My Christian faith has changed and grown through inter-religious experience. Here is one example of how we Christians can contribute to God’s shalom as we build friendship and understanding with others.
The first official Minnesota Christian-Muslim dialogue began in 1990 with a dozen of us meeting in homes. First, a few from each tradition shared their earliest awareness of God – a Catholic child learning Bible stories from her loving grandmothers and an Indian Muslim beginning to memorize the Qur’an at age four. Several months of very personal conversations created the atmosphere of trust and respect we needed to tackle more difficult topics, such as the importance of Jesus in each tradition. Overwhelmingly, the Muslim participants said they never imagined that Christians took their relationship with God as seriously as Muslims did. This revelation was shocking and embarrassing to us as Christians, who had assumed the same thing about our Muslim colleagues.
We can trust in God’s saving grace and collaborate with others for the sake of the common good and God’s will for all creation.
This message is excerpted from “Shalom comes first” by Carol Lahurd in the December 2017 Gather magazine. Today we commemorate Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, 397.
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