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This Sunday we will hear that it is Christ alone who is
light to all peoples, to all the world (First Reading). Jesus’ preaching, his life, his death and
resurrection, these became a revelation of God to every
single person, no exceptions.
But how can this be? What if God is present in other world
religions? How can Jesus and Christianity be the light of
the world if other religions reach God also? Is there not
a contradiction here?
Whatever else the bombing of New York’s “World Trade
Towers” did, it alerted many people in the United States
to the reality of Islam. Tragically, it was the few
extremists that brought this awareness, but they have very
little to do with real Islam. Muslims are not some small
sect of people far away with strange and negligible
beliefs. They are a great people, who worship the same God
we do. Their ideal is, like ours, love. They are an
integral part of this country.
But, as Christians do, they have terrible fanatics among
them who would kill to achieve domination. Like the IRA
were in Northern Ireland, these are a very small
percentage of a religion that pledges eternal fidelity to
the one God. The Spirit of God is present in Muslims and
Jews as well as in Christians. As St. Paul will put it
this Sunday, “in every nation, whoever fears God and acts
uprightly is acceptable to him.”
The question of which religion contains God reminds me of
children asking their parents which child they love most.
“If you love her more than me,” one will say, “then you
don’t love me at all.” Now, now, children, we love each
one of you in a special way, a way that is perfect just
for you.
So, in the first place, let us not ask which religion is
the only true one, thus making all the others false. There
is not really a competition. The religions are different
approaches to God, and they each reveal a special aspect
of who God is. Jealousy and hatred of one another is an
exact equivalent to dysfunctional families where each
person has to fight to be recognized at all. Think of a
world in which God loved only Christians and left all the
others out in the cold.
A much better way is to observe how each religion helps
the others.
For its part, Christianity gives a very special revelation
to the world. Jesus' suffering shows forth love in a way
that is crystal clear, revealing what the others always
need to hear. In it God enters the underside of human
life. He does not hesitate to suffer as we do, even to
suffer at the hands of sin, disgrace and death. He became
a light to all nations. Not a light instead of other
lights, not the light that puts out all others, but the
most rare and poignant beam of all. His glow gives fiber
and strength and depth to each and every other light that
shines.
So which religion is first? Catholic Christians would do
well to seek last place and try to be servant of all.
Especially if we would like to know why, on this Epiphany,
a tiny baby is light to all nations.
John Foley S. J.
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