Can religious leaders be partners on the pathway towards peace?

“First of all I would like to express my joy in being here today in this Center of Caux, which abounds in initiatives aimed at reinforcing the moral and spiritual foundations of society, and at promoting the peaceful encounter of cultures, civilizations and religions. I especially thank Dr. Cornelio Sommaruga who invited me to give my contribution to this important interreligious seminar. The subject I have been asked to address today is “Can Religions be Partners on the way to Peace?”  We all know how extremely important and relevant this question is today.
Many interpret the violence of terrorism and the wars raged in response, the ongoing tensions in the Middle East as symptoms of a “clash of civilizations”. They say that it is marked and even intensified by the different religious affiliations. However, in considering the facts more attentively, this viewpoint provoked by various forms of extremism and fanaticism which distort the religions proves to be very partial.
Never as in this hour of the world have believers and leaders of all religions felt the duty to work together for the common good of humanity. Organizations such as the World Conference on Religion and Peace or initiatives such as the day of prayer for peace in Assisi promoted by John Paul II in January of 2002, are a confirmation of this.
On that occasion the Pope stressed, on behalf of all those who were present, that “whoever uses religion to foment violence contradicts its most authentic and profound aspiration” and that “no religious goal can justify the practice of violence on the part of one person against another” because “the offence against the human person is ultimately an offence against God.”
On September 11, 2001 humanity discovered, in shock and horror, the nature of the great, enormous danger of terrorism. It is not a war like others – we still have about 40 on our planet today – which are usually the result of hatred, of discontent, of rivalries, of personal or collective interests.
Instead, terrorism, as affirmed by the Pope, is the fruit also of the forces of Evil with the capital “E”, of Darkness.
Now, forces of this kind cannot be opposed only by human, diplomatic, political and military means. The forces of Good with the capital “G” are needed. And Good with a capital “G”, we know, is God and all that is rooted in Him. Therefore, we can combat terrorism with spiritual forces, with prayer, for example, with fasting, as the representatives of the world religions did in the city of St. Francis.
However, we feel that we must say that prayer is not enough. We know that the causes of terrorism are many, but one, the deepest, is the unbearable suffering in the face of a world divided in two: the rich part and the poor part, which has generated and continues to generate resentment which peoples have been harbouring for years, violence, revenge. More equality is needed, more solidarity, especially a more equal sharing of goods.
We know, though, that goods do not move by themselves, on their own. We need to move hearts, we need a communion of hearts!
This is why we need to spread the idea and practice of brotherhood, and given the vastness of the problem, of a universal brotherhood among as many people as possible. Brothers or sisters know how to look after one another, they know how to help one another, how to share what they have.

To meet this unprecedented challenge, the contribution of religions is decisive. Where, if not in the great faith traditions can a strategy of brotherhood start, a strategy capable of determining a turning point even in international relationships? The enormous spiritual and moral resources, the contribution of idealities, of aspirations to justice, of commitment in favor of the needy, along with the political leverage of millions of believers, all springing from religious sentiments and channeled into the field of human relations, could undoubtedly be translated into actions capable of having a positive influence on the international order.
Much is being done in the field of international solidarity by non-governmental organizations. Now the various States must in their turn take up those political and economic choices suited to building a fraternal community of peoples committed to realizing justice.

In the face of a strategy of death and hatred, the only valid response is to build peace in justice. But there is no peace without brotherhood. Only brotherhood among individuals and peoples can guarantee a future of living together in peace. Besides, universal brotherhood and the consequent peace are not new ideas that have emerged today. They were often present in the minds of deeply spiritual persons because God’s plan for humanity is brotherhood, and brotherly love is written in the hearts of every human being.
The golden rule,” said Mahatma Gandhi, “is to be friends of the world and to consider as ‘one’ the whole human family.” And Martin Luther King: “I have a dream that one day…” we will realize that all men were created to live together as brothers and that brotherhood will become the order of the day for businessmen and politicians alike. Along the same lines, the Dalai Lama, commenting what happened in the United States two years ago, wrote to his followers: “The reasons (for the events of these days) are clear to us. (…) We’ve forgotten the most basic human truths. (…) We are all one. This is the message that the human race has greatly ignored. Forgetting this truth is the only cause of hatred and war.”
In spite of the destruction then, one great, age-old truth can emerge even from the debris of terrorism: that all of us on earth are one big family.
But the one who indicated and brought this essential gift to humanity was Jesus, who prayed for unity before he died: “Father, may they all be one” (Jn 17:21). In revealing to us that God is our Father and consequently, that we are all brothers and sisters, He introduced the idea of universal brotherhood. In doing so he knocked down the walls which separated “the same” from the “different”, friends from enemies.
Now undoubtedly each one of us, prompted by our own religious faith, has had positive experiences which can be useful towards the solution to problems similar to those of our present-day situation.
And because this is a moment in which – as a bishop, expert in this field, said – “religions must draw spiritual strength from their deepest recesses so as to help humanity today and to lead it toward solidarity and peace”, allow me to offer you my experience in contact with people of all ages, languages, races and especially different religions in every corner of the world. It is an experience of dialogue that can provide a key for a brotherly and peaceful living together, an experience which I think is also in the spirit of the sessions of Caux, which favor personal witness to theoretical statements.

The Art of Loving

The Focolare Movement, which I represent, has sixty years of experience, and yet we are always surprised to see that God has led us along a spiritual pathway that intersects with all the other spiritual ways of Christians, but also of the faithful of other religions. In practice, we become partners along the journey of brotherhood and peace. While maintaining our own identity, it enables us to meet and come to a mutual understanding with all the great religious traditions of humanity.
In other words, as we listened in obedience to the Spirit, we were taught how to successfully put into practice that word which is inscribed in the DNA of every man and every woman, because each one was created in the image of God who is Love, God who is our Father: to love, to love our neighbor, to love our brothers and sisters. This word is the only one that can make all humanity one family.
Love, not as we might generally think of it, but as a way of behaving which has indispensable requirements.
For Christians, this love is a participation in the very love which is in God, but it is not lacking in the Sacred Books of the other religions.
The first step for us, the first illumination with regard to this new lifestyle dates back to World War II. Face to face with the crumbling of ideals and the loss of all our material goods, we felt that we had to cling to something that would not pass and that no bomb could destroy: God. We chose Him as the only ideal of our life, believing, in spite of everything, in His love as our Father, His love for all men and women on earth.

But obviously it was not enough to believe in God’s love; it was not enough to have made the great choice of Him as the Ideal of our life. The Father’s presence and loving care was calling each person to be a daughter or son, to love the Father in return, to live, day by day, according to the Father’s loving plan for each one; in other words, to do His will.
And we know that a father’s first desire is that his children, all his children, treat each other as brothers and sisters, that they care for and love one another.
He wants us to love as He does, making no distinctions. We cannot choose between the pleasant and the unpleasant, the beautiful and the no so beautiful, the white, the black or the yellow, the European or the American, the Christian or the Jew, the Muslim or the Hindu…. Love knows no form of discrimination.

We found this same faith in God’s love for His creation in many brothers and sisters of other religions, beginning with those that trace their roots back to Abraham, religions which affirm the unity of humankind, God’s care for all humanity and the duty of every human being to act, like the Creator, with immense mercy toward all.

A Muslim maxim says: “God forgives a hundred times, but He reserves His greatest mercy for those whose piety has spared the smallest of His creatures.”

And what shall we say of the boundless compassion for every living being taught by Buddha, who said to his first disciples: “Oh Monks, you should work for the wellbeing of many, for the happiness of many, moved by compassion for the world, for the wellbeing… of men and women”.

For a Christian, everyone must be loved because it is Christ whom we love in each person. One day He Himself will tell us: “You did it to me” (Mt 25:40).

To love everyone, then, without distinction. But this love has another characteristic which is known by many because it is related in all the sacred books. If it is lived out, this rule would be sufficient in and of itself to make of the whole world one big family: To love each person as ourselves, to do to others what you would have them do to you, and not do to others what you would not have them do to you. It is the so-called “golden rule”, also mentioned in the presentation of this seminar. It was very well-expressed by Gandhi when he affirmed: “You and I are one and the same thing. I cannot hurt you without harming myself.” In the Islam tradition it is known in these terms: “None of you is a true believer until you desire for your brother or sister what you desire for yourself.”

The Gospel announces it in this way: “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you” (Mt 7:12). And Jesus comments: “This is the law and the prophets” (Ibid). Thus this simple norm, sowed by the Spirit in all religions, contains a concentrate of all God’s commands. Great importance should be given to it then in interreligious dialogue. From this rule – which is rightly called “golden” – flows a norm which, if applied, could on its own provide the greatest impetus towards bringing harmony among individuals and groups. Another way which teaches how to practice true love towards others is expressed by a simple formula, made up of only three words: make yourself one. “Making ourselves one” with others means making their worries, their thoughts, their sufferings, their joys, our own.

“Making ourselves one” applies first of all to interreligious dialogue. It has been written that: “To know the other’s religion implies putting yourself in the shoes of the other, seeing the world as he or she sees it, grasping what it means for the other to be Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, etc.”
This “living the other” embraces all aspects of life and it is the greatest expression of love because by living in this way we are dead to ourselves, to our ego and to all attachments. We can achieve that “self-nothingness” to which the great spiritualities aspire and that emptiness of love which is accomplished in the act of welcoming the other. “Making ourselves one” means relating to others always with an attitude of learning, because we really do have something to learn.
A further requirement of this love is perhaps the most demanding of all. It tests the authenticity and purity of love, therefore, its real capacity to generate unity among all people and universal brotherhood. It is to be first in loving, that is, not to wait for the other person to take the first step; to be the first to move, to take the initiative.
This way of loving lays us open to risks, but if we want to love in the image of God and to develop this capacity to love, which God has put in our hearts, we must do as He did. He did not wait for us to love Him in return. Rather, He showed us always and in thousands of ways that He loves us first, whatever our response might be.

