Interreligious Dialogue by Sr. Kathy Smolik, OSB

“There’s a monastic way of listening that lets the other define itself without my inner commentary and yes, judgment. Dialogue itself is enough and the ‘other’ is the topic. The message has no content, only presence” (Sr. Meg Funk, Bulletin 70).

Have you ever spoken with someone of a different world religion? Have you really wanted to know what they believe? What kind of conversation would you have with a Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or Jew? Could we possibly have anything in common?

I am in my fourth year of being a member of the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue board that fosters dialogue between members of the major world religions. Established in 1978, the board itself is in its thirty-fourth year of existence.

“The success of (a meeting between Christian and non-Christian monastics in India in 1973) prompted Cardinal Pignedoli, who was then Prefect of the Secretariat for Non-Christians, to ask Abbot Primate Rembert Weakland to encourage Benedictines to become involved in interreligious dialogue because, as he put it, ‘monasticism is the bridge between religions’” (About MID).

Monasticism in the Christian tradition is ordered to cultivate a deep life of prayer and it is from this perspective that those following the Benedictine way of life were asked to dialogue with other religions.

My experience of dialogue has had a profound impact on my life. The first realization I came to early on is that to dialogue with another I must be firmly rooted in my own faith tradition. I must be grounded with both feet in my Catholic/ Benedictine tradition. Most importantly, Jesus Christ needs to be my center.

From this place of rootedness I can then sit at the table of dialogue with an honest and sincere desire to “listen” to another human being with very different and sometimes opposing beliefs. This need not shake us. These can be moments of profound respect for our diversity as creatures. As I practice listening with openness and (hopefully) transparency, I also share my own deeply held convictions as a vowed Catholic religious.

The particular event sponsored by the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue board that has been most meaningful to me and dear to my heart is an ongoing dialogue called “Nuns in the West.” This past Labor Day Weekend 2008 eight Benedictine nuns met with six Buddhist nuns from various lineages to discuss the inner life of training.

The meeting was the third in a series that began in with an inspiration in 2002. At this third meeting held at a Benedictine Monastery in Rock Island, Illinois, “Sister Meg explained how the first Nuns in the West began—the ‘genetic moment’ in her words. She and Ven. Yifa conceived the Nuns in the West project at the 2002 Gethsemani Encounter. They and the other women participants at Gethsemani II envisioned an event at which ‘just nuns’ would gather and dialogue in a more intense way and at a deeper level of personal relationships. There were to be no media, observers, or formal papers. This proposal was subsequently approved at an annual Monastic Interreligious Dialogue board meeting and the idea was on its way. The first gathering was so positive that another meeting was held two years later in 2005. According to Sister Meg, it has become ‘one of the most important events of interreligious dialogue that Monastic Interreligious Dialogue has ever sponsored’” (Bulletin 81).

In the next reflection I will share more about the content of our dialogue and the fruits of this dialogue, as I understand them. For now I would like to end as I began, with this quote that sums up for me the spirit of dialogue and how to be in the presence of another human being:
“There’s a monastic way of listening that lets the other define itself without my inner commentary and yes, judgment. Dialogue itself is enough and the ‘other’ is the topic. The message has no content, only presence” (Sr. Meg Funk)

Link:
http://monasticdialog.com/index.php