by Michael Wojcik | 9/27/2007 | The Beacon
PARSIPPANY, N.J. (The Beacon) — Inspired by Jesus’ urgent command to “love your neighbor as yourself,” Christians everywhere are called to move out into the wider world to forge meaningful relationships with people of all religions and, like the Good Samaritan, care for the needs of everyone.
Christians inspired to reach out to other religions by command to ‘love thy neighbor’ Bishop gives address at Fourth Annual Interfaith Dialog Center dinner
Bishop Serratelli delivered this timely message to a gathering of more than 300 religious and civic leaders of various creeds Sunday, Sept. 16, at the Fourth Annual Interfaith Dialog Center Dinner at the Parsippany Hilton here. The bishop joined a rabbi and a Muslim university professor that night in calling for the world’s religions and people to work together for the cause of tolerance, mutual respect and understanding and peace.
Guided by the dinner’s theme, “Love is the essence of existence,” Jack Bemporad, director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding, traced the Lord’s commandment to “love thy neighbor” back to Old Testament. Meanwhile, Ahmet Kuru, assistant political science professor at San Diego State University, urged the world’s religious first to emphasize their “commonalities” in their attempts at dialog.
The Newark-based Interfaith Dialog Center (IDC), founded by the Turkish-American Muslims of northern New Jersey in 2003, hosted the dinner, which in Islamic tradition is called an iftar. Sunday’s iftar featured Islamic art, prayers, culture and culinary delights. During the iftar, an evening meal that breaks the daily fast during the Islamic observance of Ramadan, Muslims often dine in community.
After the dinner, Bishop Serratelli addressed the religious and civic leaders with the declaration that the true “voice of the historical Jesus” in Scripture implores us to “love your enemies” as well as to “turn the other check.” These commands of Jesus — in addition to Christ’s parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke, Chapter 10 — encourage Christians to reach out to get to know and help their neighbors, even those of a different religion, he said.
The bishop reminded the audience of the parable of the Good Samaritan, who saw a man, beaten up and lying on the side of the road. The Samaritan took care of the injured man, he said.
“Indiscriminate love — this is how God loves us,”Bishop Serratelli said. “How can we love God whom we do not see if we do not love our neighbor whom we can see?”
Reaching out to our neighbors can benefit us — science has discovered that people who do so live longer. The bishop added, “This is how we grow. This is how we inherit the kingdom of God.”
Love at the center
In an address that preceded Bishop Serratelli’s, Rabbi Bemporad connected Christianity, Islam and Judaism through their common spiritual father: Abraham.
“Abraham is neither emperor nor a conqueror. He was a hero because of his commitment to the belief in one God and he lived his life as a blessing for others,” noted the rabbi, who also asserted that the Old Testament placed great value on peace, justice, mercy and on love of God and neighbor.
“Love is the center of how we all relate to God. Human love is finite but the love of God never betrays,” said Rabbi Bemporad, who has been involved for a long time in Christian-Jewish relations and met with Pope John Paul II several times. “Rainer Maria Rilke (a noted philosopher) said it is good to love because love is difficult. It calls us to be our highest selves. Immortality comes through the love of God, which ignites us,” he said.
After Bishop Serratelli, Kuru, who will become postdoctoral research scholar at the Center for Study of Democracy, Tolerance and Religion of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University next year, asserted that Islam as well promotes peace among people. The Koran declares that humans are made to “deal with one another in kindness,” he said.
“Acceptance of varied traditions is a first step. Religions should stress their commonalities,” said Kuru, who outlined a three-point recipe for successful religious relations — avoid generalizations, show empathy when talking or writing about spiritual values and learn the values and teachings of other creeds.
“Knowledge and respect go hand in hand,” Kuru said.
Working toward that lofty goal, the non-profit IDC seeks to promote “respect and mutual understanding among all faiths and cultures through partnership with other religious and interreligious organizations, and organizing educational activities such as seminars, lectures and discussion panels,” its Web site, idcnj.org, states.
Among the priests of the Paterson Diocese who attended the dinner was Father Victor Mazza, pastor of St. Paul Parish, Clifton. He sat with St. Paul’s staff and parishioners next to two Muslim friends, Suhaila and Tolga Hayali, principal of Pioneer Academy of Science, Clifton, which is housed in the former St. Paul School.
“This emulates the monthly dialogues we already have in session at St. Paul’s,” Father Mazza said. “Staff and parishioners meet monthly with Pioneer Academy teachers. We eat dinner and discuss religion and culture. We enjoy the interaction and learn a lot. We have a good time and also pray together.”
Also at the dinner was Father Charles Parr, pastor of Holy Cross Parish, Wayne, and the Paterson Diocese’s ecumenical officer. He called the event “a wonderful opportunity for religious leaders and civic and business representatives to come together to recognize, celebrate and participate in a deep and significant tradition of our Muslim brothers and sisters.”
“This opportunity enabled those Catholics present to demonstrate in the words of the Second Vatican Council, the ‘high esteem’ with which the Church holds Muslims,” Father Parr said. “The even also assisted Catholics in fulfilling the plea of the Council fathers for ‘mutual understanding’ that we ‘together preserve and promote peace, liberty, social justice and moral values’” said the priest, quoting the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate, issued Oct. 28, 1965.
