“The devil said to him, ‘I shall give to you all this power and glory, for it has been handed on to me, and I may give it to whoever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me. ”
Jesus said to him in reply; ‘It is written: you shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve.”

Magandang araw po sa inyong lahat.

The Gospel today tells us the story of the temptations of Jesus. And one of which was the temptation on Power… to be powerful among men!

The devil said, “I shall give to you all this power and glory … all this will be yours, if you worship me!:
How tempting it is! How many of us in some moments of our lives have thoughts like this that crossed our minds? How good and sweet it is to be POWERFUL!

This hunger for POWER is the enemy of peace and social transformation.
The task assigned to me today is for us to reflect along this line;

Achieving Peace and Social Transformation Through Inter-faith Dialogue

At the start, it would be good that we look at these big words- Peace and Social Transformation; its meaning and our understanding.

For many people, PEACE is the absence of War. And rightly so, for if you are caught in a war every after 6 months, then for you, peace is when you can sleep in your own home, with no fear of being shot or bombed.

For others, PEACE is silence. And this is because every day of their lives, they are caught in so much noise-traffic jams and the beeps of impatient drivers, jeeps and tricycles with very loud booming sounds, screaming neighbors…then for these people, PEACE is when there is a pocket of silence where they can at least listen to their heartbeats- and gather their thoughts together.

For others, PEACE is described in more concrete terms;
- For those who have no homes of their own, Peace is a house and a small lot they can plant on which they can call HOME.
- For those who have no jobs, Peace is a stable work that pays a good salary.
- For those who have lost their loved ones in a violent event, Peace is finding justice through the courts of Law.

For many in Mindanao, Peace and Security are interconnected and intertwined. In a consultation-study commissioned by the Bishops-Ulama Council last year, the project was called: consult Mindanao, majority of the respondents in expressing their vision of peace says peace is a reduction of arms, guns and crimes. Peace is to erase fear and to feel secured. But for us, people of faith, Peace implies a relationship with God, that which entails forgiveness, reconciliation and union (with Him).

Peace is not just the absence of war, but a state of well-being, both of the individuals and the community.

In the Old Testament, as mention in the book of the Prophet Ezra (Chapter 3), Peace is the perfection of a thing – a result of the community being in covenant communion with God…being in harmonious relationship with God. To remain faithful to God’s commands and to live without sin is what peace is… the perfect fulfillment of God’s covenant with Israel.
That to know God is to enter into a covenant of God – a covenant that demands justice in every man’s relationship.

The prophet Isaiah (Chapter 48) says, “Peace includes not only union with God but of righteousness. Thus, for Him, the evildoers shall not have Peace! And so, we rightly proclaim: Peace is when God is present among us…

Peace is EMMANUEL!

The next word is SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION.
Transformation means change, a process of taking off, of discarding something in order to take on sometime new, to unlearn in order to re-learn. To empty one’s self so that one can truly absorb something. In theology, this is called “Metanoia”. This happens when one repents, realizing the need to turn away from the past and tries now to go a different path. Very often, it is painful and a long process. It entails a conscious effort on one’s part. No change can happen in one’s self if one does not allow this to happen.

Social transformation therefore means a collective change, a change in a societal level. It is transforming from a society of selfish individuals to becoming truly a “community of disciples” in the image and likeness of Jesus who is our model, in whose person and power we find Peace.

In truth and reality, social transformation is what the task of evangelization is all about; A MISSION OF TOTAL INTEGRAL LIBERATION!

Therefore, we who are baptized have a call to change the world. Our vocation is to transform the society where we are into what the Lord Jesus has proclaimed when, as in the Gospel of St. Luke 4-16:30, he said;
The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind;
to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year of favor to the Lord.”

Social transformation is God’s kingdom in action where justice, freedom and morality reign. (Ito ang katuparan ng pagdating ng Kaharian ng Diyos!)

What is INTER-FAITH DIALOGUE?

What is this in relation to our Faith?
Interfaith Dialogue has many aspects, degrees and perspectives. Interfaith Dialogue could mean a collaboration of work in the fields of theology, faith experience or in history. But what pertains and applies to the challenges of our times and events today are on the aspects of;

1) The Dialogue of Life. This means a relational exchange where people strive to live in an open and neighborly spirit, sharing joys and sorrows, their human problems and preoccupations. And this is where friendship is developed and a community is built. As the BUC once said; friendship is the beginning and end of dialogue.

2) The Dialogue of Action, in which persons of all religions collaborate for the integral development and liberation of people; such as in the promotion and work of justice and peace”
As in the words of Mr. Richard Landau, author of the book: “What the World Need to Know on Dialogue”;

“For me interfaith dialogue has always been about working together and creating unity and genuine understanding. By practicing dialogue, we deny a victory to those who would attempt to use religion to divide all of humanity…”
The conclusion that Mr. Richard Landau gave was;
  “through interfaith dialogue, we can change the world for the better…”

The Mandate for us to go into Interfaith dialogue is found in very important document of the Vatican Council II which is called NOSTRA AETATE. This is a document on the Declaration of the relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions.

“Nostra Aetate” is the Latin word for “in our time”
which are the opening words in the document. Allow me to read the beginning paragraph of this document for this which is the primary basis of the why of the necessity of interfaith dialogue;
“In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together, and the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger, the Church examines more closely her relationship to the non-Christian religions.

In her tasks of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations, she considers above all in this declaration what men have in common and what draws them to fellowship.
One is the community of all peoples, one their origin, for God made the whole human race to live over the face of the earth. One also is their final goal, God. His providence, His manifestations of goodness, His saving designs extend to all men….”

The document continues (in the last paragraph of No. 2);

 “The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with providence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.”

And with regards to the Muslims, this is what it says;

 “The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the creator of heaven and earth….

Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting…. Therefore, this sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind, social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom.”

The way to build a more peaceful world, a world that is kinder to the next generation of Filipinos, especially in Mindanao; and for us to transform our nation into a truly “the only Christian nation in Asia”, is through a dialogue; to dialogue with others who do not belong to our Faith, to dialogue with other Christians, to dialogue with others who are not Christians, the Moslems in Mindanao, and even to those whose faith lies in their human goodness.

In conclusion, let us go back to the Vatican II document, Nostra Aetate, in its final exhortation.
“The Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of race, color, condition of life, or religion. On the contrary, following in the footsteps of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, this sacred synod ardently implores the Christian faithful to maintain good fellowship among nations’(1 Peter 2:12), and, if possible, to live for their part in peace with all men, (14) so that they may truly be sons of the Father who is in heaven (15).”

Mga Kuya at Ate, ang hamon ng interfaith dialogue ay mahirap at mabigat….ngunit kailangan at mahalaga!

Pagpalain tayo ng Diyos!

Mabuhay ang Pilipino!