Catholic Reading Wednesday

With many thanks to our awesome curator, Karen Celano, you can delve into a faith-related news article each Wednesday! Karen writes:

On Sunday the Church celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, which honors the God who, according to an old Lectionary prayer, “by the leading of a star didst manifest thy only-begotten Son to the Gentiles.” By revealing Himself to non-Jews and demonstrating Himself to be the Lord of all peoples, Christ provides a model for interreligious dialogue that we are called to follow.

Interreligious dialogue is a particularly pressing need in today’s word, as Pope Francis has reminded us in Evangelii Gaudium (250-254). The Holy Father places especial emphasis on the Church’s relationship with Islam (EG 252-3), and recent news items suggest that this emphasis is warranted. From increasing incidents of Islamic extremistgroups attacking Christians in Nigeria to a report from Turkey that a certain branch of Salafism refuses to eat tomatoes because apparently they represent Christianity, it’s hard to see how interfaith dialogue can meaningfully take place.

If it is to take place, Pope Francis asks Catholics to be willing to take the first step. With his usual appeal to our humility, he asks us to remember the common ground we share with Islam as Abrahamic faiths: we must, he writes, “acknowledge the value of others, appreciate the concerns underlying their demands and shed light on shared beliefs” (EG 253). He encourages us to see how interfaith dialogue can “enrich both sides” if we are willing to learn from each other. His words call to mind the words of Edward Schillebeeckx, a theological expert at Vatican II, who argued that in the modern world we cannot authentically interpret our own faith without learning from the faith experiences of others (The Eucharist, 105). Francis’ words also remind me of the Holy Family at the Epiphany, willing to open their doors and their hearts to foreign strangers. We are called to remember that it was these foreigners with their foreign learning who found their way to worshiping Christ – while Herod, the King of the Jews, refused to recognize Him.

It can be very, very hard to take the path of humility, especially in view of cases such as that of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Catholic condemned to death for allegedly blaspheming against Muhammed. But Asia herself has chosen a path of peace and prayer, as she wrote to Pope Francis: “If I am still alive, it is thanks to the strength that your prayers give me. . . At this time I just want to trust the mercy of God.” Some might argue that militant fundamentalist Islam requires a militant response, but Pope Francis and Asia Bibi remind us that faith and prayer are equally powerful weapons for combating religious violence in the world.

The Holy Father does not ask that we go into interreligious dialogue with blind naivete. We must stand firm in our convictions of the truth of our faith, even while we endeavor to truly understand the experiences and concerns of others. We must accept that our attempts at dialogue will be resisted and rejected, at least at first, just as Pope Benedict’s attemptsat Regesnberg in 2006 to open a genuine intellectual discussion about the theological differences between Christianity and Islam were met with misunderstanding and violence. But Pope Francis asks us to have the courage to risk misunderstanding, rejection, and even violence if we are to work for true interreligious understanding and peace – and for the sake of the Gospel. In doing so, we will follow the example of Francis, of Benedict, of Asia Bibi, of the Holy Family – and of Christ Himself.

In the meantime, pray for Asia Bibi and all our Christian brothers and sisters who are suffering persecution for their faith. And pray for their persecutors as well.