Nostra Aetate - In Our Time

61 together that Scripture says: “He who does not love does not know God” (1 John 4:8 – NA V). This sounds like a rather serious task, and indeed it is. But it is also – and this is my concrete experience with interreligious dialogue – an immensely enriching one, an experience that gives joy as all good things do. This enrichment is not only intellectual, it also is spiritual. To give two examples: In one of my first encounters with Muslims somebody told us that Muslims, out of respect, always place the Koran on the highest place within the room and place no other books on top of it. I do the same to this day with the Bible, and I am grateful to have received this inspiration from a Muslim. And when I think of women theologians, the person who first comes to my mind is a Jewish feminist theologian to whom I owe a lot and for whom I feel much respect. She is, in Christian terms, a saint for me. In this way I could cite other examples from other religions from whose practices and believers, through dialogue, I was immensely enriched in my own faith. 3. The prophetic mission in this age and the common action for a more humane world Prophets do not speak in general. They are called to a particular duty and mission for a specific age. As con- crete human beings they are to speak to other human beings about God and their responsibilities, mainly about how they are to treat other creatures. Prophets always address men and women in a particular situation sharing their “joys and hopes, grievances and anxieties”, as the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes of Vatican II states in the beginning. The central question therefore is: What should the pro- phetic voices of our religions be pointing out for this, our age? This is not all that easy to discern. The Bible tells us that there are true but also false prophets who confuse the Word of God with their own interpretation and who distort it for personal gains or for the sake of political profit, knowingly or unknowingly. What, therefore, does the prophetic dimension of a living dialogue between the Abrahamic faiths or the religions of theWord entail today? If we look at the often dismal conditions in this world and the anxieties of human beings which we can observe daily in the news it is clear that we should be working for peace and justice, this being an immense task. We are thus, to use the beautiful Jewish expression, to con- tribute to the tikkun olam , the repair of the world and the construction of eternity, in this way living up to our individual responsibility before God. When I teach an interreligious summer course in a monastery near Vienna every second year to young people, mainly Christians and Muslims, I start with a diagram showing that more than half of the world’s pop- ulation is either Christian or Muslim. Then I ask them: What do you think that God, in whomwe believe, wants us to do in this age? How can we live responsible lives before Him, doing His will, knowing that He wants good for His creatures and all human beings. I always feel that this question is important for them and also for us. Let me come to the end. Religious confrontations have increased in a way that could not be foreseen 50 years ago when Nostra Aetate was written. People kill each other in the name of God. This, for every man and woman who truly believes in Him, is the most serious blasphemy and a sinful abuse of His name, which has to be acted against with every means possible. So for the sake of peace but also for the sake of God we have to search, with all the means that are available to us, for possibilities to foster peace between religions and at all levels of society, in all countries. This is a task for all true believers who must form alliances amongst each other knowing that God cannot be honoured by them killing each other but only by good deeds and the readiness to forgive and to work on improving relations. This is our common duty. Peace cannot be separated from justice. Pope Francis recently called on all religions in his eco-encyclical Laudato Si’ to care for our common home, to intensify efforts to avoid ecological disasters, to overcome injustices in this world and to work together. Here, as in efforts to combat other debasing practices like modern slavery and human trafficking, religions are called to cooperate closely. So as to live up to the prophetic and human dimen- sion of our religions and so as to honour the name of God through our responsible action and faith, interreli- gious dialogue remains of utmost importance. Thereby true human fulfilment and the glory of God cannot be separated from each other since, as says the Christian theologian Irenaus of Lyon in the second century: “The glory of God is first and foremost the living human being.” Thank you for your attention. NOSTRA AETATE AND THE RELIGIONS OF ABRAHAM