Reconciliation of Christians and Muslims - Is it Possible?

In my lecture on January 14, participants shared their reaction to the question "What would be your reaction if your brother or sister was killed in the massacre of Alexandria?" People acknowledged they would react with shock and probably with violence - a kind of revenge against the person who did it. This is the reality of Christians today. We cannot ignore the cross but it takes time to psychologically respond to a shocking event. According to Elizabeth Kubler Ross, the 5 stages that a person who lost a loved one goes through in grief are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance (1). It becomes then important in our spiritual struggle to accept, forgive and eventually reconcile with the aggressors. Love is inherently natural as found in recent neuroscientific research. Certain brain hormones such as Oxytocin and vasopressin help humans bond, socialize and love (2), (3). But to love my enemy, it is beyond natural love. This kind and level of love is, in other words, supernatural. In philosophy it is called Agape (4), (5) where you love the other not because you need him/her but only because he/she is there. This is the love of Christ. It reconciles you with the other not because he lives with you but because he is important as a human person in himself. In fact, regardless of religion and culture, the only solution to vengeance is the Christ love (i.e. to imitate Christ thus you become the alter-Christus). To my fellow Christians I can only say that Muslims are our brothers for all humans have one father (God) and one enemy (the Devil)! Much prayers, by both Christians and - dare I say - Muslims of good will, are needed. The name of God the Compassionate and Merciful is invoked by Muslims five times everyday. Go deeper. The parable of Christ, The Good Samaritan, is a great example for us today. It speaks to the apparent enmity between Christians and Muslims. In the parable, a Jew was on a journey from Jerusalem down to Jericho. He is robbed by thieves who "stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead." A priest and a Levite see him and pass by. As commented by contemporay Biblical scholars, those religious representatives of Judaism who would have been expected to be models of "neighbor" to the victim pass him by (6). Jesus explicitly reverses the meaning of loving your neighbour from a Jew who cares about another Jew to a Samaritan, an enemy to the Jews, who cares for the Jew. The Samaritan, who in the Old Testament experience was the enemy of the People of God, suddenly and shockingly turns out to be the loving caregiver who cares for the wounded and half-dead son of the People of God. Strikingly, according to St. Augustine (and Origen too), the wounded man represents Adam and his offspring. He was in Jerusalem (Paradise) and because of the thieves, who represent the Devil, Man was fatally wounded and ended up losing Paradise. On his journey to Jericho, that is to hell, no authority could ever save his life. The Good Samaritan is the Saviour, Christ himself, who alone is the life-giver to fallen humanity. Christ remains today the only solution to the sins, suffering, anxiety, and dispair of fallen humanity. Christ heals the wounds by pouring oil and wine that clean the wounds, lifts the man and gets him on his own animal, takes the wounded to the "inn" i.e. the Church where the wounded is given rest to completely heal. "The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.'" In this Parable the story of man emerges - It did not finish because the Saviour will come back. The reward is nothing less than himself! The LOVER! Notes: (1) Kübler-Ross, E. (1973) On Death and Dying, Routledge. (2) Lee HJ, Macbeth AH, Pagani JH, Young WS (June 2009). "Oxytocin: the great facilitator of life". Progress in Neurobiology 88 (2): 127–51 (3) O'Callaghan, Tiffany (7, June 2010). "Thanks, Mom!". Time Magazine. Time, Inc. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1992405,00.html (4) Kreeft, P. (2005). Love, Fundamentals of the Faith, Ignatius Press. (5) Pope Benedict XVI (2005). God is Love, Libreria Editrice Vaticana. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html (6) United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (2002). Luke 10, The New American Bible http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/luke/luke10.htm