Inter-Faith Dialogue

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Coulda, Shoulda Been Different

What’s the largest Christian country in the world?

Think about it! United States? Brazil? Italy? Nigeria?

Let’s ask it another way (the answer is the same): Which country has more Christians than any other country?

What do you think? It stumped me! Ideas? Take a guess!

Within a generation, actually in about ten or twelve years given growth patterns, the largest Christian country, and the country with more Christians than any other, will be China!

Yes, China is the world’s largest country with 1.4 billion people and will soon boast the largest number of Christians – approximately 5% of its population.

This fact shocked me and challenges me to get outside of my American or Euro-centric mindset. We are not the center of the universe and Westerners do not have an exclusive right to define Christian faith for the rest of the world.

I learned this startling fact about China last week. Yesterday, although Mothers Day deservedly took top billing (at least in the United States), I also was reminded that May 11, 1610 was the anniversary of the death of Jesuit missionary to China, Matteo Ricci.

But, wait a minute. Before you give Ricci credit for what we are seeing in China today, we need to know that his efforts were short-circuited and ultimately rejected by narrow-minded, bureaucratic church leaders.

The history of Christianity in China over the past 500 years could have been very different. I believe history – and Scripture – suggests it should have been very different.

Matteo Ricci was an Italian Jesuit who mastered the Chinese language and Confucian teaching and won recognition from the educated elite and the imperial court as a scholar of the highest distinction.

Ricci’s mission strategy presumed that any real progress by Christianity in China required that it be “incarnated” within the Chinese culture and recognized as inviting by the educated leaders of the country. Therefore, Ricci dressed as would be expected in elaborate silk attire, published works on astronomy, science and philosophy and labored to become highly esteemed as a Confucian scholar.

As a Christian missionary, Ricci’s primary motivation was to reconcile Confucian precepts with Christian belief and practice. He recognized in the origins in Confucianism a belief in a supreme Creator and worked meticulously to link this belief with the God of Christianity.

Despite great respect and considerable agreement from his Chinese peers, he was not accorded the same esteem from his own church leaders in Europe. Ultimately his efforts to “incarnate” Christian faith within Chinese culture were rejected.

Although Ricci died with provisional approval for his mission strategy, Roman church official would become more Euro-centric, defensive and monolithic. This culminated in 1742 with a vehement condemnation of Chinese cultural practices such as ancestor “worship” as superstitious and idolatrous. Christian incarnation within Chinese culture would have to wait for another day.

World history and 21st century Christianity would have been very different if other decisions had been made. With the 20/20 benefit of hindsight I’d like to believe other decisions should have been made and higher Christian values should have prevailed.

Sadly, this is not a new issue for the Church! The Apostles wrestled with acculturating the Gospel and Peter needed to be called to task. Ultimately, when encountering others with our particular “brand” of Christianity, we’d do well to remember Apostolic teaching and what Peter finally came to understand:

Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.” The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.  He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” (Acts 15:5-11)

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Tenacious Hope

Change happens subtly and sporadically. For those who seek peace, progress too often seems elusive, equivocal, ambiguous and vague. All the more reason to shine a bright light on seemingly innocuous developments reported in the middle sections of newspapers. They may very well signal a significant shift in the tectonic plates of our search for an enduring peace.

Yes, there is all the predictable political posturing, official denials and feigned outrage on the surface. But, something significant happened this week and our long-suffering world may have reason for genuine hope.

In conjunction with Yom HoShoah, the Day of Remembrance, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority issued a formal statement calling the Holocaust “the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era” and expressing sympathy with victims’ families.

This is profoundly significant for a number of reasons. Mr. Abbas had been vilified as a Holocaust denier because in his doctoral dissertation, published as a book in 1983, he challenged the number of Jewish victims and argued that Zionists had collaborated with Nazis to propel more people to what would become Israel.

Mr. Abbas had already backtracked from the book, saying in a 2011 interview that he did “not deny the Holocaust” and that he had “heard from the Israelis that there were six million” victims, adding, “I can accept that.” Get this… these words came from someone a senior Israeli minister has denounced as “the most anti-Semitic leader in the world.”

But the statement published on Sunday by the official Palestinian news agency, goes further than Mr. Abbas’ previous retractions, describing the Holocaust as “a reflection of the concept of ethnic discrimination and racism, which the Palestinians strongly reject and act against.” This all has to be profoundly significant and reason for hope.

