Sunday, October 31, 2010

Why Inter-religious Dialogue?

There is a quotation used by St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and St. Thomas which gives us a positive cue regarding the importance of dialogue. That was recently quoted to us by the Jesuit priest from India, Fr. Francis D’sa, SJ, on a recollection of Mindanao Bishops last Oct. 22-23, 2010. The original Latin goes like this: Quidquid verum a quocumque dicatur a Spiritu Sancto est (translate thus: Whatever is true, irrespective of who says it, comes from the Holy Spirit).

Hence, since truth is a source of freedom and liberation, we must open our eyes and ears to the truth and to reality. After all, there are vestiges of God’s truth in all the peoples or religious of the world. Let’s be open, not narrow-minded in our quest for truth. Jesus said so: “If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples, you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free” (Jn. 8:32).

Let’s endeavor to be instruments of truth, by living according to the truth and avoiding expressing things that may be equivalent to lies. As they say, a lie is a half-truth. Truth is a whole truth, not just a part, while hiding another part or parts.. St. Teresa of Avila, great Teacher in the Church, gave us this guiding rule: “Never affirm anything unless you are sure it is true.”

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