ISA Holds Up a Model for Inter-Religious Dialogue

On the lecture topic “Lessons from Damietta”, he noted, “This afternoon is our humble contribution to the awakening to appropriate ideas with our search for peace. We are indeed very lucky to have a speaker on the life of St. Francis, an advocate for peace.”

Helping meet a continuing need and challenge

As speaker ISA invited Jesus N. Matias, OFS, a professed brother of the Secular Franciscan Order, and member of the St. Pio Fraternity of St. Francis Parish. Mandaluyong City.

He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of the Philippines and a master’s degree in pastoral ministry from the St. Vincent School of Theology.

He is a minister for formation, a teacher of theology, a resource speaker on lay Franciscan spirituality, an author of numerous prayer books for St Pauls Philippines, Claretian Communications Foundation and Paulines Publishing.

Br. Matias is also a regular commentator for the Bangkok-based Union of Catholic News Agency in Asia (UCANews). A consultant-lecturer on engineering management as well as a happily married father of four children, he is active with his family in the publications of the Media Office of the CBCP. In 2016 and 2017, two of his works were among the “Best Books” in the Cardinal Sin Catholic Book Awards.

At ISA, Br. Matias gave a historical analysis of the context and circumstances of Damietta. He drew from Franciscan and non-Franciscan sources the basic elements of the journey of St. Francis, saying, “This lecture helps to meet the continuing need for and challenge for the Church faithful to work for religious unity as a foundation towards sustainable peace.”

Getting to Damietta

During the morning Mass of February 24, 1208 on the feast of St. Matthias, Francis (1181 or 82-1226) discovered his missiological mission/lifelong vocation: call for penitence, witnessing to the merciful love of God, advocating for fraternal peace with others, plus with the rest of creation.

He listened to the Gospel reading at that time. Mt 10:7-14 said: ”As you go, preach the message. The kingdom is at hand. Take no gold nor silver… And as you enter a village, find out who is worthy in it, and stay with him until you depart.”

Br. Matias pointed out “As all Christian movements at that time, Francis was influenced by the rise of Islam, the fervor of the crusades to recapture the Holy Land, and the ecclesio-centric missiological thinking `to win the world for Christ even to the point of martyrdom’.”

The encounter occurred on the thirteenth year of Francis’ conversion from a knight-prisoner of war to the founder of the “Penitents of Assisi”. Wanting to convert the Saracens, he tried to go to the Holy Land in 1212 but was shipwrecked in Syria. He also attempted in 1213-1214 via Morocco but fell ill. Around June 1219 he joined the Fifth Crusade.

He arrived in Damietta and managed to overcome the reluctance of Cardinal Pelagius, Bishop of Albano and the Papal Legate of the Crusade, who gave no expressed approval of the `mission’and thus, no culpability.

Such opposition is recorded in Chronicles of Enoud written by Enoud the shield-bearer of Balian 11, a feudal lord of the Crusader States, who compiled from 1227 to 1229 his personal reminescensces and other anonymous accounts.

In the camp of the Sultan

In the Eighth Book of The Versified Life of Saint Francis by Henri d’Avranches, (Vol. I “The Saint” of Francis of Assissi: Early Documents gathered in 1999 by the Franciscan Institute of St. Bonaventure University New York), Francis is said to have taken a skiff to reach land – only to be captured, insulted and tortured by soldiers of Sultan al Malik-al Kamil.

Unshaken, he and his companion Bro. Illuminato were finally taken to the camp, where the ruler received them `respectfully’after seeing the courage of Francis as recorded in the sources used by Br. Matias for his talk.

The first encounter was around September 1219. Francis was `unafraid and confident’ in conversing with the Sultan, who offered gifts and worldly riches to distract him. He refused, and the Sultan was in `apparent admiration’and allowed Francis to continue to proclaim his faith.

On their third time together, he was asked by the Sultan to debate with his wise men. For the reply of Francis, Br. Matias quoted the morning sermon on the feast day of Francis in 1267 by biographer Bonaventure of Bagnoregio.

“Our faith is beyond human reason and reason anyway is of no use except to a believer. Besides, I cannot argue from Holy Scripture because your wise men do not believe the Scriptures. Instead, make a fire of wood, and I will go into it together with your wise men. Whichever of us is burnt, his faith is false.”

As his wise men withdrew, the Sultan began to smile and said: “I don’t think I will find anybody to go into the fire with you.”

“Then,” answered Saint Francis, “I will go into the fire alone, and if I am burnt, account it to my sins; if I am not, then embrace the Christian faith.”
The Sultan replied: “I could not dare do that, for fear my people would stone me. But I believe that your faith is good and true.”

And from that moment the Christian faith was imprinted on his heart, wrote St. Bonaventure in his sermon recorded in Volume II (“The Founder”) of the book Francis of Assisi: Early Documents (1999).

