“Religion has a vital role in fostering gestures of peace and in consolidating conditions for peace.” These words belong to Pope John Paul II.
In his 'Message for World Day of Peace 2003," the Pope explains that in the end, peace is not essentially about structures (as necessary as these may be), but about people,' and he goes on to speak of peace as 'innumerable gestures of peace made by men and women..., who have kept hope and have not given in to discouragement.
“Gestures o peace spring from the lives of people who foster peace first of all in their own hearts. They are the work of the heart and of reason in those who are peacemakers (cf. Mt 5,9). Gestures of peace are possible when people appreciate fully the community dimension of their lives, so that they grasp the meaning and consequences of events in their own communities and in the world. Gestures of peace create a tradition and a culture of peace…” And the Pope invites all to "trust in the merciful and compassionate God, who calls us to brotherhood, and confidence in the men and women of our time, because, like those of every other time, they bear the image of God in their souls... It is on this basis that we can hope to build a world of peace on earth...”
On the 40th anniversary of "Pacem in Terris," John XXIII's landmark encyclical, John Paul II reiterates the hope for initiatives which "will have an ecumenical and inter-religious character and be open to all those who have a heartfelt desire 'to break through the barriers which divide them, to strengthen the bonds of mutual love, to learn to understand one another and to pardon those who have done them wrong.’”
At the opening prayer service of the Annual Convention of the United States Conference of Mission Association (USCMA), held in Raleigh, NC, in October 2002, Fr. Thomas P Reynolds, SSC, read the following reflections which pointedly affirm that God can be found through all religions that teach us how to love one another.
ahweh,
Adonai, Elohim, Abba our biblical names for God. We, Judeo-Christians, act among the world religions as though we have the contract for naming God correctly. But how can one accurately name Mystery or Ultimate Reality? Is it not easier to trap moonbeams in a jar than to snare God in our alphabets? Is it not even mischievous to maintain that we have succeeded? Does not every God-name eventually become a verbal idol? Does not naming differently lead to perceived difference in what is named and embolden us to distinguish our true God from their false god?
"After all, we are choosy about the religious company we keep. What has Yahweh to do with Baal? Or Abba with Allah? What have Jews to do with Muslims, or Christians with Hindus? How hard it has been throughout history to recognize as brother or sister one who addressed God by a different name! How jealously each religion's brokers - priests and rabbis, bonzes and mullahs - protect their clients from cross-contamination!
"What counts, however, in every experience of Ultimate Reality is not the name subsequently given, but the deed consequently performed. That the experience is authentic will be manifested in a transformed life and in deeds of loving-kindness.
"Scholars of world religions have noted many similarities between the faiths. Those who truly experience God, whether Hindus or Muslims, Christians or Jews, agree that God is in all created things as well as beyond all things created, and experience God as supreme beauty, truth, goodness, mercy, compassion and love. Whoever truly encounters the Ultimate Reality, whether Jew or Christian, Muslim or Hindu, is by that event transformed into a human being that is good and loving, benevolent and selfless, world affirming and non-discriminating, compassionate and true. By their fruits we can know them.
"But where do we find those fruits? Anywhere. Everywhere. On the Buddha tree as well as on the Yahweh tree, on the Allah tree as well as on the Abba tree – even where the Ultimate Reality is not experienced as personal, as these words of the Dalai Larna attest: 'The qualities of love and compassion are utterly fundamental. I consider compassion to be the basis and supreme support of humankind. This eminent quality that induces us to love our neighbor, to come to his aid when he is suffering, and to forget ourselves for his sake is one that only human beings are capable of awakening... My religion is kindness.'
Through evangelization believers help to realize that we are all brothers and sisters and, as pilgrims on this earth, although on different paths, we are all on our way to the common Homeland, which God, through ways known only to Him, does not cease to indicate to
us.
Pope John Paul II
“Those of us who experience God as personal might want to interject that the Dalai Lama's religion is kindness because God is love. 'Another Buddhist, Thich Nhat Hahn, who has no difficulty with a personal Ultimate Reality, says: 'When we (Buddhists) are mindful, touching deeply the present moment, we can see and listen deeply, and the fruits are always understanding, acceptance, love, and the desire to relieve suffering and bring joy.'
'But alas! In this Babel-world of ours we are constrained to use different names for God, Babel-names that divide, alienate, breed violence. Nhat Hahn says, 'When we believe that ours is the only faith that contains the truth, violence and suffering will surely be the result. Touche!
'A contemporary Christian missionary maintains that 'Efforts toward a new collaboration among religions must be preceded and inspired by a humble confession that, in the past and present, the world's religions have contributed devastatingly to the division of mankind.' Touche once again!…
'But the Mystery whose essence it is to be, and to cause to be, created an implicate order. We know that cultural difference masks genetic identity, as the findings of modern genetics make clear. And those who become ever more religiously transformed find the reach of their love and compassion embracing not only all living things but the entire cosmos.
'If, then, we are so involved in humankind, why cut up the great canvas and frame the patches under Babel-names? If the admitted goal of our common human journey is absorption into the Ultimate, why claim that only we Christians have the map? In May of this year (2002) Pope John Paul II wrote in his message for Mission Sunday:
'Through evangelization believers help to realize that we are all brothers and sisters and, as pilgrims on this earth, although on different paths, we are all on our way to the common Homeland, which God, through ways known only to Him, does not cease to indicate to us.'
"The mystic poet and artist William Blake says it well. In his view of the human there was no place for division because Blake could discern in all humankind the same divine image. He peppers his poem with names: names divine-human, names human-divine:
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness.
For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love Is God, our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love, is man, his child and care.
For Mercy has a human heart, Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress.
Then every man, of every clime, That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine, Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.
And all must love the human form, In heathen, Turk or Jew;
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell There God is dwelling too.
(W. Blake, 'The Divine Image’)
“Yahweh, Abba, how hard it is for us to acknowledge that you have truly self-revealed beyond our Judeo-Christian borders, and that from those you love beyond our borders you have received names of which you approve! "Yahweh, Abba, how ashamed we often feel when the most we can allow ourselves to admit is that beyond our borders you are barely glimpsed, badly named, poorly known! "Yahweh, Abba, we confess that it is time for us to step beyond our borders, and there, in honest humility, take off our shoes."
USCMA Annual Convention - Raleigh, NC, Oct. 25, 2002
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)