The center for Holocaust research in Jerusalem, recognized that Mr. Abbas’s statement “might signal a change” from a situation in which “Holocaust denial and revisionism are sadly prevalent in the Arab world.” They appropriately asked that the new approach to be reflected in Palestinian websites, school curriculums and public discourse.

Of course, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had to respond with bravado, bluster and political posturing. He publicly dismissed Mr. Abbas’s overture, telling his cabinet that “Hamas denies the Holocaust even as it attempts to create an additional Holocaust by destroying the State of Israel.” But, clearly, Mr. Netanyahu and the Israeli cabinet have recognized the import of Mr. Abbas’s statement in giving such a full-throttle response!

Our political processes are excruciatingly slow and seemingly inept in fostering peace. But there is more at work here! Governments and politicians need not paralyze people of good will. There remains the stubborn, irreconcilable animosity between Palestinians and Israeli officials. Yet, each and all of us have the capacity to foster inter-faith dialogue and understanding.

Perhaps, our greatest God-given hope for peace – in Jerusalem, which means “City of Peace” – resides in Christians, Muslims and Jews around the world learning to value, respect and love one another. If we lead, our leaders will follow!

That would be a profound shift in tectonic plates – one for which we must all pray… and work!

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I am dependent on a fine article by Jodi Rudoren in the New York Times for my information: [link]

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Lest We Ever Forget

Again, we remember!

Yom Hashoah is observed from sundown this evening through sundown tomorrow, April 28. Although it is a Jewish holiday it is both appropriate and salutary that we all pause to mark this occasion. We commemorate a great horror but also celebrate tremendous heroism.

Yom Hashoah remembers the six million Jews – and millions of others as well – who perished in the Holocaust as a result of the actions carried out by Nazi Germany. May we never forget!

Since Yom Hashoah is a relatively new holiday, there are no fixed rules or rituals. Often, Yom Hashoah is observed with candle lighting, speakers, poems, prayers, and singing. This evening at sundown, or anytime before sundown tomorrow, pause…  light a candle… remember!

In the rising of the sun and in its going down,
we remember them.

In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter,
we remember them.

In the opening of buds and in the rebirth of spring,
we remember them.

In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer,
we remember them.

In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn,
we remember them.

In the beginning of the year and when it ends,
we remember them.

When we are weary and in need of strength,
we remember them.

When we are lost and sick at heart,
we remember them.

When we have joys we yearn to share,
we remember them.

So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.

— from the Rabbi’s Manual 1988

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Passing Over

Passover begins with sundown this evening. I wish all my Jewish friends a very joyous season of grace and blessing. Sadly, I have to admit that anti-Semitism poisons our world even today. I grew up in a church that perniciously tolerated the charge that the Jews killed Jesus. My own parents spoke in a disparaging manner grounded in caricatures and bigotry. Freeing myself from such ignorance and prejudice will take a lifetime.

We have help and hope. Holy Week is a time of conversion and transformation. Perhaps a place to start is with the note left by John Paul II at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on March 12, 2000. It can be read as both a message to the Jewish people as well as a heartfelt prayer:

“We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.””

John Paul was also the first pope known to have made an official papal visit to a synagogue when he visited the Great Synagogue of Rome on 13 April 1986. There he spoke of the Jews as “our elder brothers.”

On November 17, 1980 the pope addressed the Jews of Berlin in a manner that certainly challenges the mindset of most Christians. In it, John Paul II asserted that God’s “Old Covenant” with the Jewish people was never revoked. He called on the Catholic Church to abandon its mission to proselytize the Jews. The “Old Covenant” is a valid, full and enduring source of salvation for the Jewish people.

Admittedly, this is hard for most of us to get our heads around. Many Christian denominations assert that baptism is a prerequisite of salvation. John Paul’s teaching challenges this attitude as deficient. If nothing else, Holy Week attests to a God who is faithful… a God who is bigger and better, whose love is more expansive and enduring than we can contain.

In grateful acknowledgement of a God who always takes the initiative with us, perhaps we Christians can join our “elder brothers and sisters” in praying the Kiddush opening the Passover Seder:

“Blessed are You, Adonai our God, King of the Universe, who chose us from all peoples and exalted us from all tongues, and sanctified us with His commandments. And You gave to us, Lord our God, with love appointed times for gladness, festivals and times for joy, the day of this festival of Matzah, the time of our freedom, a holy convocation, a memorial of the exodus from Egypt. For you chose us and sanctified us from all the nations and the festivals of your holiness in gladness and in joy you gave us a heritage. Blessed are You, Adonai, who sanctifies Israel and the seasons.”

