Pope´s Answers Are in "Crossing the Threshold of Hope"
VATICAN CITY, 25 JAN. 2002 (ZENIT).
If there is only one God, and he has revealed himself in Jesus
Christ, why has he allowed so many religions? This is one of the
questions that the Day of Prayer in Assisi might posit, to which John
Paul II has given his own answer.
The Holy Father was asked this question by Italian journalist Vittorio
Messori in the book "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" (Alfred
A. Knopf, 1994).
In the book, John Paul II says that "instead of marvelling at the
fact that Providence allows such a great variety of religions, we should
be amazed at the number of common elements found within them."
Christ came into the world for all peoples, the Pope says. "He
redeemed them all and has His own ways of reaching each of them in the
present eschatological phase of salvation history. In fact, in those
regions, many accept Him and many more have an implicit faith in Him
(cf. Hebrews II:6)."
Here are some of the ideas the Pope expressed in the book on various
religions.
Islam
Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran,
clearly sees the process by which it completely reduces Divine
Revelation. It is impossible not to note the movement away from what God
said about Himself, first in the Old Testament through the Prophets, and
then finally in the New Testament through His Son. In Islam all the
richness of God's self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the
Old and New Testaments, has definitely been set aside.
Some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the
God of the Koran, but He is ultimately a God outside of the world, a God
who is only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us. Islam is not a
religion of redemption. There is no room for the Cross and the
Resurrection. Jesus is mentioned, but only as a prophet who prepares for
the last prophet, Muhammad. There is also mention of Mary, His Virgin
Mother, but the tragedy of redemption is completely absent. For this
reason not only the theology but also the anthropology of Islam is very
distant from Christianity.
Nevertheless, the religiosity of Muslims deserves respect. It is
impossible not to admire, for example, their fidelity to prayer. The
image of believers in Allah who, without caring about time or place,
fall to their knees and immerse themselves in prayer remains a model for
all those who invoke the true God, in particular for those Christians
who, having deserted their magnificent cathedrals, pray only a little or
not at all.
The Council has, also called for the Church to have a dialogue with
followers of the "Prophet," and the Church has proceeded to do
so. We read in Nostra Aetate: "Even if over the course of centuries
Christians and Muslims have had more than a few dissensions and
quarrels, this sacred Council now urges all to forget the past and to
work toward mutual understanding as well as toward the preservation and
promotion of social justice, moral welfare, peace, and freedom for the
benefit of all mankind" (Nostra Aetate 3).
Judaism
The words from the Declaration Nostra Aetate represent a turning point.
The Council says: "The Church of Christ, in fact, recognizes that
according to the divine mystery of salvation the origins of the Church's
faith and election are already found in the Patriarchs, Moses, and the
Prophets. ... The Church, then, can forget neither that it received the
revelation of the Old Testament through that people with whom God, in
his ineffable mercy, made the Ancient Covenant, nor can the Church
forget that it draws sustenance from the root of that good olive tree
onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles. ...
Therefore, since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews
is so great, this Sacred Council recommends and promotes a mutual
understanding and respect, which can be obtained above all through
biblical study and fraternal discussion" (Nostra Aetate 4).
The words of the Council's Declaration reflect the experience of many
people, both Jews and Christians. They reflect my personal experience as
well, from the very first years of my life in my hometown. I remember,
above all, the Wadowice elementary school, where at least a fourth of
the pupils in my class were Jewish. I should mention my friendship at
school with one of them, Jerzy Kluger, a friendship that has lasted from
my school days to the present. I can vividly remember the Jews who
gathered every Saturday at the synagogue behind our school. Both
religious groups, Catholics and Jews, were united, I presume, by the
awareness that they prayed to the same God. Despite their different
languages, prayers in the church and in the synagogue were based to a
considerable degree on the same texts. [...]
This extraordinary people continues to bear signs of its divine
election. I said this to an Israeli politician once and he readily
agreed, but was quick to add: "If only it could cost less!..."
Israel has truly paid a high price for its "election." Perhaps
because of this, Israel has become more similar to the Son of man, who,
according to the flesh, was also a son of Israel. [...].
Thus the way two great moments of divine election the Old and the New
Covenants are drawing closer together.
Buddhism
The Buddhist doctrine of salvation constitutes the central point, or
rather the only point, of this system. Nevertheless, both the Buddhist
tradition and the methods deriving from it have an almost exclusively
negative soteriology.
The "enlightenment" experienced by Buddha comes down to the
conviction that the world is bad, that it is the source of evil and of
suffering for man. To liberate oneself from this evil, one must free
oneself from this world, necessitating a break with the ties that join
us to external reality ties existing in our human nature, in our psyche,
in our bodies. The more we are liberated from these ties, the more we
become indifferent to what is in the world, and the more we are freed
from suffering, from the evil that has its source in the world.
Do we draw near to God in this way? This is not mentioned in the
"enlightenment" conveyed by Buddha. Buddhism is in large
measure an "atheistic" system. We do not free ourselves from
evil through the good which comes from God; we liberate ourselves only
through detachment from the world, which is bad. The fullness of such a
detachment is not union with God, but what is called nirvana, a state of
perfect indifference with regard to the world. To save oneself means,
above all, to free oneself from evil by becoming indifferent to the
world, which is the source of evil. This is the culmination of the
spiritual process.
Hinduism
[He begins with this quote from the Second Vatican Council:]
"In Hinduism men explore the divine mystery and express it through
an endless bounty of myths and through penetrating philosophical
insight. They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition,
either by way of the ascetic life, profound meditation, or by taking
refuge in God with love and trust. The various schools of Buddhism
recognize the radical inadequacy of this malleable world and teach a way
by which men, with devout and trusting hearts, can become capable either
of reaching a state of perfect liberation, or of attaining, by their own
efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination" (Nostra
Aetate 2).
Further along, the Council remarks that "The Catholic Church
rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. The Church has
a high regard for their conduct and way of life, for those precepts and
doctrines which, although differing on many points from that which the
Church believes and propounds, often reflect a ray of that truth which
enlightens all men. However, the Church proclaims, and is bound to
proclaim that Christ is 'the way and the truth and the life' [Jn 14:6],
in whom men must find the fullness of religious life and in whom God has
reconciled everything to Himself" (Nostra Aetate 2).
Animist religions
At this point it would be helpful to recall all the primitive religions,
the animistic religions which stress ancestor worship. It seems that
those who practice them are particularly close to Christianity, and
among them, the Church's missionaries also find it easier to speak a
common language. Is there, perhaps, in this veneration of ancestors a
kind of preparation for the Christian faith in the Communion of Saints,
in which all believers whether living or dead form a single community, a
single body? And faith in the Communion of Saints is, ultimately, faith
in Christ, who alone is the source of life and of holiness for all.
There is nothing strange, then, that the African and Asian animists
would become believers in Christ more easily than followers of the great
religions of the Far East. ZE02012520
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