Is there a model for dialogue?

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The articles above are published in the May 2009 issue of Living City.

Chiara Lubich points to Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
We explore the connections between interreligious dialogue and Mary.

The image of Mary as “mother” is certainly one of the most ancient, basic intuitions in Christian tradition. Specifically, Mary as the mother of Jesus and of every Christian is often invoked as a model for the Church’s mission of evangelization. As the Second Vatican Council explained in Lumen Gentium: “In her life the Virgin has been a model of that motherly love with which all who join in the Church’s apostolic mission for the regeneration of mankind should be animated.”

It might seem difficult to reconcile this image of Mary, “star of evangelization,” with interreligious dialogue. But for Chiara Lubich, it was precisely Mary’s maternal, all-embracing love that could inspire Christians to wholeheartedly reach out to build bridges of respect and love with the faithful of other religions.

During the Marian Year in 1987, Chiara reflected on the connection between Mary and the Focolare’s increasing involvement in dialogue. In a public address she described the work of the movement as a specific instrument of Mary’s universal embrace: “Even if our planet is experiencing many tensions,” she explained, “Our Lady pushes people in various ways towards unity ... she asks for unity among races and peoples, among Christians and, as much as possible, with the faithful of the great religions, and also, at least on a practical level, with all people who seek the good of humanity. She loves humanity, and wants universal brotherhood.”
How did Chiara present Mary as a practical model for interreligious dialogue? Let’s touch on just three aspects.

Mary’s universal love models what it means to reach beyond all potential barriers so as to build relationships of dialogue with everyone. As Chiara challenged the citizens of the Focolare little city of Loppiano, Italy in 1987, to imitate Mary as mother means to open our hearts “not only to the members of our own church, but also those of other churches. We will love not only Christians, but also Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and all people of goodwill. We will love every person on earth, because the maternity of Mary is universal, as the redemption was universal.”

Mary’s readiness to be of concrete service to her neighbors in need laid the foundation for a sharing of spiritual gifts. In 1963, reflecting on the Magnificat, Chiara wrote, “Our Lady didn’t go to Elizabeth in order to sing the Magnificat, but in order to help her. So with us, we should not go to our neighbors in order to reveal to them the Christian treasure we carry in our hearts, but in order to carry with them their sufferings and burdens and share their joys and responsibilities.”

This love, in turn, paves the way to a true exchange of gifts. Chiara explained: “If we do this in a complete way, we will soon be able to open our hearts to our neighbors in order to share with them our richness and to love together the One who urges us to treat each other as brothers and sisters.”

Another essential attitude to foster dialogue can be seen in Mary. For Chiara, the words of Jesus to Mary at the foot of the cross, “Woman, behold your son; son behold your mother” (Jn 19:26-27) mark the moment in which Mary was asked not only to let go of her Son, but also of every claim she might have had as his mother — her very identity — in order to embrace in John what was certainly an inadequate substitute — a mere human being. Chiara suggested that we look precisely to this moment of Mary’s life, “desolate” at the foot of the cross, as the model for “emptying” ourselves, to “let go of our gifts,” so as to be filled with God’s Spirit, and be only love in front of our neighbor. “Love thinks of the beloved, not itself.”

For Chiara, there was no ultimate contradiction between Mary star of evangelization and Mary model of dialogue, because Mary was simultaneously a space for God and a space for others. It was in her relationships of openness and service to others that the life of faith, the life of Jesus, grew in her. Being a space for others, in dialogue with others, whatever their beliefs, did not detract, but rather enhanced the extent to which Mary was a space for God.

The spirituality of unity that Chiara leaves as a legacy shows that we can live this way, too, in the simplicity of loving everyone, loving concretely, and letting go of anything that presents itself as an obstacle to love.

Dialogue in the Work of Mary

The beginning of the Focolare Movement’s intense activity in interreligious dialogue can be marked with Chiara Lubich receiving the 1977 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. The decades that followed brought significant contacts with the faithful of non-Christian religions in the world, from the Rissho Kosei-kai, a large Buddhist movement in Japan (1981); to Buddhists in the Theravada traditions in Thailand (1997); to a large community of African-American Muslims under the leadership of Warith Deen Mohammed at the Malcolm Shabazz Masjid in Harlem, New York (1997); to the Hindu communities of the Ghandian Shanti Ashram and the Swadhyaya Movement in India (2001, 2003); as well as numerous contacts with Jewish community leaders in Israel, the U.S. and Argentina.

The movement is committed to working for unity within the Catholic Church and with Christians of other denominations; to fostering “the deepest possible union with God” with the faithful of other religions; to fostering a dialogue of love and respect with people who adhere to human values such as justice, peace and solidarity; and finally, to pursuing a modern-day dialogue with contemporary culture so as to permeate every field with divine wisdom.

In December 2003, on the occasion of the movement’s 60th anniversary, Pope John Paul II coined a new description of its people. “In unison with the teaching of the Church ... the members of the Focolare Movement have become apostles of dialogue, the privileged way to promote unity.”

—A. U.