it must be evident that “ inter-religious
dialogue is not the consequence of a strategy or of an interest, but an
activity, with its own motivations, its own requirements, and its own dignity:
this results from the deep respect felt towards all that the Spirit “which
blows where it wishes” has operated in the heart of man. Thanks to dialogue,
the Church intends to discover “ the seedlings of the Verb”, the rays of truth
illuminating all men”. Seeds and rays which are found in the persons and the
religious traditions of humanity. Inter-religious dialogue is founded on hope
and charity, and it will bear fruits in the Spirit. The other religions
constitute a positive challenge for today’s Church. In fact, they incite her to
discover and to recognize the signs of Christ’s presence and the action of the
Holy Spirit, to better determine her identity and to testify of the integrity
of the Revelation of which she is the depositary for the good of all” (n.56).
How
to realize this inter-religious dialogue?
The
inter-religious dialogue is realised in four modalities:
-
The
dialogue of life: sharing of the joys and sorrows of every day’s life with the
adepts of other religions.
-
The
dialogue of the plural works: collaboration to the welfare of others,
especially those who live in precarity.
-
The
theological dialogue: to better understand our religious heirloom.
-
The
dialogue on the spiritualities: sharing the richness of the life of prayer or
contemplation of each others.
I wonder
if we are sufficiently conscious of the richness that the believers constitute
for the world:
-
Every weekend,
millions of believers meet in their mosques, synagogues and churches to glorify
God and to find near Him inspiration and strength to be coherent with their
religious convictions.
-
These men and women
who pray remind to all that “man does not live only of bread”: he needs an
interior life. For us, christians, it is an opportunity to underline that we
are not proposing a culture, but a person, whose message is compatible with all
cultures, once purified of their contradictions.
-
Faith is lived in a community:
the authentic believers are ferments of fraternity. Religion should always be synonym of peace!
-
These “holy stories”
conveyed by the other religions should help us to be more fully conscious of
the extraordinary Revelation of God in Jesus Christ and never to renounce
announcing it: it is a duty and a right. But it is very important to always
keep the distinction between proselytism and the testimony of one’s own faith,
in the respect of the dignity and the liberty of each human being.
What
are the concrete consequences for a believer of this type of dialogue?
At
the end of ends, inter-religious dialogue urges the believers to be witnesses
of their faith. And this testimony stands on three pillars:
(1)
To have clear ideas
about the contents of their own religion. It is not possible to dialogue on
ambiguity. Each partner of the dialogue must have a clear identity. The
catecheses, as taught in our seminaries and universities, must promote a
constant deepening of the specificity of our faith, so as to form pastors and
lay christians to dialogue in truth with the adepts of other religions.
(2)
To live according to
our convictions. We must be, all of us, credible believers. During
inter-religious dialogues, we are exposed to the look of others. We ask
ourselves “tell me who is your God and how do you conjugate your faith in daily
life”! This form of dialogue does not take place between religions, but always
between believers!
(3) The third pillar: Do not fear
to manifest in telling your faith. In doing so, the believer is honest with
himself and with his partners. Would I be sincere if I refrain from sharing
with others my beliefs? No! In any case,
a christian who has discovered Jesus and his message cannot keep it all to
himself. “So many important gifts, said Benedict the XVIth in December 2007,
are never intended for only one person. In Jesus Christ a strong light has been
generated …we cannot keep it under the cover …but on the lamp post” (Discourse
at the Roman Curie, 21.XII.07).
Believers who dialogue in this mode
constitute a richness for society. They are called to collaborate, by diverse
means, with all those who undertake:
-
To ensure the respect
of the dignity of the human person and of his fundamental rights;
-
To develop the sense
of fraternity and mutual aid;
-
To get inspiration
from the know-how of the communities of believers, who, at least once a week,
gather in the frame of their cult, millions of very different persons in an
authentic spiritual communion;
-
To help men and women
of our times not to be the slaves of fashions, of consumerism and solely of
profit.
So,
in conclusion, to the initial question “ Is inter-religious dialogue a risk or
a blessing?”, I answer: Both! A risk: that of syncretism. But this is relative,
because any believer who dialogues is brought to clarify his faith in order to
explain it. Dialoguing believers inevitably interrogate themselves about the
essential questions, referred to in the prologue of «Nostra Aetate». How not to
notice that in the word “dialogue”, the prefix “dia”, signifying “through”,
very well indicates that to dialogue is to consent that another parole crosses
mine?
A blessing. It is my conviction. Indeed, when we say “Christ is the
fullness of the Revelation of God”, we may think that christians have no
interest in trying to understand what keeps alive the men of other religions.
Then we
must remember two things:
1. Christ, as Verb of God, is – like
the Father and the Spirit – present in all man since always. The other
religions, when they mention the presence of God in man, import also from the
christian his own experience of faith. What the Spirit is doing in the heart of
men and in the history of peoples, in the cultures and in the religions, fulfil
an Evangelisation function.
2. The other believers can help us to
accede to a better conscience of our christian identity. This is said in the
document « Dialogue et Announces » : « The fullness of the truth
received in Jesus Christ does not give to the christian the guarantee that he
has fully assimilated this truth…Truth is not something we possess, but a
person by whom we must allow ourselves to be possessed … It is an unending
process… Through dialogue, christians may sometimes be brought to accept that
the understanding of their faith has to be purified” (49). The others
strengthens us in our path of believers: they incite us to coherence so as to
be always ready to better explain and account of the Hope dwelling in us”
(Peter).
Finally,
inter-religious dialogue supposes a lot of perseverance on both sides.
But in
the end of ends, in the frivolous world that is ours, believers in dialogue can
remind their contemporaries of the necessity of “interior life”. They can help
their companions in humanity to free themselves from an “aimless life” evoked
by Peter in one of his catecheses.
Yes, in
this ephemeral world that we have built, let us hope that the seekers of God or
of Absolute may help their brothers and sisters in humanity to plod on towards
this God who is waiting for us at the end of the road to introduce us into his
mystery “where man is taken hold of instead of holding, where he worships
instead of reasoning, where he is conquered instead of conquering” (1)!
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran