Today's Wisdom

Those who do not pass from the experience of the cross to the truth of the resurrection condemn themselves to despair! For we cannot encounter God without first crucifying our narrow notions of a god who reflects only our own understanding of omnipotence and power
Pope Francis

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Interfaith Encounter with Islamic and Hindu People

On Saturday October 30, I was one of 3 speakers in an interfaith meeting for young adults and youth at Jaffari Islamic Centre. The two other speakers were Dr. Hashimi, a Muslim expert and Pandit Roopnauth Sharma, a Hindu guru. The topic was about angels and demons in Catholic Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. But I took this opportunity to speak, uninterrupted, about Christian faith and common themes with other religions: 1) Moral values and human dignity (Respect for human dignity may not be found in some traditions of the East) 2) Common things: Belief in God, prayer, fasting, and community life 3) Human needs: material, psychological, spiritual and security 4) We need love since love protects us 5) God loves us - In Christian tradition God is Love. Love is not only one of his names but his unique character. He loved us into life and cares about each one 6) Angels are servants of God. God loves his angels including the angels who fell into pride. The Devil and his angels separated themselves from God. 7) The lesson for us is not to separate ourselves from God - We need God - We need eternal happiness and salvation from sin through Christ 8) We have guardian angels who protect us. Angels came to Abraham, Jacob, Mary, and Christ. The angels of God sustained Christ in his fasting and in suffering before his crucifixion. 9) The most important point: In response to Dr. Hashimi who thinks that Christians are confused by considering Christ the Son of God, I said that we as Christians believe in Christ not only as the Son of God but also that Christ is God from God fully divine and fully human. When one of the Muslim youth questioned why Christians beliieve that Christ is God, I replied that the topic can be the subject of another debate. But I insist on finding common grounds rather than finding topics of differences with people of other religions. We cannot act like the self-righteous people. Moreover, When Christians speak to someone who is not Christian we need to be patient for him to learn. He will not learn as long as Christians do not show love by example. We need to respect everyone and love him as he is. Christ respected everyone and loved everyone. We must hope to be a bit as generous as our master and God.

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Today's Quote

"Behold I make all things new." (Revelation 21:5)







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