In Our Time: Honoring 60 years of Interfaith Dialogue

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you for joining me. I'm Rabbi David Lyon from
Congregation Beth Israel in Houston. This past week in Houston,
a group of Inner Faith leaders gathered to celebrate the
sixtieth anniversary of nostra Atate. Nostra Atate is the very
brief but impactful letter issued by the Vatican and which

(00:24):
John Paul the Second made so palpable in the world
around us by addressing the relationship between the Catholic Church
and especially the Jewish community, which suffered for many years,
many decades and centuries, and which came to a new
realization that gave breadth and depth to a new relationship

(00:46):
between us and between other Christians too. So in the
gathering I shared some words I wish to share with
you as we face a complicated world that we're living
in now, and with some reflection on the past and
how even in times of turmoil then we were able
to overcome differences that were long lasting and deeply indelible

(01:13):
and still found a way to find new reasons to dialogue,
to partner together and find reasons for greater peace. In
nineteen sixty five, when nostre Atate was published, the world
was adhering to the hope that many dreams would come
to pass, not the least of which was the end
of a century's old hurt that the Catholic Church held

(01:35):
against the Jewish people. But rather than see the nineteen
sixties as a time of radical change in itself, we
would do better to observe the world as having renewed
its relationship between religion and humanity. Just as the Enlightenment
and an age of reason and science emerged, God's teachings

(01:55):
appeared to be emerging. To those science would share space
the world of religions, it would not replace religion as
the enduring source of what to do with science, and
so as weapons grew more powerful and medicine grew more effective,
religion continued to guide our human power to affect human good.

(02:18):
And so we adhere to the ancient teachings and the
enduring values embedded within them. From Isaiah, we beat our
swords into blowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. From Leviticus,
we try to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
And from Micah, we aim to do justice, love mercy,

(02:38):
and welcomely with God. The prophets who led us and
the sages who taught us finally penetrated our shielded hearts
and stubborn souls. At that time, the arc of history
did bend towards justice, because we adhere to the faith
that urged us in those directions. It began with individuals, heroes, rebels,

(03:03):
leaders who helped us to penetrate our strongest religious and
political institutions. Too, it always begins with individuals who see
the light, who understand the way, who learned from history
and come to approach the present with something new. In Judaism,
when the rabbis of old debated how the tory should

(03:24):
be interpreted in the laws written, they sometimes found themselves
at an impasse. They debated as long as their argument
was for the sake of heaven, but if all else failed,
they went to see what the people were already doing.
They couldn't enforce a law that no one would follow,
and the people, left to their own understanding of the

(03:44):
law often came to their own best conclusion. Thus was
born the law in that place and for those times likewise.
In the nineteen sixties, people were seizing on the hopes
and dreams of the prophets ancient and modern to end
the divisions that drove humanity to break holy laws, to

(04:04):
do it in the Divine name, and to stand on
unsteady heaps of victory ground. Instead, they bow to the
power of enduring faith and the humbleness of their humanity.
My predecessor's predecessor here in my synagogue, Rabbi Chachtell once
wrote that though we are small, we are meaningfully related

(04:26):
to the Divine. In his words, we see and hear
that we are small but not insignificant. And when we
are small in our own eyes, we leave room for
the grandeur of God's holy place that fills the heavens
and the earth. In that relationship, nostra Atate could be established.

(04:47):
Its principles renew the relationship that naturally existed and still
exists between Jews and Christians, as laid out by the
Catholic Church. Among its principles are these. First, the document
highlights of the Jewish roots of Christianity, emphasizing that Jesus
marry and the Apostles were all Jewish. Two, nostra Atate

(05:11):
explicitly condemns all forms of anti Semitism and discrimination against Jews. Third,
the text asserts that God's covenant with the Jewish people
is enduring an unbroken affirming their unique role in Salvation history. Fourth,
it encourages Catholics to foster understanding and dialogue with the

(05:32):
Jewish community. And fifth, the document stresses the importance of
promoting peace and fraternity among all people, regardless of the
religious affiliations. In a key passage from Nostra Atate to
we read anew as the Sacred Synod searches into the
mystery of the Church and remembers the bond that spiritually

(05:53):
ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham stock
And it reminded me as it does now, that my
visit to see Pope Francis in Rome last August was
a unique experience. Among fifteen people in the room who
held meeting with him for ninety minutes, I was the

(06:14):
only Jew, the only rabbi, and as we spend time
with him, our agendas was filled with a conversation about
how to organize the most vulnerable people in our midst
to accomplish the needs that they have to overcome the
burdens that hold them back. He was so intrigued by
what we came to talk about because from his place
of origin in Buenos Aires, where he says such community

(06:37):
organized would be akin to rebellion. He was fascinated that
in a democratic society like ours, even of it's challenged today,
we can do what we need in the name of goodness,
humanity and peace. To struggle with and to challenge our institutions,
but to emerge whole and in partnership with others who

(07:01):
are different than we are, and especially coming from Houston
and the Southwest, as we explain to him, we live
in one of the most diverse cities in our country.
Some say that by twenty fifty America will look like
Houston does today, and in Houston today, one hundred and
forty five languages are spoken. And so when we shared

(07:21):
our stories with Pope Francis, he began to understand how
the partnership between peoples as it was related in nostre
Etate gives rise to the hopefulness that we can accomplish
what must be done, but only if we can do
it together. And there are so many examples of when
it goes wrong because we isolate ourselves in silos and

