Only Love Is Absolute

This week’s Daily Meditations explore the fruitfulness of interfaith friendships. We begin with Father Richard Rohr reflecting on Jesus’ inclusivity, which has allowed Richard both to affirm and critique his own religious tradition—and invites us to do the same.

In no other period of history have humans had such easy and immediate access to people of other cultures and other religions, often as friends. Once a person has developed any “discernment of the Spirit” it becomes clear that God’s holiness exists all over the place.

The Second Vatican Council gave Catholics some fine official guidelines and freedoms. Nostra Aetate, the 1965 Catholic document on non-Christian religions affirms, “For all peoples comprise a single community, and have a single origin . . . one also is their final goal: God. [God’s] providence, manifestations of goodness, and saving designs extend to all [people].” [1] Such an affirmation rightly places us all inside the same frame of history and allows no foundational distinction between us. We are clearly from the one God, tending toward the one God, and as the mystics of all religions teach, Reality itself is one.

It is strange that it took us almost all of our two-thousand-year history to get back to the “ecumenical” attitude Jesus had at the very beginning! He goes out of his way to make non-Jews the heroes of many of his stories and teachings. He is quick to point out the failures and fallacies of his own religion, Judaism, while still remaining faithful to it. Jesus held a very critical stance toward his own religion, but for some reason few of us think we can do the same.

On the other hand, sadly, many people think that if they no longer believe in the absolute primacy of their own religion, then it has no absolute call on them and they often give up on it entirely. But I am convinced that the biblical tradition is saying that the only absolute available to us is the faithful love of God, and not any concept or structure—even our religious traditions themselves. God’s love itself is the center and the still point of the turning world. But if we have never actually experienced this love, we will most assuredly look for absolutes in other ways.

What is unique about Jesus is his inclusivity itself! He is so grounded in the absoluteness of the Divine relationship that he is quite free to relativize the Law, simplify the Prophets, and find God outside of his own tradition. He is constantly and consistently inclusive—without denying his Jewish foundation and faith. I believe we can only be inclusive when we have a deeply held and shared experience that we can include people “into.” We have to have a “home” to bring people home to.

What the world wants, and people need, are people who believe in Something—Something that will lead them to the good, the beautiful, the true, and the universal.

Eileen’s Reflections on this.

When seeking God, I explored most Christian denominations and some other world religions. I realized no one has all the truth and nothing but the truth, because that would make them equal to God. After experiencing the Love of God expressed in Jesus outside any religion, I studied scripture and prayed with women from most of the major Christian denominations. We didn’t have conflicts, because our focus was on seeking grace to become more loving. I’ve been on lay witness teams or given witness talks for Methodist, Presbyterian USA, Catholic, Episcopalian and Baptist churches. God is alive in all of them and some people in each “get” that kind of all encompassing love of God. I have experienced that “oneness” with everything and everyone several times. We really are one and everything we do or is done to us effects all, those we love and those we don’t. It changes everything to know that. It’s not easy to love our enemies, but that’s the heart of all religions’ beginnings, before we let our fears control us. And for Christians, Jesus personifies that love for all, even those that betrayed him and those that killed him. Whether we like it or not, this is what Jesus is about. And if we call ourselves Christians, it’s what we are called to keep seeking the grace to do.