|
Jacob
Kavunkal, SVD In this article, the author, Head of the Department of Systematic Theology and Indian Religions, JDV, Pune 411004, and professor of Missiology, attempts to outline a meaningful and relevant mission of the Church in the context of religious pluralism, while preserving the authentic Christian Faith. The article completes the dossier on pluralism in the November issue. Christianity believes in one God, Creator and Redeemer of all. Christianity believes also that it has a special service to the whole world by continuing the mission of Jesus Christ. What is this service that Christianity is called on to render -in the context of religious pluralism? Until recently it was almost taken for granted that this service was displacing all religions and establishing itself as the only true religion. Contemporary experience of other religions as they are lived and biblical studies have challenged the Church to re-examine these assumptions. In fact, it is increasingly admitted that the motive for presenting Christianity as the only true religion had to do more with the political climate that prevailed in the past than to the teachings of Jesus Christ. As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the new approach was ushered in by the Second Vatican Council. Other Religions Without going into a detailed theology of other religions, I wish to show in the light of St John's Prologue how a Christian can and must see other religions. The Prologue can be seen as genealogy in so far as it takes us to the background of the Incarnate Lord. The Word that became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth (Jn 1:14) was God and was with God from the beginning. God created all things through the Word. In him was life and that life was the light that enlightens every human being coming into the world (vv. 4.9). The phrase "in the beginning" refers to the absolute beginning and not just the time of creation: Salvation history goes back to the eternal plan of God and it had its first moment of expression in creation. The Word that "enlightens every human being coming into the world" is the same one who was with God and was God. The Word is God's total reaching out to creation (Col 1:16; Eph 1:9-10). All revelation is rooted in the Word and no part or sector of creation is outside of the activity of God's reaching out in the Word. Hence any sense of the divine, any religious sense, has its cause in the revealing activity of the Word. "No one has ever seen God; the only Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (v. l8). Thus the Word is the only mediation of creation and enlightenment (revelation). The Old Testament, specially the Wisdom literature, upholds this (Prov 8:30; Wisd 7:22, 8:6, etc.). The identification of Jesus as the Wisdom can be seen in Paul (Phil 2:6-11; Eph 2:14-16) as well as in the Synoptic Gospels (Lk 7:35; 11:49; Mt 11:19; 23:34). The Fathers of the Church like Justin, Clement of Alexandria and Augustine have described the presence of the Word in other religions and the cosmos in different ways. The concept of "Word" and the name "Jesus Christ'' have of course cultural roots. But what is important is the reality of the Person signified by them. We could call it also the "Mystery", because this side of the grave we cannot know all about the Word except what is revealed. "Mystery" will be acceptable also to the followers of other religions. Hinduism describes the inexhaustible character of this Mystery by the image of the many ways to the mountain top or the numerous rivers merging with the ocean. None of the rivers can exhaust the ocean. St Paul too used "Mystery" to explain this reality (Eph 3:3-4; Col 1:26). Hence religious pluralism is the result of the divine self-manifestation in the Word and the manifold ways in which humans respond to the divine. Since human beings are social and historical by nature, we could say different religions are different social and historical responses to the divine manifestation in the Word ( Våc in Sanskrit). God does not reject the plural ways people respond to the divine self-manifestation. They belong to the providential ways which God lovingly accepts. They are within the overall divine plan of creation, as far as we can judge from nature. Therefore religious pluralism is not an evil to be rid of, or an inescapable situation to be tolerated, but a value to be preserved and respected. Today mission theology must take this seriously into consideration. If not, we may tread upon the activity of the Word/Mystery operative in different religions. We must take off our shoes out of respect for the Word/Mystery present in religions. They are arms raised to heaven in response to the divine communication, the Våc. They have a permanent value which must be "acknowledged, preserved and promoted" (NA 2) rather than replaced. The Gospels show that Jesus was a Jew and that he did not give rise to a new religion. His ministry was a reform movement within Judaism derived from his experience of God as the "Abba" (intimate parent). His mission was not against any religion as such nor was it a religious mission in the sense that it was directed to change the religion of the people. True, he gave rise to a community to continue his mission. Like the founder, this community too was Jewish in its earliest stage (Acts 3:1f). Even to the end, St Paul considered himself to be a Jew (Acts 28:17f). It has to be admitted immediately that this community soon became a religion. At least we must show the world that this community's primary concern today is not changing the religion of people but continuing the mission of Jesus. Even when it seeks new members it is primarily for the purpose of continuing the mission of Jesus Christ. The Church is for mission, not mission for the Church. The Church's Mission In the New Testament, specially in the fourth Gospel, we come across three moments or dimensions of Christology. We have the preexistent Word, the incarnate Word and the exalted Lord. Though the Mystery is one and the same, the roles of each of these dimensions, like the Persons in the Blessed Trinity, cannot be interchanged or confused. Nor does one delete or displace the other. The ministry of the incarnate Word does not cancel out the activity of the pre-existent Word. The role of the glorified Lord is not the same as that of the incarnate Word. The Prologue tells how the activity of the Word does not stop at the pre-existent level, but continues in the incarnation. The Gospels are the descriptions of the incarnate Word who revealed God as the loving parent (Abba) and did the will of God by announcing God's reign. In fact Jesus was more interested in God's reign than in God as such. When disciples of John the Baptist came to him asking if he was indeed the Messiah, he replied by asking them to go and tell John what they actually saw and heard: the divine reign has come in him (Mt 11:4-5). The Church's mission is only that of continuing the mission of the incarnate Word, conscious of the fact that this mission does not exhaust the mission of the Word or the work of the Father. Though the Word is present in the world and in other religions, the Word became flesh, God with us, so that people could experience the divine concretely and tangibly. The Church has to become truly the mystery of God's presence on earth (LG 5) so that it becomes an occasion for people to experience God. All that it does must be an expression of this divine presence. We have to witness to Jesus Christ by following him. However not infrequently many Christians make Jesus Christ the "only God". This is something not advocated in the New Testament. All that the New Testament says is that the Word/Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and humans and eventually "God will be all in all" (1 Cor 15:28). Both Jesus in the Gospels and the Apostles in the rest of the New Testament are God-centered. We must capture this God-centredness of the earliest community, which will be a great step in our dialogue with the followers of other religions. It follows that our mission does not sanction the use of certain negative, pejorative or triumphalistic expressions. If every religion is the result of the creating and revealing activity of the Word/Mystery that became Jesus of Nazareth then we cannot speak of natural religions as opposed to a revealed religion. So also we are not justified in calling the followers of other religions "non-Christians." We have seen how all participate in the Mystery that we identify as Christ. Further by calling others as "non-Christians" we place Christianity at the centre and as the norm according to which others are to be described. Rather we call them by what they are. We are used to designate ourselves as "the people of God". A few generous Christians may extend the term to include the Jews too. But what right do we have to reserve for ourselves the claim to be people of God? This is a hangover from primal cultures who saw themselves to be at the centre of the world or as God's most favoured people. Every human being is created by God in the Word and enlightened by him and thus part of the people of God. The community of the disciples of Jesus Christ, the Church, has a specific mission, not the exclusive privilege to be the people of God. We said above that all religious participate in the Mystery that we identify as Jesus Christ. They have their roles in the divine plan. God as. the Lord of history guides their destiny as well (Amos 9:7). Christianity, along with them, is on pilgrimage towards the eschatological fulfillment and fullness of salvation (1 Cor 15:28). We have to watch ourselves against stereotyping the followers of other religions. Already at home, in schools and churches we must develop a positive attitude and foster respect towards the other. We have a common origin and a common destiny with the rest of humankind (NA 1). As Indians, we have a common cultural patrimony with the rest of the people of India. We are one with the rest of society. It would be a sin against the Holy Spirit if Christians were to keep themselves aloof from the Indian society. However, Christians, as the little flock, have a special service to render to the same Indian society, as salt, leaven and light. The Christian vocation is not one of conforming but of transforming. In this context it has to be emphasized that the urgent task today is an introspection of the community regarding the quality of its own life. Witnessing to Jesus Christ cannot be a loud verbal proclamation but it must happen through the life of the community, especially in the context of the rising opposition to Christianity. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bajrang Dal, the parent bodies of Bharatiya Janata Party, have realized that the party has reached the saturation point of their votes India. The only area they can have electoral gains is the tribal belts of Bihar, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. To win the local trust they fallow the Christian example of gaining the good will of the people through the Vanvasi Kalyan Kendras. They find the Christians working among the Tribal people for their uplift a counter force to be scared off. Hence in the years to come, opposition to the Christian presence will only be on the increase. Another need of the hour is that our theology and our official teachings be transparent. What I want to emphasize is that there should not be a gap between what we teach the Christians and what we say to the followers of other religions. In a globalized world we cannot afford to tell the members of the Church one thing and the rest of the world something different. Servants of the Kingdom The primary concern of the Word Incarnate was to manifest God the Father and to realize his reign on earth (Jn 12:45; 14:9). It must be noted that this manifestation was not so much the revelation of the metaphysical nature of the Father as of the Father's relation to human beings. In other words, it was a revelation of God's love for humans and God's will for humans. All that the sent One said and did is to be seen in this perspective. For Jesus, the incarnate Word, mission was all what he, as the One sent by the Father, said and did. The characteristic self-description of Jesus is "the sent One", and he constantly refers to the Father as the One who sent him. Mission is thus defined not so much in terms of the end as from the source, i.e., the Father who has sent him into the world because the Father loves the world so much (Jn 3:16-17). Our normal understanding of mission as going out to the followers of other religions is absent in the Gospels. As Teresa Okure has shown, mission as an outreach to non-believers is the result of telescoping our ideas into the Gospel.1 The community of his disciples is sent to bear witness to the good news of this love (Jn 20:19; Lk 24:48), the good news of the Kingdom (Mk 1:14). The community is the servant of the Kingdom. It is the God-intended sign "to signify what God's Grace has accomplished and continues to accomplish in the world".2 But it has to be remembered that its call is to become "the visible manifestation of the divine project" in its life. It has to become "the place where we find the maximum concentration of the Father's activity".3 In so far as the Church has experienced the divine reign in the ministry of Jesus Christ and since it has been constituted by him as the servant of the Kingdom, the Church is different from other religions and it is a servant of the Kingdom to them. However the effectiveness of this service role depends on how far it is transparent to the ministry of Jesus Christ and faithful to him. To the extent the Church is a human community, it is not the fullness or the fulfilment of the Kingdom. This fullness is the eschatological reality towards which it is in pilgrimage, along with other religions. In this pilgrimage the Church is conscious that the other religions, in so far as the Word is active in them, also share in the elements of the Kingdom. In other words, through faith Christianity perceives its relation to other religions and it is duty bound to meet them. Therefore the Church must collaborate with them in its mission of realizing the Kingdom. The Church does not only enrich other religions but also learns from them, because the eschatological fullness of the Kingdom comprises the Church as well as other religions. Christians and the followers of other religions share together in the reality of the divine reign. Christians have the duty to reach out to others and seek their collaboration in realizing the Kingdom in history because in Jesus Christ they have experienced it in history. Mission of Dialogue The foregoing reflections, that God is only one and is active in all religions through the Word and that Christians can fulfil their mission of service to the Kingdom only in collaboration with the followers of other religions invite us to enter into dialogue with them. Since the publication in 1964 of Ecclesiam Suam, the first Encyclical letter of