Yes, Blessed are You, our God, God of all creation! All is yours and all creation gives you praise and thanksgiving for you are faithful. Free us once again from all that holds us in bondage and prevents us from being your Holy People. Blessed are you, our God, God of Covenant fidelity, God of all creation!

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Only One God

“And dispute ye not with the People of the Book except with means better (than mere disputation), unless it be with those of them who inflict wrong and injury: But say: ‘We believe in the revelation which has come down to us and in that which has come down to you; Our God and your God is one; and it is to Him We bow (in Islam).’”(Qur’an 29:46)

Last evening I had the pleasure of attending a program sponsored by the Muslim Christian Dialogue Center at the University of St. Thomas. It wasn’t my first nor will be it be my last! The Center does a splendid job of fostering mutual understanding and cooperation among Muslims and Christians through respectful dialogue grounded in the Qur’anic and Christian traditions. The dialogue flows from the belief that Muslims and Christians worship the same God (cf. Vatican II: Nostra Aetate, The Qur’an, 29:46; 42:15), who is at work in both faiths and share much in common.

All three presenters were warm and inviting representatives of their faith. I was especially intrigued by the woman who grew up Catholic on a farm in Central Minnesota who converted to Islam. Why would anyone do that? Weren’t there good Christian role models to mentor her in the richness of her faith of origin? Yes, I felt challenged, apologetic and defensive. However, her radiant demeanor, spiritual wisdom and obvious respect for both Judaism and Christianity assured me of her personal integrity and the beauty of Islam as a spiritual path.

I welcomed numerous points of resonance between the two faiths if we step beyond dogmatism and rote ritual. How do we come to know the Holy One? How do we awaken to the manifold presence and providence of God? How do we best honor and remain aware of the Holy? Of course, this finds expression in efficacious gratitude. I was returned to my own Ignatian (cf., St. Ignatius of Loyola; Jesuit) heritage: Ad Majoren Dei Glorium – not just “all for the glory of God” but “all for the greater glory of God’!

The panelists’ joyful insistence that literally everything is a creation of God sounded a great deal like the desirable habit of “Finding God in all things!” This lived appreciation that holiness resides in each of us and in all creation reminded me of Gerard Manly Hopkins’ poetry (e.g. Pied Beauty and Kingfishers). Islam’s resolute desire to live in conscious awareness of God and orienting one’s living according to God’s will found easy parallel in the Examen (find numerous versions of this practice [here]).

Rather than remaining within our Christian comfort zone, you may wish to prayerfully reflect upon a poem shared by 13th century Persian Sufi mystic, Rumi.  May it awaken us to God’s intimate presence throughout creation. Remaining aware of such providence, may we show gratitude for all we have been given:

who is this existence
who puts sadness
in your heart
 
who is this soul
who sweetens your grief
as soon as you crawl
 
the one who first frightens you
with deadly snakes
before opening the treasure vault
 
who changes a monster
to an angel
a sorrow to happiness
 
who gives the blind
wisdom and
inner sight
 
who changes darkness
to light
thistles to flowers
 
who sheds the sins
of the sinful like
autumn leaves
 
and puts guilt
in the heart of
its own enemies
 
who makes them
repent and in silence
says amen and
whose amen brings
inner happiness
and soulful delight
 
who changes bitter thoughts
to lightness and
joyous zeal
 
bestows fire
and makes you leap
with unknown joy
 
the fire that can
make a hero
from a desperate heart
 
who is this existence
who is this
tell me who

(ghazal number 528, translated by Nader Khalili)

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All the Same God

A friend who commiserates with my impatience and frustration with politically correct God-talk which too often degenerates into namby-pamby babble sent a You-Tube link she knew I would appreciate. Canadian Bruxy Cavey, leader of The Meeting House ministry, brilliantly addresses in 2 minutes and 42 seconds the all too common question: “Don’t we all believe in the same God?” There are times and places where it is appropriate to ignore that question and move on to social banter about the relative benefits of Arizona in February over sub-zero Minnesota. But willful complicity with slopping thinking and post-modern relativism is inexcusable.

When the occasion is appropriate Cavey proposes a simple, honest and respectful formula: Ask lots of questions. Learn what you can. Affirm all that you are able to affirm. Build bridges on anything you hold in common. Respectfully share what you believe. Notice – and this is very important – the questions and dialogue are mutual, genuine and sincere. They are not a clever snare to catch the other in their error or ignorance so we can demonstrate our superiority. We all see such traps coming and are sick and tired of such foolishness and waste of everyone’s time.