We have been created as a gift for one another and we fulfil ourselves by striving to love our brothers and sisters with a love that makes the first move before any gesture of love on their part. This is what all the great founders of religions teach us with their lives.

Jesus gave us the example, He who said: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13). He really did give His life. And He gave it for us who were sinners, certainly not lovers.

Furthermore, when two or more persons live this being the first to love, we have mutual love, the premise and most solid foundation for peace and unity in the world.

We know from experience that whoever wants to move the mountains of hate and violence in today’s world faces an enormous and heavy task. But what is beyond the strength of millions of separated, isolated individuals, becomes possible for those who firmly believe and put into practice mutual love, understanding and unity as the guiding force of their lives.

There is a reason, a secret key, and a name for all this. When we enter into dialogue among ourselves of the most various religions, that is, when we are open to the other in a dialogue made of human kindness, reciprocal esteem, respect, mercy, we are also opening ourselves to God and, in the words of John Paul II, “we let God be present in our midst.”

This is the great effect of our mutual love and the secret force which gives vigor and success to our efforts to bring unity and universal brotherhood everywhere. It is what the Gospel announces to Christians when it says that if two or more are united in genuine love, Christ Himself is present among them and therefore in each one of them. And what greater guarantee than the presence of God, what greater opportunity can there be for those who want to be instruments of brotherhood and peace?

This mutual love and unity gives great joy to those who practice it. However, it calls for commitment, daily application and sacrifice.
And this is where one particular word, in the language of Christians, appears in all its brilliance and power. It’s one that the world does not want to hear, a word it considers foolish, absurd, futile.

This word is the cross. Nothing good, nothing useful, nothing fruitful for the world can be achieved without meeting and accepting weariness and suffering; in a word, without the cross. Committing oneself to live mutual love always, to bring peace and promote brotherhood is not something to be taken lightly! It calls for courage, knowing how to suffer.

What I have explained is not a utopia. It is a reality that has been lived for more than half a century by millions of people, a pilot experience of that universal brotherhood and unity we all long for. Loving in this way has given rise in our Movement to fruitful dialogues: with Christians from many Churches, with believers of various religions, and with people of the most varied cultures. Together we move toward that fullness of truth we all strive for.

Now I would like to say something more about encounters we have had, from the beginning of the Movement, with brothers and sisters of other religious faiths. Our first noteworthy experience was in contact with the Bangwa people, a Cameroon tribe rooted in the traditional religion. They were on their way to extinction because of the high infant mortality rate and we had begun to assist them.

One day their head, the Fon, and thousands of members of his people, gathered for a celebration in a large open space in the middle of the forest to offer us their songs and dances. Well, it was there that I had the strong impression that God, like an immense sun, was embracing us all, them and us, with His love. For the first time in my life I sensed that we would have something to do also with people of non-Christian traditions.

But the event which in some way “founded” our interreligious dialogue took place in London in 1977 at a ceremony for the conferral of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. After I had delivered my speech and was about to leave the hall, the first people who came up to greet me were Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus…. The Christian spirit I had spoken about had made an impression on them. And so it became clear to me that we would have to devote ourselves not only to people of our own Church and of various Churches, but also to these brothers and sisters of other faiths. This marked the beginning of our interreligious dialogue.
Two years later, in fact, there was the encounter with a great Buddhist leader, Rev. Nikkyo Niwano, founder of the Rissho Kosei-kai, who invited me to Tokyo to speak of my spiritual experience to ten thousand Buddhists. Afterwards, a great brotherhood began between the focolarini and the followers of the Rissho Kosei-kai wherever they meet in the world.

But the most surprising meetings with Buddhism came about with outstanding representatives of Thai monasticism.
During an extended stay in our international little town of Loppiano, in Italy – where 800 inhabitants seek to live the Gospel faithfully – two of these Buddhists were deeply touched by the unity among all and by Christian love, which they were not familiar with.
Thus the obstacles fell which up until then had prevented a true dialogue between them Buddhists, and us Christians.
When these monks returned to Thailand, they missed no opportunity to tell thousands of faithful and hundreds of monks about their experience in meeting with the Focolare Movement. This gave life to a Buddhist-Focolarino Movement, if we can say this, that is, to a Buddhist-Christian Movement which is a segment of brotherhood that we are building up in the world.
Later on, I was invited to Thailand to address one of their Buddhist universities and in one of their temples to speak to nuns, monks and many lay men and women.
Here again, they showed considerable interest, while we, in turn, were edified by their characteristic detachment from everything, by their asceticism.