Pope Paul VI, inter-religious dialogue has increasingly become an integral part of the Church's mission. The main agent of inter religious dialogue is the Holy Spirit through whom the Mystery of the Word is operative in the whole cosmos and became flesh. Through the same Spirit the Risen Christ is present in the community of his disciples. The Spirit who leads us to the fullness of Truth (Jn 16:13), orients the Church as well as the followers of other religions to come together in communion even as the Spirit guided Apostle Peter and the Roman centurion Cornelius to come together (Act 10:9ffJ. This Spirit, as Pope John XXIII said while opening Vatican II, "is leading us to a new order of human relations". As the CBCI Guidelines for Dialogue have shown, inter-religious dialogue is "both an attitude and an activity of committed followers of various religions who agree to meet and to accept one another and work together fir common ideals in atmosphere of mutual respect and trust".4 Inter-religious dialogue is any activity where we take the faith of the other seriously. Our commitment to Jesus Christ reminds us that our obligation is not just to Christianity but to God who reveals God's self in Christ through us. Being preoccupied only with Christianity is an introversion. We are challenged to a new historical involvement. Every parish priest, for instance, must realize that he has a responsibility not only for the Catholic community, but also for the entire human community in this parish. He must conscientize the Catholic community to be open to the rest of the people in dialogue. The community of the disciples of Jesus Christ has to maintain pastoral extrovertedness. An introverted, self-centred Church is a contradiction in terms. Our ministry of witness among people of other faiths presupposes that we are present to them with sensitivity to their deepest faith commitment and experience. It entails also a willingness to be their servants for Christ's sake, affirming what God has done and is doing among them. This is to be done with love for them. In this process of dialogue we witness to Jesus Christ. For, as John Paul II said in Delhi while addressing the religious leaders, "to wage war in the name of religions is a blatant contradiction. Religious leaders in particular have the duty to do everything possible to ensure that religion is what God intends it to be: a source of goodness, respect, harmony and peace" (November 6, 1999). Dialogue is a style of living in relationship with neighbours. It becomes most vital when its participants actually share their lives together as is the case in most of our parishes. It has to be underlined that the Church enters into dialogue not only with the followers of the great religions but also with the subaltern religions like those of the tribal people. Although we do not understand nor approve of all that others think or say, we still hope that human conviviality makes sense, that we belong together and that together we must strive. For, as Gaudium et Spes puts it, "The joys and hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts" (n. 1). Fruit of Dialogue The primary fruit of this dialogue is the conversion of Christians and the followers of other religions to each other in trust and openness, overcoming mutual prejudices. And together they turn to God. In the process there is room also for growth in the understanding and experience of the divine. This is described as the growth in Truth. However it has to be emphasized that this process of growth in Truth is not aimed at a change of religion from either side, but together all turn to God with greater commitment and to each other with deeper acceptance and respect. Thus dialogue leads to communion among people and of people with God. The Pope describes the process of this union: "By dialogue we let God be present in our midst; for as we open ourselves in dialogue to one another, we also open ourselves to God".5 In the Indian context of communal disharmony and violence, this is obviously an urgent expression of mission. Hence Pope John Paul II exhorted the Bishops of India: "The Lord calls you, especially in the particular circumstances in which you are placed, to do everything possible to promote this dialogue according to the commitment of the Church".6 Inter-religious dialogue, we said, is any activity where people collaborate as followers of different religions. Hence dialogue should not be interpreted as an activity pertaining to religious matters alone. It may deal with any aspect of human existence. It is to the merit of Aloysius Pieris to have pointed out that inter-religious dialogue cannot remain imprisoned in ivory towers of religious talks and religious experience alone, but must flow into human liberation. In the context of massive poverty and the religiosity of the masses, the Asian Church must find a new way of being Church in Asia by a symbiosis of a two-fold praxis: liberation praxis and a praxis of inter-religious dialogue.7 If more than one-third of the