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The Beauty of Dialogue

There was great excitement among the over 200 participants of the first Symposium of Muslim-Christian Dialogue sponsored by the Focolare Movement as they gathered to meet Pope Benedict XVI at his first general audience on April 27, 2005. “If prominent Muslims and Catholics were seen meeting together, this would send a strong message to the world,” Ronald Shaheed, director of Masjid Sultan Muhammad in Milwaukee, Wis., told CNS. “As pope for Catholics worldwide, Benedict is bound to look at world suffering, at unity and peace – and this is where Christians and Muslims find each other.” Pope Benedict welcomed the “growth of dialogue” between Muslims and Christians. He said that the Catholic Church wishes “to continue building bridges of friendship with followers of all religions.”

The Muslims present at Castelgandolfo, Italy, were about a hundred, coming from 33 different countries: Algeria, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey, the United States, and some European countries.

In symposia sponsored by the Focolare — two Hindu-Christian, one Buddhist-Christian and one Jewish-Christian have already taken place — you won’t find opinionated scholars trying to bolster their own theses or to tear down others’ beliefs. “The method of these symposia is different,” said Giuseppe Zanghi, co-director with Natalia Dallapiccola of the Focolare’s Center for Interreligious Dialogue. As he opened the conference, he explained, “We are here, called by God, to share the most beautiful and precious gift we have received: the experience of being called by God. In order to answer him, each one of us is required to give God the first place in his or her life. Each one needs to be ready to give up everything for God and to follow him wherever he will lead us.”

Upon this premise, the challenge consisted of rediscovering each other as brothers and sisters. “And this can happen,” Zanghi concluded, “by sharing with sincerity and openness of heart the gifts that God bestowed on each of us, trying to find harmony in our differences. It is necessary that each one of us is willing to be himself or herself, to be faithful to the gifts that God has given us, and to offer these gifts to the others. All of us should listen attentively to each other, without prejudice, emptying ourselves in order to be welcome dwellings for the others.” This is a dialogue based on what has been built between the members of the Focolare and their Muslim friends during the last forty years.

Union with God

“Everyone felt the presence of the spirit of Abraham, our common father and a marvelous model for all of us,” Zanghi shared after the symposium. “And we are all children of Abraham, who, as Paul said, is ‘the father of us all. He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become the father of many nations’ (Rom 4: 17-18). That same Abraham the Qur’an speaks of as ‘him we chose and rendered pure in this world; and he will be in the Hereafter in the ranks of the righteous’ (2:130).”

The program had begun and the first papers were given from the Christian perspective by theologian Msgr. Piero Coda on God as Love, and from the Muslim perspective by Jordanian professor Amer Al-Hafi on the essence of ‘Ibada’ (adoration-faith) in Islam. Coda began by speaking about Jesus, the eternal Word of God made man, who revealed the love of God as a Father, and who offered his life on the cross for us. With his talk, Coda opened a window on the profound mystery of God. “Love is not only an attribute of God,” Coda said. “Love is not only a name which describes God’s action towards created beings. Love is the Name that expressed to human beings the essence of God, his own being. Love is the presence of God himself in us, ‘because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us’ (Rm 5:5).”

Professor Al-Hafi explained how “Ibada” is the unique term “that defines all that God loves and approves in the behavior of human beings: words, actions, and aspirations. Ibada, in fact, doesn’t restrict itself only to prayer, almsgiving, fasting, pilgrimage and what follows from them, such as meditation and repentance. God created human beings so that they can adore Him. Since the goal of human life is Ibada/adoration, this is a program for life, embracing all aspects and actions of one’s life.”

These words were food for thought for everyone. However, the power of union with God in the two religions was brought to light in a special way by the spontaneous testimonials offered by men and women passionate about God and love. That passion had transformed not only their lives as individuals and as a group, but also had an influence on society, in politics, economics and legal issues.

Love and Suffering

Union with God and mutual love make believers experience a characteristic presence of God in the community. Theologians Shahrzad Housmand from Iran and Judith Povilus from the U.S. spoke about how close God is to us. “The Qur’an goes even further,” Housmand said, “as if to show us God almost as a person next to other persons… It is a mystery. This is the passage: ‘There is not a secret consultation between three, but He is the fourth of them, nor between five but He is the sixth of them, but He is in their midst wheresoever they be’ (58:7). Yes, if three are conversing among themselves, God is there with them, not as some kind of abstraction, invisible and far away. On the contrary, God is with them, close to them.”

Judith Povilus presented the Christian vision of God’s presence in the community. “God’s presence among Christians who love one another is explicitly linked to Christ. This holds true not only because he gave us his commandment of mutual love, but also because he himself promised to be in us and among us, ‘Where two or three are united in my name, there am I in their midst’ (Mt 18:20). We believe,” Povilus continued, “that if we love one another according to his command, he is present among us, and he brings us God’s presence.”

A particularly moving subject was the insuppressible reality of suffering. Algerian professor Adnane Mokrani and Chiara’s first companion Natalia Dallapiccola led the participants through readings more mystical than theological and showed how God fully manifests himself in the mystery of suffering. “The very nature of human life on earth is a trial, earth is a house of trial,” Mokrani said. “However, the concept of trial in Islam does not restrict itself to pain and suffering. It includes them but goes beyond them, encompassing the whole of life. Everything is trial, including our blessings and joys . Our Muslim faith teaches us that nothing happens in life that is not allowed by God, nothing escapes his presence or breaks away from his wisdom, even when we are not able to discern its meaning. If we don’t understand, it is because of our ignorance and limitations caused by our human condition, but there is always a hidden meaning that we attribute to God. This total trusting, this act of complete trust in God’s plan is the essence of Islam, both etymologically and theologically.”

Natalia Dallapiccola, starting from her own life experience, explained how central the mystery of Jesus’ death is for Christians, especially when he cried out his abandonment (see Mt 27:46). And she read one of Chiara Lubich’s first letters: “‘Forget everything, even the most sublime things. He has to be everything for you.’ We began to see him everywhere, in every painful aspect of life. Every suffering appeared to us—and still does now—as a countenance of Jesus crucified and forsaken, who is to be loved in order to be with him, to be like him.”

At this moment, experiences of life from every corner of the world, shared by participants of both religions, brought the discussions onto an experiential level, where the faith that is really lived and its fruits appeared to be the same.

The Presence of Two Great Absentees

Pope John Paul II, recently deceased, was very spiritually present at the conference, especially through the warm words of Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. He recalled the amazing series of prophetic gestures and words of openness of “Pope Wojtyla” during his 27 year-long pontificate, starting from his trips to Egypt and Syria to his visit to the mosque in Damascus in 2000.

Although Chiara Lubich was not able to participate in the symposium for health reasons, she was present through her talk on union with God in the lives of Christians and in her special message. “I am certain,” she wrote, “that the love of God that envelops us all will make us experience that atmosphere of warmth and family in which we want to live out these days together.”

Allal Bachar, director of Islamic and Arabic studies in Spain and Imam of Marbella’s Mosque, commented: “The example of John Paul II and Chiara Lubich takes us along the path of true dialogue, a dialogue that changes people’s hearts.” Mir Nawaz Marwat Khan, former Pakistan Minister of Justice, summarized the conference by noting that God granted the participants the extraordinary grace to learn about his presence.

“If people knew what has taken place so far,” superior court judge David Shaheed from Indianapolis said, “it would be more instructive than anything else. We’ve brought our communities together, showing how positive dialogue can result in concrete action.”