The faith we have
inherited from Abraham has as its central pivot a monotheism free from
uncertainties or equivocations: we profess one God, a God who is personal, the
Creator of the world, provident, active in history but separated from it by an
infinite gulf, the judge of men’s actions, and who has spoken to men through
the prophets. The Sacred Books and the traditions of our three religions admit
no shadow of doubt on this fundamental point. This basic unity of faith is of
such importance that it allows us to consider our differences with serenity and
with sense of perspective: it does not mean that we minimize these differences
and still less that we renounce the points that separate us. But it does mean
that we can speak together in an atmosphere of understanding and friendship,
because we are all “believers in the same God”!
Without rejecting the word “dialogue”, so rich in meaning and in the
spirit of brotherhood, I would prefer to use the word “ encounter” since it
seems to express more vividly the fact that all of us, as individuals and as
communities (Jews, Christians and Muslims), are vitally “committed” to
giving absolute priority of respect, submission and love of the one God who
companies us with his providence and who, at the end of time, will judge us
“according to the Law of right and wrong which he has written in our heart”
(Newman).
Throughout the centuries our three religions of prophetic monotheism have
remained unswerving in adherence to their faith, in spit of the dissentions and
differences regarding points to which we will refer later. It is sufficient here
to recall explicit expressions as given in key text: “ Hear, O Israel, the
Lord is our God, one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your
heart and soul and strength. These commandments which I give you this day are to
be kept in your heart; you shall repeat them to your sons, and speak of indoors
and outdoors, when lie down and when you rise, Bind them as a sign on the hand
and wear them as a phylactery on the forehead; write them up on the doorposts of
your houses and your gates”
Even the Romans, jealous of the imperial authority that they regarded as
invested with divine power, had to accept Jewish insistence that to God alone
was reserved a name “ which had no equal”. This name was above any
sovereignty, including that Caesar, and the Roman insignia with Capitoline gods
were not allowed into the holy city of Jerusalem. Every attempt to flout this
norm was vigorously resisted; no persecution succeeded in breaking it.
The identical phenomenon was found in Christianity: its fidelity to the
one God, with the exclusion of any other divinity, was the fact that revealed to
the Roman authorities the true nature of Christianity and its irreconcilability
with paganism.
As regards the faith of Islam, we have only to read again that wonderful
list of the ninety- nine most beautiful names of God (asma’ Allah al husna)
to be forcibly aware of unshakable and jealously guarded Muslim faith in the one
God of Abraham.
If what C.S. Lewis asserts is true, namely that “ the geography of the
spiritual world is different from that of the physical world: in the physical
world contact between countries is at the frontiers, in the spiritual world
contact is at the centre”, the n we can say that the Jewish- Christian- Muslim
world make contact and meet at the very heart of the common faith. This
religious affinity has always met with difficulties and it would be dishonest
not to acknowledge this. However, there have always been through the centuries,
thanks to the merciful God to whom we lift up our hearts, example of mutual
understanding and even collaboration.
We can think, for example, in the high Middle Ages of the Toledo
conversations and of those at Cordoba, where, in the very palace of the
Archbishop, Christians, Muslims and Jews met together in discussion. We could
think too of the writings of Maimonides, Ibn Rushd and al Farabi, and of St.
Thomas, writings that influenced one another and contributed not a little to the
forming of medieval civilization.
For a time during the Middle Ages, Arabic was the language most commonly
used among Jewish writers. A significant example is "The introduction to
the Duties of the Heart" by Bahya ibn Paquda; it was written in Arabic,
translated into Hebrew, and, a later time, was also to come to the attention of
Christians. It is in this work that we find a quotation, evidently taken from
the Gospel of Matthew (5:33-37), and with reference to Jesus: " A wise man
said to his disciples: the Law permits us to swear the truth in the name of the
Lord, but I say to you never swear either for the truth or for falsehood. Let
what you say be simply 'yes' or 'no' . Raymond Lull understood in depth the
common platform of the three religions and the good that could derive from it:
we see this in "The Book of the Pagan and the Three Wise Men".
Nicholas of Cusa in his work "De Pace fidei" wrote of the harmony of
the three great religions and of its possible influence for the peace of the
world. It should be noted that he wrote this work immediately after the fall of
Constantinople, a time when others were thinking of launching a crusade to
recapture it!
It is probably true that these "happy instances" were not
typical but rather singular and isolated events, while over many years and even
centuries these were reciprocal misunderstandings and suspicions, conflicts and
persecutions, in which it is difficult, or better, impossible to determine the
responsibilities of the different sides. It is in my sincere and humble opinion
that the best road to follow is that of sharing sorrow for what has happened in
the past and of choosing resolutely, all of us, to open ourselves not only to
dialogue and encounter, but to mutual love. We must look a head, and at what
better point to begin than by affirming our faith together in the One true God,
and to walk together with Him, as your academy of Religion has chosen to do.
Allow me for a moment to express my warmest thanks to you all, and especially to
those of you who are officers of this Academy.
The Sacred Books themselves exhort us to set
out resolutely on the open roads of encounters; they speak to each of us who
consider the corner stone of our religious encounter to be Abrahamic faith in
the One God. Let us reflect again, with joy, on some of the most positive and
encouraging of these texts.
