1. Women in dialogue

In his most recent book Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald affirms the positive role that women play in dialogue (1). He goes even farther and emphasizes the importance of their involvement. Their contribution is especially to be noted in three areas: their approach to reality, their willingness to share their experiences, and their readiness to call attention to what is actually happening. They have a special—one might almost say natural—ability to deal with delicate questions that would otherwise remain unresolved.

Women are often not represented in official dialogues. They are however, much more present in monastic interreligious dialogue, and for that reason I am especially happy that I, a woman and a nun, am able to share these reflections with you.

2. What is meant by the “experience of monastic dialogue”?

When a monk or a nun “goes out” to dialogue, as Fr. Pierre de Béthune puts it (2), their interreligious dialogue usually consists in participating in the common life and sharing their experience of the spiritual life. Both are centered on that which is fundamental to all monastic life, whether it be Christian or not: the quest for the Ultimate. In his Rule Saint Benedict says that the first criterion for judging a monastic vocation is “si vere Deum quaerit” (if the aspirant truly seeks God) (3).

When one spends time in a monastery of a tradition other than one’s own, the searching and the asceticism that are common to the monastic way of life (the “monastic archetype” in Panikkar’s words (4) can give one a sense of being an outsider and, at the same time, create a strong and lasting impression of being at home. Both feelings result from the rhythm of meditation, liturgical rituals, obedience, silence, life-long celibacy (for nuns), the common life, and even from the architectural design of the different places.

3. The dialogue of spiritual experience when the encounter takes place “at a distance”

Faith is questioned

For many monks who became involved in interreligious dialogue, the first stage consisted in becoming familiar with the spiritual works of other traditions rather than in sharing the day-to-day life of other monastic communities. The first encounter took place “at a distance,” but it still had the effect of calling one’s faith into question.

The monastic horarium specifies a time for lectio divina. For a long time I did my lectio by reading the sacred texts of other religious traditions. This kind of sacred reading demands a faith in our common humanity and in the universality of God’s love, as well as a readiness to be taught by the beauty of other cultures and to discern therein the action of the Holy Spirit. One allows one’s heart to be shaped by a faith that is hollowed out, purified, deepened and interiorized. One asks oneself how to think about God, how to say something about God, the mystery of God as Person and Trinity, the work of salvation through the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

One who engages in interreligious dialogue is drawn to what R. Panikkar calls “intra-religious dialogue” (5), a re-examination of one’s own spiritual tradition.

At the beginning of my monastic formation I was introduced to the deeply Christological mysticism of the twelfth-century monastic Fathers. As I continued in the monastic life I devoted myself to the works of Meister Eckhart, the Rheno-Flemish spiritual authors, the medieval women mystics and, to a lesser degree, the representatives of the great Spanish school (with the exception of Ignatius). But I also tried to understand the doubts of my contemporaries who in their questioning went so far as to say that God was dead.

What I learn about the mystery of transcendence and immanence when others question me or tell me what they believe—whether they belong to my own tradition or another—is that the horizon is always receding.

Therein lies the fruit of interreligious dialogue: beyond the differences—which are not to be ignored—one can discover the value of those elements common to a “negative theology” (via negativa), a theology shaped by a wisdom that delights in profound silence and by an ascetic practice that leads to transformation.

An experience marked by faith

In my mind, there can be no doubt that faith has an influence on our “going out” for a dialogue, whether this be “at a distance” or in one’s daily life, and also when we share our spiritual experience. Even when I practice zazen as rigorously as possible, I cannot separate meditation without object or its interpretation from my experience of the Christian mysteries, expressed in words like perichoresis, kenosis, and “indwelling.”

Is mystical—or even spiritual—experience identical for a Christian, a Buddhist or a Muslim? Does their reading of this experience differ only because they are rooted in another religious culture and bound to those cultural forms of expression? May we say that the mystery of God that dwells in us as Christians is the same mystery that fills the other? I believe with all my heart that it is the Spirit that brings about spiritual unity, namely, the Spirit that is poured out on everyone from the cross of Christ—from the very heart of Christ—and that draws us into the life of the Trinity.

Partners of a shared spiritual experience bear witness together

Mary, icon of dialogue

I firmly believe that in the mysteries of the Annunciation and Visitation, Mary, archetype of the Church and model of believers, reveals to us how grace at work within dialogue.

Mary of Nazareth, virgin of Israel, a humble servant among the Lord’s poor, waits for the fulfilment of the Promise. She listens, ready to obey. Full of grace, and she hears the angel’s greeting and discovers that the Lord is with her. She consents, opening herself to the action of the Spirit and freely welcoming the seed of the Word.

Mary does not shut herself up with the Word that dwells in her. She sets out to meet another woman of Israel, a woman who is advanced in age and childless, but who is also the recipient of God’s marvellous works. What takes place is an encounter!

Mary is content to be present and to greet. The one she bears is already calling out and bestowing grace. Elisabeth answers Mary’s greeting with wonder, blessing, and admiration, for her child leaps for joy and dances within her. She too is brought into the sacred space of thanksgiving and proclaims that Mary is blessed, for the same mystery of life is at work in her. Mary, in turn, gives free voice to her boundless jubilation.

