Sharing of faith: a way to peace

Last week’s Shalom I wrote that Duyog Ramadhan is a forgotten approach to peace. One reason could be the difficulty of fasting.

Actually, the Muslim way of fasting is much easier than the Catholic practice. The former does the fasting during the day but at early dawn and evening they eat to compensate. For the latter fasting is 24 hours! There is no compensation. But this is not important for the moment.

What is important in this Duyog (joint) activity by Christians during Ramadhan which is one of the pillars of Islam are the aspect of prayer and the aspect of ritual. These are expressions of faith through our bodiliness.

In this connection our theologians especially have come up with a Theology of the Body. In summary they say that our deepest spiritual realities are known and experienced in and through the materiality of our bodies.

The Bishops-Ulama Conference had one session on how Muslims and Christians use their bodies in worship. It was a touching experience. I felt a further deepening of this experience will surely unite Muslims and Christians, making them intimate friends, thus erasing prejudices and mistrust and bringing about mutual love and peace.

As an interfaith approach to peace this has not yet been satisfactorily pursued by people of dialogue and peace makers.