Cavey’s core message really hit a responsive chord in me and has provoked fertile “dis-ease” for my Lenten reflection, perhaps yours as well. He states with transparent conviction that he believes in a God so loving and so relational that he comes to us in Christ most clearly, most explicitly. Then Cavey delivers the clincher: “I love a God who loves us so much he dies for his enemies rather than slays his enemies. Most gods would slay their enemies. This one dies for them, to forgive them, to embrace them.” WOW!

Intellectually I have mouthed that truth for decades. Getting it into my heart – and gut – is a lifelong challenge. At this time, this year, this Lent the challenge has much less to do with the ontological nature of God and everything to do with my belief, my conviction, my willingness to follow this Christ:

“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.…” (Luke 6:27-29)
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You may view Bruxy Cavey’s 2 minute 42 second video [here]

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In Grateful Memory

Dom Christian de Chergé and his fellow Trappist monks rank among my all-time heroes. The movie “Of Gods and Men” recounted their faith-filled commitment to inter-faith dialogue and their tragic fate. On the night of March 26-27, 1996, seven monks from the monastery Notre-Dame de l’Atlas of Tibhirine in Algeria were kidnapped.  They were held for two months and then found dead in late May 1996.

Aware of the reality in which they chose to live, Dom Christian, the superior, wrote a testament in 1993 to be opened and read if he died by violence. The text was opened on the feast of Pentecost, May 26 shortly after the monks were killed.  In prayerful respect for these martyrs I recommend Dom Christian’s testament for your reflection on this anniversary:

If someday -and it may be today- I happen to be a victim of the terrorism which now seems to engulf all the foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church, my family to remember that my life was GIVEN to God and to this country. 

May they accept that the Sole Master of every life cannot be indifferent to this brutal form of departure. 

May they associate this death with so many others, just as violent, left in the indifference of anonymity.

My life is not worth more than any other.

Nor is it worth less.

In any case, it lacks the innocence of childhood.

I have lived long enough to know my complicity with the evil which, unfortunately, seems to prevail in the world, and even with the evil which might suddenly strike me. I would like, when the time comes, to have this moment of lucidity which would enable me to ask for God’s pardon and that of my brothers in humanity, and at the same time to pardon with all my heart the one who strikes me down. I cannot wish such a death. It seems important to testify to this. I do not see how I could be happy to see this people whom I love to be indiscriminately accused of my death. It is too high a price to be paid for what is perhaps called the “grace of martyrdom” by an Algerian, whoever he may be, especially if he says he is acting in fidelity to what he believes Islam to be. I know the contempt in which Algerians are held. 

I also know the caricatures of Islam, encouraged by a certain idealism. It is too easy to think that one is acting in good conscience by identifying this religious path with the fundamentalisms of its extremists. Algeria, Islam is something else for me; it is a body and a soul. I have proclaimed this often enough. I believe this, as far as I know and have seen, so often finding in this place this leitmotiv of the Gospel learned at my mother’s knees, my first Church, specifically in Algeria and already respecting Moslem believers. Clearly, my death will appear to justify those who would quickly dismiss me as naive, or as an idealist, “let him tell us what he thinks of it now”! But they should know that this will finally liberate my most burning curiosity. For, God willing, I will be able to plunge my vision into the Father’s in order to contemplate with Him His Islamic children just as He sees them, all illuminated with Christ’s glory, fruits of His Passion, clothed by the gift of the Spirit whose secret joy will always be to establish communion and re-establish resemblance while enjoying the differences. I give thanks to God who seems to have wanted this lost life, completely mine and completely theirs, for heavenly JOY, for everything and despite everything. 

In this THANK YOU which says everything from now on about my life, I of course want to include you, friends of today and tomorrow, and you, friends here, beside my mother and father, my sisters and my brothers and their families, repaid a hundredfold as promised! And also to you, friend of the final hour, who will not know what you are doing. Yes, I also desire this THANK YOU for you, and this A-DIEU (TO-GOD) foreseen for you. May we be allowed to meet again as happy thieves in Paradise, if it pleases God, Father to both of us. AMEN!
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I highly recommend the compelling history, The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love and Terror in Algeria by John W. Kiser (St. Martin’s Griffin 2002).

Christian de Cherge: A Theology of Hope by Christian Salenson (Cistercian Studies, 2009., trans. 2011) is perhaps the most compelling and inspiring theology I have read in ten years.