June 22, 2025.
Dear Friends,
We will gather together remotely for our Badaliya and Peace Islands Institute faith sharing on Sunday, June 22, 2025 from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm. Please join us on Zoom, or in spirit, as we encourage Inter-faith relations and pray together for a peaceful resolution to the on-going bombing in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, and the current escalating war between Israel and Iran as well as for an end to the on-going Israeli incursions by the IDF and settlers in the West Bank. We wait with hope for a peaceful transition to democracy in Syria as they negotiate with the diverse factions throughout the country after a long civil war. As violence continues in far too many areas of the world may there finally be an end to war as a solution to conflict in the Ukraine, Haiti and the Sudan and so many others. Our prayers are on-going for all the victims of human-created violence as well as the increase of natural disasters due to climate change all over the world.
We rejoice at the selection of Pope Leo XIV to guide the future directions for the universal Catholic Church. May we continue to be transformed into true disciples of Christ serving the least among us with compassion and empathy and bringing the Kingdom of God dwelling within each one of us into the world around us by establishing peace with justice in every nation and community on earth.
Christians believers have experienced the final 50 days of the Easter Season culminating with the feast of Pentecost, the dramatic moment when the Spirit of Divine Life inspired the earliest disciples of Christ with the fullness of Jesus' mission; a message of Divine Love understood by each one in their own language; a handful of Galilean fishermen transformed into messengers of the Gospel message that has inspired human beings for more than 2000 years to give their lives, as Christ did, that others live in peace with justice. May each one have the opportunity to reach their fullest human potential as the Divine Creator intended in that first moment when the Spirit passed over the dormant waters of the earth filling it with Life forms of every kind.
Today we celebrate a solemnity called, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. We are commemorating what is commonly called the "Last Supper", the final Passover meal that Jesus celebrated with his disciples that has become the central ritual of daily and weekly liturgical celebrations called the Mass throughout the 2000 year history of Christianity.
"..the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes." (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
Once again we are invited to reflect more deeply on the rich meaning of this offering of the very life of Divine Love manifest in Christ. It raises images of being fed by the most basic forms of human nourishment, wheat to make bread and grapes made into wine, transformed into Divine Life nourishing us both physically and spiritually. There are many scriptural miracle stories of Jesus feeding thousands from a few loaves and fish or his resurrected appearance to his disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and offering breakfast of bread and fish to these astonished fisherman. We are invited to be fed by one who gives His very life to and for us that we may have life in its fullness.
As we reflect on the meaning of this ritual of Communion for Christians perhaps the metaphors that it evokes can also speak to our Muslim friends despite the differences in our traditions. For example, we all experience hunger that goes beyond eating food to satisfy that hunger such as "hungering" for knowledge, understanding, empathy and solidarity. We know well what it is to be thirsty for clean water but also for love and companionship and we share in our hunger and thirst for peace with justice in our world and for true communion with the beauty and grandeur of the natural world. We hunger and thirst for solutions to human destruction of the planet we live on and rely on for life itself. Let us share those common experiences of hunger and thirst with one another today.
In Islam the Spirit, al-Ruh in Arabic, refers to the source of human life. In Qur'an 32:9 God breathed His Spirit into Adam and some Muslims associate the Spirit with human knowledge, perception, spiritual ability and peace. The word Ruh appears 21 times in the Qur'an and is also associated with the prophetic messages revealed by the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad.
Although Muslims believe that Jesus was a great prophet, a messenger of God second only to the Prophet Muhammad, they do not have a theological connection to the Christian Last Supper since Muslims believe that Jesus ascended to God and was not crucified. This allows us to recognize the distinctions in our faith traditions and enjoy learning from one another about our experiences of these differences.
In this final gathering before our summer break may we be fed by our relationships with one another as we continue to pray that the denial of food and medicine and basic needs that is being used as a weapon of war and causing the terrible suffering of millions of innocent men, women and children come to an end.
Let us pray for our newly elected Pope Leo XIV and the continued movement of the Spirit in the Church, in Islam and in our world.
Blessed Summer and Peace to you,
Dorothy
See www.dcbuck.com for all past letters to the Badaliya and Peace Islands