Reaching out through dialogue

WE know that in spite of our tremendous communication

technologies, we still are not yet connected in peaceful and

meaningful unity and harmony among ourselves. In fact, we can observe

the contrary—that the more sophisticated our communication

technologies are, the more divided among ourselves we seem to be.

Biases and unbridled attachments to our views, beliefs, lifestyles,

etc., still prevail.

  

            We have to realize that we actually have the duty to reach

out to everyone, especially those who are different from us or even

are opposed to us. They can even be opposed to God.

  

            That encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman by

the well (cfr. Jn 4,5-24) precisely tells us so. We just have to learn

how to reach out to others, especially those in the peripheries. And

for this, we have to develop what we may describe as a universal

heart.

   

            This way we would be imitating Christ who initiated a

dialogue with us by creating and redeeming us, God becoming man in the

process, and willing to go to the extent of bearing all the sins of

men, as St. Paul said, to bring about our salvation. (cfr. 1 Tim 2,4)

This is the ultimate motive that would lead us to have a universal

heart in spite of our differences and conflicts.

  

            Toward this end, we have to learn how to be patient, how

to rise above our personal things and learn how to give our heart to

God and to everybody else. This obviously will require of us a certain

sportsmanship, a certain insensitivity that is of the kind that can

welcome and accommodate the charity of God in our heart. We have to

learn to listen and not just hear others, to look and not just to see

them.

  

            We have to learn how to suffer with the others, how to be

compassionate, how to make as our own the conditions of the others out

of the love of God and souls. Christ himself did all these.

   

            But to attain these qualities, we have learn how to have

dialogue, first with God and then with everybody else. Only when we

know how to dialogue with God can we also know how to dialogue with

others.

   

            Our problem often is that we give little importance to the

value of dialogue. And if we do some dialoguing, we fail to go all the

way, or we approach it with wrong attitudes and inadequate

dispositions and ways.

  

            In many Church documents, the constant recourse to

dialogue is abundantly recommended. It’s a way to build and strengthen

our unity, tenuous as it is, considering the many and often competing

forces that go into it. We have to learn how to overcome or at least

go above our biases and preferences that can involve even our beliefs

and convictions, without compromising what truly matters—truth in

charity, charity in truth.

  

            Dialogue actually fosters the sense of solidarity among

ourselves. It facilitates the identification and the pursuit of the

common good that ultimately is to be with God. Of course, the pursuit

of the common good will always involve a process. It will be a work in

progress that advances the more we dialogue with God and among

ourselves.

   

            We should always take the initiative, always looking for

any opening or possibility for dialogue. Even in those moments when

our prudent judgments would tell us to keep quiet for a while, we

should never extinguish the desire and the effort to enter into

dialogue with others no matter how different they are from us.

  

            Of course, we have to realize that our success in this

endeavor would depend first of all on our authentic identification

with Christ. Thus, we can never exaggerate our need to be close to him

and to follow his example all the way to the cross.