(07:43):
unique places among only unique people to accomplish what really
requires so many people of different backgrounds to do together
because of expertise, because of skill sets, but also because
of shared faith and the common ground that we found
amongst our in Rome, and even this past week as
we celebrated the anniversary of Nostra Tate, is the words

(08:07):
of the prophets, the words of our unique prophets that
always speak not of enmity or indifference, but rather of commonality,
of uniqueness, and among the Abrahamic traditions, that particularity that
allows us and gives us room and space to pray
as we do and to think as we want, still

(08:29):
leads us along those particular paths to a universal God,
a unified God. And even though one of our speakers
on the panel this past week was of the Hindu religion,
she spoke of multiple gods and the ways that they
accomplish for them what they need, she still spoke about
how all of them act in unity for a simple purpose.

(08:50):
It is for peace, and it is for love. And
so as she began and ended her word, she used
the word not mustay. Many of us have heard it,
many of us have used used it. But we should
understand that when we say namas day, it means I
bow to the sacred to the Holy within you. What
a beautiful way to begin a conversation or a dialogue

(09:12):
with someone who is different, whether we are Hindu or not.
To bow, as it were, to the Holy that we
also observe in you in the other is the beginning
of a strong foundation on which we can build and
do so much. So I said in the conclusion of
my words to the group that on the sixtieth anniversary
of nostra Atat, Abraham's dock stands together in the representation

(09:36):
of all faith that grew from him and all face
that honored the creation of humanity in the divine image.
And I've cited before that our a rabbinic teachings explain
only one man was created at the beginning, so that
no one might say that my father was greater than yours.
And so it concludes that we are equals before God.

(10:00):
No matter what one might say to you, however you
might want to believe it, It's true. We are equals
before God. We are brothers and sisters in families of faiths,
and the friendships that we have nurtured and celebrated are
not superficial. The friendships that we have enjoyed and the
rewards for adhering to our respective face and honoring the

(10:22):
face of others. Finally, it was a prayer that I
prepared for that evening, but as the evening unfolded, was
not part of the program. But I know that each
of the panelist did prepare such a prayer, And since
I didn't get to share it, then I'm going to
share it with you now from our prayer book called Gates,

(10:44):
a prayer which was initially published in nineteen seventy five
and has somewhat gone out of use now with the
immersions of a new prayer book. Nevertheless, these beautiful words
at say, Eternal One, may all your children learn to
live together in peace and friendship, that the day come
an oppression, discrimination and prejudice will be forgotten, and all

(11:05):
the world will be filled with your spirit. As it
has been said by the prophet Isaiah, turn to me
and be saved all the ends of the earth. And
then in my own words, I concluded, therefore, God of
all your children, on the sixtieth anniversary of the historic
and sacred text Nostra Tate Latin, for in our time,

(11:28):
may we shake off all the enmity and indifference that
followed us from time immemorial, and let us wear only
the cloak of mutual respect that brings honor to each
other and therefore to God. In these times, Nostra Tate
can shed light again on all that we can be
together and all that we can do as children of

(11:49):
one God. Those words mean a lot to me, and
I think they mean a lot to my partners in
faith and with whom I work in the larger community.
I hope that they inspire you also to know that
religious individuals, but also religious institutions can transform and change.

(12:11):
To see that the bulk of our history has been
filled with challenge, but the opportunity in the present and
in the long future ahead of us is filled with
so much hope for greater peace, certainly more than we
have come to know today. A Rabbi David Lyon from
Congregation Beth Israel and Houston. To listen again or to

(12:32):
share this message, please find it My podcast called Heart
to Heart with Rabbi David Lyon, is found at Sunny
ninety nine dot com on the iHeartRadio app. As you
begin your day or your week, I hope that you'll
appreciate that though there are misunderstandings about and between religious

(12:52):
faith traditions, there are common threads that tie them together. Certainly, Judaism,
Christian and Islam have threads that tie them together. And
though the media and others might portray them as standing
so diametrically opposed from each other, the truth is that
there is more in common than not, and it's really

(13:14):
incumbent upon us to see what those commonalities can be,
and work and strive to here to understand each other
so that, just like Nostratt did so many decades ago,
it broke open old standard relationships to reveal what is
so possible and necessary in an increasingly complex and global world.

(13:39):
Without that possibility, then we simply go home to our own.
We draw tight circles around the household, the community, and
the congregation where we live, worship, and work, and we
discover that we are growing too few to accomplish all
that needs to be done. Widening the circle, opening the door,
and opening our hearts helps us to understand how much

(14:01):
more we can do and be, so that challenges don't
have to overwhelm us because we don't have to take
them on alone. With like minded and reasonable people, we
can accomplish exactly what the prophets taught us to do,
how to live and how to grow as a people,
and in the end of it, not only by to
bring honor to ourselves and those who work with us,

(14:24):
but most importantly, to bring honor to God, in whose
image we are created. And as long as we live
on this earth, which is not forever, in the time
that we've been given, we should do something good with it.
In the end, our good name is all that we have.
Let it be a good name that brings honor to
God and to all who participated in the world of

(14:45):
peace building, friendship, growing, and all the good works we
know must be done. Thank you for joining me today.
I look forward to being with you again next time.