Indian population live below poverty line, this is connected with caste and exploitation which in turn are influenced by religious world views. The other-worldliness, individualism and the fatalistic understanding of karma, all work in favor of the oppressive caste system, legitimizing injustices built into the structure of Indian society. Thus religion plays a perpetuating role in poverty and injustice. Hence liberation in India can take place only through religious motivation. In this inter-religious dialogue has a big role to play. In Asia Christians must cooperate with the followers of different religions in the struggle for human liberation, action on behalf of human rights and justice for all. We must be able to collaborate with any agency working among the tribals and dalits for their emancipation. This will go a long way in removing the prejudice that we are working among these groups only to swell our numbers. As Paul Knitter insists, inter-religious dialogue must flow into dialogue with the suffering. The religious other and the suffering other are the two partners with whom the Church must carry on its mission of dialogue. As Christians "we can and must open our minds and our hearts to the many religious others and the many suffering others who dwell and toil upon this earth".8 Needless to say, the suffering is not only human but in the context of the environmental degradation, the suffering of the earth also must be taken into account. Inter-religious dialogue, seeking true communion, cannot be blind to the next door reality, one of starvation, dehumanizing living conditions, injustice and ecological deterioration. In the context of Asia I would suggest that what most bring the followers of different religions together must be this suffering mere than a God-search. God is to be found in finding solutions to the suffering. Thus inter-religious dialogue in Asia can be described as a search for the restoration of the lost human dignity. Our solidarity is not restricted to cultures and religions only. It must extend itself to those on the periphery of the Indian society, whom President K.R. Narayan described as "the unempowered India", left at the pedestrian crossings of our three-way fast lane of liberalization, privatization and globalisation.9 Thus inter-religious dialogue will become a transforming process to usher in an inclusive community of participation and sharing. Together with them we look forward to the fullness of salvation. Religious toleration and religious freedom, the watchwords of modern democracy, presuppose religious pluralism. Any agenda of converting the whole world to a particular religion smacks of fundamentalism. The Bible does not advocate it. Jesus wanted his community to be a "little flock" among others as "salt, light and leaven". The Church is called and sent not to expand itself into a world-conquering Church, but to follow Jesus Christ in witnessing to the Kingdom. Hence to be a Christian today is to be inter-religious. Concluding Observations Mission in the context of religious pluralism, I would suggest, should have the following characteristics. It is life-centred. Our mission aims at life for all and at every aspect of life. It includes solidarity with the earth, with all groups of marginalized and dispossessed. It is concerned also about the transcendence of life. The Church's mission is anchored at the biblical realism. It is conscious of how the God of the Bible is not limited to a particular group. The biblical God is the Creator of all and is the Lord of history. This God is active and present through his Word and Spirit in all creation leading it to its fulfillment. The Church's mission is in the context of God's mission to the world, not an alternative to it. We are existing in a radically interdependent world, compelling us to new relationships. By nature Christianity is a religion of relationship. In this the Church is imbued by a new spirit of openness to others in the search for complementarily and harmony. The leading symbol of Jesus' ministry, the Kingdom of God, is the expression of God's plan of gathering all, especially those on the periphery, the marginalized and the abandoned. In a divided and broken world the significance of this can hardly be overestimated. The Church's call is to be prophet to the world. By its experience of God in Jesus Christ, it has an alternative vision for the world: a world without marginalization, where all are accepted and participate. In discharging its mission the Church's self-perception is that of the "little flock". It is God's instrument for the transformation of the world, but not in competition with others but in collaboration with them; not threatening others but seeking their help; not an alternative to others but a service to them. In short it is a sign of hope in history and beyond history.
Notes 1.
Teresa Okure, The Johannine Approach to Mission, Tuebingen: J.C.B.Mohr,
1988, p. 38. Ref.: Vidyajyoti (Journal of Theological Reflection), Vol. 64, n. 12, December 2000.
|