Director of the Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations, Fr Patrick McInerney, is an advisor to the Interfaith Commission Diocese of Parramatta. Mike Yates is a member of the Interfaith Commission. This is Mike’s address to parishioners at his local parish.
I’d like to begin by reminding you of something that happened recently: a woman stepped in front of the cameras the day after her three children and niece were run down and killed and said to the man responsible: “I forgive you.” How was she able to say such a thing? As Catholic Christians, we know forgiveness is God’s work. She was only able to forgive (and continue to forgive) because God’s grace was granted to her. God was present in her heart.
There was a second event, on the other side of the world where another parent lost three daughters when they were killed in an instant. And how did he react? He set out to forgive those responsible. In fact, he wrote a book about it called I Shall Not Hate. How was that man able to forgive the killing of his three young daughters? God’s grace was granted to him. The God of forgiveness was in his heart.
And a final event. Another country, this time a deliberate killing of a son in his 20s by two University colleagues. The father enquired where the killers were jailed and travelled some distance to that country. “I have come to tell you I forgive you,” he told them. How was this man able to forgive the murder of his son? The God of forgiveness was clearly in his heart.
Now, for me, and I hope for you too, the interesting thing about these three parents who forgave those who had killed their children was that one was a Catholic and the other two were Muslims. Interesting? The God of forgiveness whom we worship was also in the heart of the two Muslim men who worship the God that we do. (This is Church teaching.)
God has not called Catholics to journey with God and towards God on their own. We can say God has not called Jews or Muslims to journey only with their communities towards God. And so on.
It is the teaching of our Church that God wishes us to journey together. To affirm, support and work together to help bring justice, share the goodness of God, show God’s compassion and to work for peace in the world… together. As Pope Francis, Bishop Vincent Long of the Diocese of Parramatta in Sydney, and religious leaders all round the world remind us: God calls the whole human family to the eternal banquet. And the only way we will arrive at that moment is by travelling together. Companions on the journey. This is not just a Catholic song, but a song for the whole of humanity.
Some of you may already be thinking: “That’s all very well but I’m not interested in people of other faiths. I’m interested in my Catholic faith. That’s more than enough for me.” Sisters and brothers, it is our Catholic faith that calls us to go out beyond our community and connect! Connect, connect, connect until – as it were – God becomes the connectedness that binds us all. Including enemies. As Jesus did, we need to see God in everyone and everything. As we become passionately religious, we are called to be compassionately interreligious. Bound for the wedding feast to which every human being is invited, we are to help each other to ensure we are at that feast. Because it is a gathering with no end, a connection that alone can fulfil the longing for God that each one of us is – whether we are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Ba’hai, non-religious. We are to love one another as Jesus has loved us. And that does not just mean love our fellow Christians.
Mike Yates is a member of the Interfaith Commission Diocese of Parramatta
Related links
- Read more from the current Columban Interfaith eBulletin.
