September 21, 2014.
Dear Friends,
We will gather together for our Badaliya and Islands of Peace Institute Faith
Sharing on Sunday, September 21,2014 from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm at St. Pauls Church
in Cambridge, in the small chapel located in the Parish Center. Please join
us in person or in spirit as we encourage Interfaith relations and pray together
for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East and especially in the Holy Land.
As members of the Badaliya and Peace Islands Institute, dedicated to the well-being
of our brothers and sisters who are suffering throughout the MIddle East, and
to the non-violent efforts at securing peace and reconciliation in Israel and
Palestine, this summer's escalation of violence in Gaza, along with the
persecution of minority religious believers throughout the region calls us to
even greater purpose in our faith sharing gatherings and social actions.
In June we met with members of al-Khalil, friends of the Mar Musa community
in Syria founded by Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, for a life-giving discussion
of Badaliya and the vision of Muslim and Christian solidarity rooted in Louis
Massignon's and Fr. Paolo's spirituality and vision of hope in the
future. An hours meeting with our dear friend, Fr. Jean-françois Six,
who has overseen the Union Sodalité of Blessed Charles de Foucauld since
Massignon's passing in 1962, reminded us of the roots of the Badaliya in
the Greek Melkite Eastern tradition and the intrinsic connection between the
Badaliya and Foucauld's spiritual Union Sodalité. We are invited
to reflect ever more deeply on these connections together in our faith sharing
gatherings.
Everyone's concern for Fr. Paolo is palpable and we continue to pray for
him and all Christians who have been abducted in Syria, and now, in Iraq, holding
out hope that they will be safely returned to their communities.
In this month of September, Catholic Christians have celebrated two important
feast days that can lead us into further Muslim and Christian dialogue and appreciation
of each other's faith traditions. On September 8th the Church celebrated
the Nativity, or Birth of the Virgin Mary which affirms that she has been chosen
by God for an exceptional role among women. She and her son, Jesus, are traditionally
understood to have been conceived and born into the world without sin, which
allows her to fulfill the prophetic words found in the biblical Book of the
Prophet Isaiah , "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel which means, God with us."(Isaiah 7:14)
We call this the Immaculate Conception of Jesus.
Although Islam does not acknowledge the Christian concept of original sin, Muslims
do, however, believe that we are by nature imperfect and inclined to turn away
from the straight path towards Allah in our thoughts and behavior. In the Qur'an
we find that before she was born, Anna, Mary's mother, consecrated her
child to God and prayed that she would remain pure and protected from all evil.(Surah
III vs.35-37) Then we read, " Behold! the angels said "O; Mary! Allah
has chosen you and purified you: chosen you above the women of all nations".
(Surah III vs. 45). The Qur'an describes her childhood as always under
divine protection and being nourished by the angels. Just as Mary's uniqueness
is seen in Christianity as due to her becoming the "God-bearer" in
carrying Jesus in her womb and therefore as always linked to her son, so in
Islam she is always related to the miraculous birth of her son, Jesus.
On September 14th the Church celebrated a feast day that would be far more controversial
in the eyes of our Muslim friends. It therefore invites us to reflect on its
multiple meanings for us as Christian believers and highlights our willingness
to cherish one another as much in our diversity as in our similarities. The
feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross highlights the centrality in Christianity
of the meaning of the Cross of Jesus and understanding of His Crucifixion. Tradition
describes how the Empress Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor known as Constantine
the Great, journeyed to the Holy Land in the year 326. On her way she is said
to have founded churches and attended to the poor. In Jerusalem she asked the
inhabitants to direct her to the site of the Crucifixion. Excavations revealed
the hidden crosses believed to be those of Jesus and the two thieves who were
crucified with Him. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built on this site
in Jerusalem and remains a central pilgrimage destination for all Christians
today.
For Christians, the Cross is intrinsically tied to the victory over evil and
death by the Resurrection of Christ. He invites us to take up our own "crosses"
in life in order to follow Him. Christ's acceptance of His Father's
will, even unto death, is our model for total submission to God's will
in our own lives. In fact, it is only through the acceptance of God's will
and our willingness to live with our often overwhelmingly heavy "crosses"
that we will share in the victory of the Resurrection on the Last Day. These
are only a few of the deeper meanings of the Cross in Christianity.
Fr. Paolo wrote a provocative reflection on the beliefs of Muslims and Christians
in relation to the Crucifixion and Resurrection. He wrote:
"In the Qur'an, the question of the resurrection of the dead is conceived
as a second creation. God, who created the world and has given us life a first
time, is able to give it to us anew, either for life and eternal joy, or for
pain and eternal chastisement. In this, the Muslim faith is completely, "Catholic".
However, after the Islamic affirmation that Jesus did not really die on the
Cross but was taken directly up to Heaven by God, Muslims equally think that
He will return to earth and that He will die as a martyr in order to inaugurate
the Final Resurrection of all the dead. How is it that death on a Cross would
be unworthy of the holiness of the Prophet, son of Mary, while death in combat
with the Final Anti-Christ would be glorious?.....For Muslims there is no contradiction
between the negation of the Cross and the martyrdom of Christ in the final "jihad".
Death on the Cross represents the shame of failure that God can not permit in
his Beloved, his Prophet, the son of Mary, while there is nothing more glorious
and victorious than to die in the eschatological battle to the end against the
final Anti-Christ.The Muslim position is both divided and pluralist on this
subject. I think it takes us back to a sense that goes beyond the "letter"
of the Qur'an as well as [beyond] the eschatological projection. Our Islamo/Christian
reading would like to move towards that."
(Dall'Oglio, P. Amoureux de l'Islam, Croyant en Jésus
Les Additions de l'Atelier/ Éditions Ouvrières, Paris, 2009.
p.154)
True to his inquiring and deeply reflectve spirituality, Fr. Paolo invites us
to engage with him in our willingness to go beyond the "letters" of
our traditions in order to truly "see" each other. Massignon would
say that we must enter into the heart and mind of the "other", their
way of thinking and being, to truly understand and love one another.
Peace to you.
Dorothy