Today, through her sons and daughters, the Church, like Mary, sets out for dialogue. The Church is called to bear witness to the hope of salvation that is hers because her life is the life of her Savior. She is called to proclaim the Word by her life. Proclamation and dialogue go hand in hand. In the Church and around her the Spirit creates a space where Christ is present and raises up those whom the Word has made fruitful. The Church is called to live according to the Spirit of Christ and to recognize the Spirit at work within other religious traditions!

Partners share their spiritual experience

Living with monks from other traditions—as happens in the East-West Spiritual Exchanges—offers us the opportunity to experience encounters that go very deep, thanks to the spiritual components of monastic life and our sharing.

As a nun, I am impressed by one component in particular: the joy and gratitude I experience when I discover that God is desired, loved and served by the other and by everything good, fine and noble in tradition of the other.

In the heart of Christian dialogue partners a Christic space (6) is opened up. Can we not also say that a Buddhist or Islamic space is opened up in the heart of believers of other traditions? This space, or rather these spaces, are not for one way traffic, but for dialogue. In dialogue each person is welcomed. In dialogue believers from other traditions can be welcomed along with that which they may be searching for, though without being fully aware of it. In dialogue they encounter the interior teacher. For the Christian, the search is a response to the Gospel. But I am sure that this space is not only for Christians.

I would like to mention here the testimony of Shoei Sensei, a Japanese Buddhist nun who wanted to receive Holy Communion. We Catholic nuns had been welcomed to her temple in Japan, where we shared all the important moments of the daily life of her community. During her first journey to Europe she stayed in my monastery and there experienced the pain of not being able to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, despite her deep desire to do so. During the second “Exchange,” which took place in the Netherlands, she stayed with a Cistercian community whose practice it was to stand around the altar for the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Thus, she was able to take the chalice and pass it to the sister alongside her. When it came time for an evaluation of our experience, she joyfully told me, “I felt the power of Christ, because when I passed the chalice, I breathed in the blood of Christ!” In her Buddhist space there was a place for dialogue and communion with Christ.

Once, during an evening service at the Jokhang Temple in Lhassa, the monk who was officiating approached me with a smile, placed his hand on me, and bowed me down for the ritual inclination at the offering of the goods of creation. I felt within me a Christic space where the disciples of Buddha are welcomed.

In these two spaces inhabited by a mysterious presence, there is born a dialogue of recognition and knowledge. At the concluding symposium of the 1990 East-West Exchange, Father Vincent Oshida, OP, cried out, “Be the best possible Buddhist monks!” And they replied, “And you, the best possible Christian monks!”

5. Dialogue in all its expressions

Daily life makes us sensitive to the demands of our increasingly multicultural and interreligious societies. I got involved in the dialogue of spiritual experience for the purpose of being in touch with my time and place, and this dialogue led me to participate in other forms of dialogue as well. I gave introductory courses that were more theological in content at the diocesan seminary (the fruit of my extended reading of Jacques Dupuis) and I participated in the encounters of local interreligious groups, such as a Christian/Muslim discussion group or a United Religious Initiatives Cooperation Circle. I went to this group as a Catholic nun and I was accepted as such.

Special bonds have been created between my monastery and the local Islamic families. The celebrations of the end of the Ramadan bring together my community, friends, and more than forty Islamic families.

Once more one must admit that there are few women in these encounter groups, whatever their tradition may be. I find it somewhat amusing that I can open doors because I am a nun. I wonder why it is that the men want their wives to meet me, but whatever the reason, a dialogue of life takes place. I was very touched when I was seriously ill and one of the women, who acted as interpreter for a half-dozen other young women, told me about the place of Sisters in a Turkish family and said they would like to think of me as their eldest sister, adding that their houses were mine.

On another occasion a Jewish friend of mine who is a teacher of Judaism asked to stay with me in the hospital so that together we could watch the televised coverage of the visit of the Holy Father to a synagogue in Cologne.

What we share with each other is what dwells within us, what passes through us, what we are. Christians are not the champions of dialogue, do not have a monopoly on it. They cannot pass on what they do not possess, but they do know that the feeling, the consciousness, the hands of Christ need ours more than ever if they are to become present in our world.

6. Urgency

I want to be optimistic, even at the risk of appearing naïve. No one can ignore the fanaticism, the violence, and the murderous intent of the contemporary world. The situation is desperate.

Addressing the ambassador of Guinea, Pope Benedict XVI said, “In spite of difficulties the Catholic Church is determined to continue its efforts to encourage comprehension and respect between the believers of different religious traditions … In union with all people of good will, believers contribute to building up a society free from every kind of moral and social squalor, so that each one can live in dignity and solidarity” (7).

One of the chief aims of dialogue is peace among people, better yet, harmony. “Harmony among Believers” is the title that was proposed for a votive Mass for Interreligious Dialogue at the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue in May 2004.

Allow me another reflection as a woman and as a nun. Experiences are not official documents. Why do women have a special role to play in the dialogue? Because of a heart that bares itself, an emptiness that is welcoming, a merciful womb that receives, transmits, and protects life. Even more than the grace of solidarity, women have received what I, as a nun, call a grace of kenosis! Putting our faith into practice means that we have to become involved in the interreligious dialogue of the Church, going out to follow our Lord Jesus in his kenosis.

Great indeed is the heart of a woman—and that of a man as well. It can love God and change murderers into brothers and sisters. God makes everything new. Do we not see it?