And the dialogue with Islam?
Currently 6,500 Muslim friends belong to our Movement. Again, what links us to them is our spirituality, in which they find incentives and confirmations for living out and adhering more deeply to the heart of their Islamic spirituality. We have held a number of meetings with Muslim friends which have been characterized above all by the presence of God. One is aware of this especially when they pray and it gives us great hope.
I personally saw hope become a reality in the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque of Harlem (USA), six years ago, while I was in front of 3,000 African-American Muslims, to whom I was invited again to present my Christian experience.
Their welcome, beginning with that of their leader Imam W. D. Mohammed, was so warm, sincere and enthusiastic that it opened our hearts to the most promising dreams for the future.
I returned to the United States, to Washington, three years ago, to tell many others about our collaboration at a Convention which they organized and which gathered seven thousand people, Christians and Muslims. In an atmosphere of joy and celebration which was more than simply human, in a sincere embrace, with unending applause, we promised one another to continue our journey in the fullest union possible and to extend it to others – thus other segments of brotherhood.

I cannot help but speak of the evermore frequent meetings with our Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel and in various parts of the world. The last meeting I personally had with them was in Buenos Aires, where I met with one of their largest communities there. Other members of the Movement continued these contacts on different occasions.
It was with great emotion that we exchanged a pact of mutual love, so profound and sincere that it gave us the impression that we were suddenly overcoming centuries of persecution and misunderstanding.

Three years ago a promising dialogue began in India also with Hindus. We have friendly and frequent contacts with Gandhian Movements in the south of this immense nation. In Mumbai, a profound dialogue was born with professors of the Somaiya University and with the Indian Cultural Institute. More recently, a relationship began with the very large Swadhyaya Movement, which has our same goals of unity in diversity and brotherhood.

A year ago, for the first time, we held a Hindu-Christian Symposium. The atmosphere created was so beautiful and profound that we were able to share with them many truths of our faith. The impression we had is that of a new unexpected horizon opening up before us.
A few months later I returned to India and we were able to continue this dialogue on the level of spirituality which – to use the words of the authorities of my Church – “is the culminating point of the various forms of dialogue and meets the deepest expectations of people of good will”. We are planning to have other similar symposiums: Buddhist-Christian and Islam-Christian.

Due to the universal expansion of our Movement, we are now in contact with all the main religions of the world. Approximately 30,000 members of these religions share, insofar as it is possible for them, the spirituality and goals of the Movement.

Our interreligious dialogue had such a rapid and fruitful evolution because the decisive and characteristic element was the art of loving which I spoke of earlier.
In an atmosphere of mutual love kindled by the “golden rule”, we can in fact establish a dialogue with our partner, a dialogue in which we seek to be nothing so as to “enter”, in a sense, into who they are.
“Making ourselves nothing” or “making ourselves one” with the others, which is synonymous.
In these three simple words, which I already mentioned, lies the secret to that dialogue which can generate unity.
Actually, “making ourselves one” is not a tactic or outward behavior; it is not only an attitude of benevolence, of openness and respect, or the absence of prejudices. It is all this, yes, but with something more.
This practice of “making ourselves one” demands that we remove from our minds the ideas, from our heart, the affections, from our will everything, in order to identify with the other person. We cannot enter the soul of others in order to understand them, to share their suffering or joy if our own spirit is rich with a worry, a judgement, a thought… with anything at all. “Making ourselves one” demands that we be poor, poor in spirit in order to be rich in love.
And this very important and indispensable attitude has a twofold effect: it helps us to inculturate ourselves in the world of the others, to become familiar with their culture and terminology, and it predisposes them to listen to us.
We noticed, in fact, that when someone dies to himself, really in order to “make himself one” with others, they are struck by this and ask to know more.
Then we can pass on to a “respectful announcement” in which, faithful to God, to ourselves, and sincere with our neighbor, we share what our faith affirms on the subject we are discussing, without imposing anything, without any trace of proselytism, but only out of love. For us Christians, this is the moment in which dialogue flows into announcing the Gospel.

Our work with many brothers and sisters of the major religions and the brotherhood we experience with them has convinced us that the idea of religious pluralism can shed its connotation of division and conflict, and emerge to represent for millions of men and women, the challenge of recomposing the unity of the human family, so that the Holy Spirit may in some way be present and active in all religions, not only in the individual members but also in the inner workings of each religious tradition.

In speaking of the wonderful event of Assisi, John Paul II described it as “a splendid manifestation of the unity which links us together beyond the differences and divisions.”

Let us fill our hearts then with true love. With it we can hope for all things, for unity among the faithful of the major religions and for brotherhood lived by all humanity. May God embrace us all with His love.”

Chiara Lubich