Israel rejoices in the title "the People of God". Segullah, and
it is in no way my intention to diminish this honor given to it by the Eternal
God. At the same time the prophets did not cease to urge them that they are not
only respect those "timentes Deum, the worshippers of God", to
whom the New Testament refers, but to remind them that they are called to fulfil
the mission of Abraham of whom God said:" I have appointed you to be father
of many nations". It is perhaps in the prophecies of Isaiah that this theme
is carried furthest: "When that day comes Israel shall rank with Egypt and
Assyria, those three, and shall be blessing in the centre of the world. So the
Lord Hosts will bless them: A blessing be upon Egypt my people, upon Assyria the
work of my hands, and upon Israel my possession". And, in his glorious
vision of the future, he continues with joyful certainty: "Enlarge the
limits of your home, spread wide the curtains of your tent; let out its ropes to
the full.". The book of the prophet Jonah, vividly and with gentle irony,
presents the Eternal God as desiring the salvation of all people, even those at
enmity with Israel, and portrays Him as using as Israelite as the instrument to
express this, putting Himself in dispute with the Israelite in order to combat
Israel's temptation to isolationism.
The robust monotheism of Islam is well known. It leads the Muslims to
reject Christian belief in the Trinity, in the Incarnation of the Word of God,
and in salvation through the mediation of Christ. They do not accept the
complete Bible, judging there to be falsifications and distortions in it. Yet
they consider Christians as faithful monotheists according to the faith of
Abraham, and
use expressions in their regard which I should like to quote here:
"Invite
(all) to the Way of your lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; for your Lord
knows best who have strayed from His path and who receive guidance"
[Qur'an, 16:125]. Again: "Those who believe
(in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the
Christians and the Sabians, and who believe in God and the Last Day, and work
righteousness, shall have their reward with their lord; on them shall be no
fear, nor shall they grieve" [Qur'an, 2:62].
Almost as a logical consequence of these assertions, the Qur’an also
has these others: “If God had so willed, He would
have made you a single people, but (his plan is) to test in what He has given
you: to strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you is all to God; it is
that He will show you the truth of matters in which you dispute” [Qur’an,
5:51]; ”… For us (is the responsibility for)
our deeds, and for you for your deeds. There is no contention between you and
us. God will bring us together, and to Him is our-final goal” [Qur’an,
42:15]; “To each is a goal to which God turns
him; then strive together (as in race) towards all that good, Wheresoever you
are, God will bring you together. For God has power over all things”[Qur’an,
2:148].
There may be those who object that some of these verses are abrogated by
a particular type of exegesis. I would reply to them, if it were necessary, that
there is a wider exegesis that is no less orthodox and that according to this
exegesis the abrogation theory only applies to verses of normative nature
considered in strict relationship to precise factual events.
When we come to Christianity we see that in principle Christian doctrine,
as seen especially in the Gospels, is unequivocally open to those having faith
in the God of Abraham. In fact, however, there have been, on the part of
Christians and the churches, deplorable instances of intolerance and persecution
that were in direct contrast with the doctrine of Christ. As I said regarding
Judaism and Islam, even though I feel deep sorrow (indeed, I would say deep
shame) for what has happened- and let us pray that it may never happen again - I
am convinced that the best way to make amends for the past is to renew our minds
and hearts in that spirit of love which is at the very foundation of our faith
and to strive in this spirit with all our strength. Men like Pope John XXIII,
like Paul VI and John Paul II, scholars like Jules Isaac, Massignon, Cardinal
Bea and thousands of others from each of our monotheistic religions, have shown
us the road we should walk.
The
Second Vatican Council expressed clearly and authoritatively the attitude that
we Catholics should have in regard to our Jewish and Muslims brothers and
sisters. If I read these texts, taken from the Second Vatican Council’s
Declaration Nostra Aetate, I do not think further words will be
necessary. Here is what is said on the relation of the Church to the Jewish
faith: ”As this Council searches into the mystery of the church, it recalls
the spiritual bond
linking the people of the New Covenant with Abraham’s
stock.
For the Church of Christ acknowledge that, according to the
mystery of God’s saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election
are already found among the patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets. She professes
that all who believe in Christ, Abraham’s sons according to faith, are
included in the same patriarch’s call, and likewise that he salvation of the
church was mystically foreshadowed by the chosen people’s exodus from the land
of bondage.
The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of
the Old Testament through the people with whom God in his inexpressible mercy
deigned to establish the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws
sustenance from the root of that good olive tree onto which have been grafted
the wild olive branches of the Gentiles. Indeed, the church believes that his
cross Christ, our peace, reconciled Jew and Gentile, making them both one in
Himself.
Also the Church even keeps in mind the words of the Apostle about his
kinsmen, "who have the adoption as sons. And the glory from covenant and
the legislation and the worship and the promises; who have the fathers, and from
whom is Christ according to the flesh", the son of the Virgin Mary. The
Church recalls too that from the Jewish people sprang the apostles, her
foundations, stones and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who
proclaimed Christ to the world.
Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians
and Jews is thus so great, this sacred council wishes to foster and recommend
that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit above all of biblical
and theological studies, and of brotherly dialogues."
And here is what is said in the same document regarding the relationship
of the Catholic Church to the Muslims: "Upon the Muslims, too, the Church
looks with esteem. They adore one God, living and enduring, merciful and
all-powerful, Maker of heaven and earth and Speaker to men. They strive to
submit wholeheartedly even to earth His inscrutable decrees, just as did
Abraham, with whom the Islamic faith is pleased to associate itself. Though they
do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor
Mary, His virgin mother; at times they call on her, too, with devotion. In
addition they a wait the day of judgment when God will give each man his due
after raising him up. Consequently, they prize the moral life, and give worship
to God especially trough prayer, almsgiving, and fasting.
Although in the course of the centuries many quarrels and hostilities
have arisen between Christians and Muslims, this most sacred council urges all
to forget the past and to strive sincerely for mutual understanding. On behalf
of all mankind, let make common cause of safeguarding and fostering social
justice, moral values, peace and freedom".
