Hindu Catholic Dialogue Commemorative Brochure 20150523

Author(s): United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Publisher: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

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HINDU AND CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS TOGETHER:
THEOLOGICAL REASONS FOR MUTUAL RESPECT AND REVERENCE
For millennia, Hindus and Christians have been in relationship, first in India and now across the world. This is a living relationship, with the ups and downs, dark and light moments, of human experience, and it continues to take new forms even today. This onoing communication makes us aware that Hindus and Christians have much to be thankful for, need reconciliation, and share many opportunities for future collaboration. Today, we can and should be spiritual friends and collaborators, friends in the work of spiritual renewal. Catholics everywhere are eager for a positive relationship, for the Church is also catholic, a universal community, even finding its place, now on respectful terms, in every culture old and new. It makes no sense for Catholic Christians to imagine that Hindu traditions are somehow outside or apart from the mystery and love of God manifest in Jesus Christ. Most deeply, the Catholic vision of the world implies recognizing with gratitude that God works deeply and continually in the lives, words and actions, faith and practice, of devout Hindus of every tradition.
A fruitful Hindu-Catholic relationship is not merely a matter of necessity or convenience, but a truly spiritual opportunity with firm foundations. God is one; we are all the children of God; God wills the salvation and well-being of all; God is a mystery, ever greater than our efforts at exact definitions and boundaries. Fifty years ago, Vatican II opened up a new era in how Catholics and Hindus might relate. Nostra Aetate ("In Our Age") briefly described the Hindu paths of action, wisdom, and love, and then stated that the Church "rejects nothing that is true and holy" in Hinduism and other religions. It adds, "Indeed, she regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.” How can this be? It is because Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6); from a Catholic perspective, Jesus is radiant and alive in whatever paths lead to God, whatever is true, whatever is alive.
Hindu learning and wisdom invite Catholics to think anew about matters of theological importance: the nature of divine and how the divine is revealed to us; the importance of God's entrance into the world and of sacramental realities; the importance of seeing and affirming God as a person; the possibilities and limits of images and words about the divine reality; the riches and limits of ritual practice; who we ourselves are, as embodied beings subject to birth and death; the delicate balance between affirming the true, the good, and the beautiful, and respecting very diverse paths; the promise of liberation for all beings, over time. Learning all this is a blessed opportunity for Catholics, and so new ideas and insights find their way into our Catholic minds and hearts.
COMMEMORATIVE BROCHURE
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