St. John Paul II
St. John Paul II, in his effort to relaunch the evangelizing mission of the Church in his encyclical The Mission of the Redeemer, cannot however ignore the presence and action of the Spirit in the world. He writes:
The Spirit manifests himself in a special way in the Church and in her members. Nevertheless, his presence and activity are universal, limited neither by space nor time (DEV 53)… The Spirit’s presence and activity affect not only individuals but also society and history, peoples, cultures and religions… Thus the Spirit, who “blows where he wills” (cf. Jn 3:8), who “was already at work in the world before Christ was glorified” (AG 4), and who “has filled the world,… holds all things together (and) knows what is said (Wis 1:7), leads us to broaden our vision in order to ponder his activity in every time and place (DEV 53)… The Church’s relationship with other religions is dictated by a twofold respect: “Respect for man in his quest for answers to the deepest questions of his life, and respect for the action of the Spirit in man.”[10]
The Spirit of God, therefore, is not a stranger to people whatever be the culture and religion they belong to. That is why another document, Dialogue and Proclamation, published jointly by the Congregation for Evangelization and the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, declared:
Concretely it will be in the sincere practice of what is good in their own religious traditions and by following the dictates of their conscience that the members of other religions respond positively to God’s invitation and receive salvation in Jesus Christ, even while they do not recognize or acknowledge him as their Saviour.[11]
A Call to Cosmic Community
What these documents affirm is that people can be inspired and animated by the Spirit of God and receive salvation in Jesus Christ – that is, become People of God – without the direct mediation of the Church (and its hierarchy). Therefore, we can say that all humans are People of God, though in different ways. God cares for them and saves them in ways known and unknown to us.
The consequences of this realization are that, first of all, the term ‘People of God’, in spite of its origin in Catholic circles after the Second Vatican Council, can today have a wider significance. All humans are ‘Peoples of God’. God is reaching out to them and animating them in various ways, known and unknown to us. I think that I have demonstrated it sufficiently in the previous paragraphs using official resources from and after the Second Vatican Council. Of course, Bishops and theologians in Asia have developed these perspectives much further.[12] Secondly, when we think of people’s wisdom or theology we can draw them from the resources of all the peoples of the world, of all cultures and religions. We, Christians, have no exclusive claims to them. Thirdly, people like us, living in multi-religious communities, are called to dialogue and collaborate with people of all religions and cultures and all people of good will – that is, even non-religious – in the process of promoting a cosmic community of freedom and fellowship, love and justice. Finally, we should think of this community, no longer as the Church, but rather as the Kingdom of God which embraces everyone and everything. (cf. Eph 1:3-10; Col 1:15-20; 1 Cor 15:28) Let me spell these consequences out briefly in the remaining pages.
The Wisdoms of Asia
Many years ago, I wrote a book Life in Freedom: Liberations Theologies from Asia.[13] In that book I tried to show how the different Asian religions inspire the Asian peoples in their struggle for their economic, social, political and even religious liberation. I cannot, obviously, summarize that book here. But I would like to highlight a few things to show that ‘Peoples’ theology’ is not a monopoly of the Christians. It is a common place among scriptural scholars to say that the Wisdom books in the Bible have drawn material from the Wisdom literature of other Peoples in the Middle East. This can be true for us today, not only in Asia, but elsewhere in the world since the phenomenon of globalization is breaking down barriers and opening frontiers. Ancient India had a collection of moral tales called Panchatantra. Comparing it with Aesop’s fables, popular in the West, some scholars suggest that such stories may have been mutually shared between the East and the West. Someone drafting a Wisdom book today in Asia will certainly draw material from sages like Confucius (China), the Buddha (Thailand-Vietnam), Thiruvalluvar and Gandhi (India).
Confucius looked on life as a process of living in community. He saw community as consisting of five relationships: between the ruler and the ruled, father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger people and friends. Li or the appropriate way of relating to people must characterize one’s life. A certain basic humanism shown in a respect for the others and benevolence must be observed. The ‘golden rule’ of not doing to others what you would not like others to do to you is attributed to him – though it is also found in many other cultures. The focus of the precepts was, not so much on rights, but on duty and responsibility. One thought more about the other to whom one was relating than about oneself.[14]Living in harmony was the ideal. This feel for harmony was extended to the whole of creation by Taoism which was more a philosophical rather than a moral vison of the community and of the universe.[15]
Though Buddha taught total non-attachment as the goal of life, his modern followers found inspiration in his vision of the universe as the inter-relatedness of beings to work out a social perspective based on egolessness. Everything and everyone in the universe is mutually inter-dependant. Bhikku Buddhadasa from Thailand concluded from this to a principle of Dhammic socialism. Egoism, as an exclusive focus on the self, must be got rid of. We are dependent on each other and responsible for each other. We must live and work together and be at each other’s service. So he taught a Buddhism that was socially engaged.[16] Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese monk. He also focused on this theme of inter-dependance, but developed a vision of what he called inter-being. To be is to be inter-be, be-with, dependent on and supportive of the other(s). We should avoid all conflict based on selfish attachment and live in harmony with the others and with the universe. Egolessness can lead to sacrificing oneself for the others.[17]
Tiruvalluvar is said to have lived before Jesus Christ in Tamilnadu, South India. He has a book of 1330 moral aphorisms of two lines each, covering aspects of personal, social and marital life. His aphorisms are religiously neutral so that people still discuss whether he was a Hindu or a Jain. Since we often suggest that love of the other is the great Christian value, it is worth looking at what he says about love.
Those who do not love are all for themselves;
Those who love will offer even their bones for others. (72)
Righteousness without love is like a boneless worm
Getting scorched in the sun. (77)
Love structures life, which without love
Is like a body without bones. (80)
The way to punish those who do you harm
Is to shame them by doing good to them. (314)[18]
Mahatma Gandhi was known for his struggle for freedom, justice and peace in South Africa and India. His struggle adopted the way of non-violence. He has been the inspiration behind other leaders like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Gandhi himself has suggested that he may have learnt his practice of non-violence from early influences of Jainism, the life and teachings like the ‘Sermon on the mount’ of Jesus and the discourse on dharma or righteousness in the Bhagavadgita.
Notes
[9] Ibid., 22.
[10] No. 28-29.
[11] No. 29.
[12] See the various documents of the Federation of the Asian Bishops’ Conferences and their Office of Theological Concerns. See www.fabc.org/documentations.html
[13] Cf. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1997; (Translations: Vivre en Liberté. Bruxelles: Lumen Vitae; Paris: Cerf; Geneva: Labor et Fides; Montreal: Novalis, 1997. Vivir en libertad. Estella: Editorial Verbo Divino, 2000.)
[14] Cf. Kevin SHUN-KAI CHENG, “The Social Dimension of Liberation in Early Confucian Tradition”, Ching Feng 36 (1993), 611-81.
[15] Cf. Wing-Tsit CHAN (ed), A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy. New York: Princeton University Press, 1963.
[16] Cf. BHIKKU BUDDHADASA, Dhammic Socialism. Bangkok: Thai Inter-religious Commission for Development, 1986.
[17] Cf. Thich Nhat HANH, Interbeing. Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1988.
[18] The translations are my own.