IV.
Jews and Christians share the same faith in God: their God is not the neo-platonic One, deprived of all characteristics, or the supreme being of the Enlightenment. God is not an unreachable ruler of the heavens: He is the God of the Covenant, the God of dialogue who bends down, who turns to men as friends, speaking to them and with them. He loves his people and humankind, and He remains faithful to his love despite all human failures. He reaches out towards men, is committed in their history and listens to their cries and suffering, especially to the poor and the oppressed. He is a sympathetic and empathetic God, a God who shares in suffering, but is not overwhelmed by it and remains the sovereign God of history, guiding everything and leading everything towards his final Kingdom. He lives both in heaven and among us human beings.
I do not want to raise the question whether the doctrine of condescendence and inhabitation of God in his Shekhina has parallels with the Christological and Trinitarian doctrines – two doctrines traditionally dividing Jews and Christians. It is more important for me to note that apparently these differences are not so extreme as to prevent us from bearing common witness to the God of the Covenant. Such common witness is particularly urgent in today’s world – a world that has become secular and profane, and often doubts the sense of life and history. It is our common task and mission to help people find sense, courage, and hope.
To share the same idea of God means to share the same idea of men as partners of God in his Covenant. Jews and Christians believe that God created man in his own image after his likeness (Gen 1,28). The Bible affirms the sanctity and inviolable dignity of the human being – of every human being regardless of his or her cultural, national, religious or sexual belonging. At that time, this was a revolutionary affirmation, a breakthrough going beyond all cultural, national, religious and sexual limits, demarcations, exclusions, marginalisations, prejudices and enmities.
The universalistic biblical view is one of the very sources and foundations of modern theory and policy of human rights. This common heritage confers a common responsibility to Jews and Christians for the defence and promotion of human rights and of human life in the world, and this is – I am convinced – the best we can do for peace and freedom in the world. Against all nationalistic narrowness, ideological manipulation and materialistic depreciation of the person, we must insist on the dignity and greatness of the human being. We must stand against the immoralities and idolatries harming and degrading human dignity. Likewise, our common belief in creation can become an important contemporary message both in environmental and bio-ethical issues.
The Bible and both our religious traditions do not abandon us with this question. They speak of hope due to salvation. I am aware that, when it comes to salvation, this is a very delicate point for our dialogue, touching the deepest difference between the Jewish and Christian faiths. The cross, which is the sign of salvation for Christians, is a scandal for Jews; this is often used as an accusation against them. The Second Vatican Council opposed explicitly such wrong but long lasting interpretations and incriminations, stating that the cross has to be preached as a sign of reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles and as a sign of God’s universal love for all – Christians and Jews.
Deep and fundamental differences remain. Yet despite all remaining differences, we meet here for our common mission: to pronounce the promise of salvation and to bear witness to hope before the eyes of the world, to encourage people and show that there is a meaning to life. Moreover, we can offer the path to true happiness in life through the way of the Torah, the Ten Commandments, which, the Bible instructs, are not to be seen as burdens and limitations but as guides and signposts to happiness and fullness of life.
Recent developments in scientific and technological progress have raised new and difficult ethical questions. As Jews and Christians, we have been entrusted with an immense human, religious and ethical potential against the great destructive capacity of our world – a potential which can help to build a new civilisation of life. We have therefore a common responsibility for the future, in the new century and the new millennium, for the next generation and our young people. We should not only cast our glance backwards to the sorrowful moments of our history; today we are called to look forward and to initiate a new common history for the good of all. This is our common challenge today.
Let me now come to some very short concluding remarks. It is my deep conviction that we have embarked upon a new phase of our relationship. In the book of our common history, a new page has been opened. In our current situation, we can no longer afford to be estranged or inimical. As difficult as it may be, we must build bridges between us or, better, we must dare to walk on bridges that have existed as long as we have existed as Jews and Christians.
As sons and inheritors of our common father Abraham, we must set off and set our sights far ahead. May God bless our beginning so that we never lose faith in one another and never lose the hope He bestows upon us.