Francis succeeded in his mission in that he made the Sultan ask for prayers to know the real faith, but have failed in that he missed his desire to be a martyr for the faith and in that he could not convert the Sultan and the other Saracens.

Francis left the camp escorted by soldiers of the Sultan concerned about security. He declinined a generous offer of gold, silver and other riches. All he requested was food.

The Sultan

When he met Francis in September 2019, Sultan al-Kamil was under siege by the Fifth Crusade; after several more attacks and counter-attacks, Damietta fell in November 1219.

The Sultan withdrew to regroup and prolong the stand-off with small but undecisive battles until 1221. But in the summer of that year, he prepared to confront the Crusaders, now reinforced and marching towards Cairo.
At Mansurah, he was able to trap them with the waters of the Nile. He forced their retreat, which paved the way for his return to Damietta. After this triumph, he faced internal power struggles, in the context of which he prepared to make a deal with the Sixth Crusade of 1228.

For the Sultan, Jerusalem could no longer be defended because his own brother had destroyed its walls a year earlier. And he had no real concern for its religious significance, and was always using it as a ‘bargaining chip” in dealing with the Crusaders for political positions.

And for the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II who led the Sixth Crusade and who is said to have corresponded with the Sultan on Greek philosophy and history, Jerusalem had no importance except that its recapture would strengthen his political position against the religious power of Pope Gregory 1X.

And so in early 1229 – a decade after the encounter between Francis and the Sultan and just three years after the death of Francis – a treaty (perhaps pre-arranged) returned the Holy Land to the Crusaders, except for the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock which have always been significant to the Islamic faith.

Home after the encounter

Francis returned home because of unrest among the friars amidst rumors of his death. He continued to work for the ideals of the congregation he had started after dreaming in 1205 of being invited by the Lord to”repair my church.”

On September 24, 1224 at the La Verna mountain retreat house of the Order and on the feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, he had a vision of a seraph nailed to the Cross. He then received the stigmata or the five wounds of the Crucified Christ. This is said to be the first definite account of the phenomenon of the stigmata, which Francis kept hidden until it was announced after his death.

In Chapter VII of his The Life of Saint Francis, Julian of Speyer wrote how Francis had failed in Damietta but “ …the Lord had wonderfully reserved for [the blessed man] the privilege of a unique grace: bearing the emblems of Christ’s own wounds.”

Nearly blind as a result of his trip to the Middle East and weakened by excessive mortification, Francis passed away in the evening of Saturday Oct 3, 1226 in a tiny hut near the Porciuncula chapel – now the symbolic center of Franciscans and one of the churches which he had repaired after being exhorted by a voice near the cross of the San Damiano Church.

On July 16, 1228 Francis was canonized by Pope Gregory IX, the former Cardinal Ugolino di Conti and the original protector of the Franciscans. Coincidentally, July 16 is the feast day of Our Lady of Carmel.

Reflections

Br. Matias profiled Francis and Sultan al Malik al-Kamil “as a reference for theological reflection on a transformative spirituality for the Church faithful, regular inter-religious interactions and inter-cultural peace initiatives.”

From Damietta he drew several lessons, Lesson 1 being this: Focus first and always on the issues that concern us all. The best way to talk about religion is not to talk about it at all. Francis respected the law that visitors should not discuss Islam under pain of beheading.

And from the courtesy shown by Francis to the Sultan, Lesson 2 is: Always do good or at least, be well-behaved. True faith is realistically `revealed’ or manifested more as good conduct or good moral actions or feelings, and human dignity – and less in its fervent proclamation.

Lesson 3: Understand your faith well. Then be willing to listen.

“Let us just remember to know why we believe in what we believe in, and why we believe that such beliefs make us a good person,” Br. Matias exhorted. “Then we will be ready to listen to the same in the other person.”

Lesson 4 is on unity in diversity: Be willing to remain different. Br. Matias traced diversity to what he called “the humbling acknowledgment of the limitations of our perspectives in perceiving reality but in doing so, we become open to a much bigger reality which diverse people can more readily relate. In this way, accepting diversity leads to unity.”

Bro. Matias added that the key to a truly `catholic’ or universal Church is such a diversity cautious towards beliefs that violate the dignity of humanity and creation. At the root of such creation is what he called “the sameness of the essences of everything that constitutes it.”

Br. Matias then introduced a theology of sameness: “When we strip away the embellishments that differentiate or even hierarchize one over another, we are all essentially the same, and not just anthropologically but also cosmologically. Natural differences are meant to enable complementation between essentials in a cycle of life, death and rebirth; but social differences are mere human constructs.”

Lesson 5 appears to stem from the demeanor of Francis and from Lesson 4: Character is paramount. A mature character is at the heart of any firm conviction and good manners/action, of listening and of understanding differences.

Lesson 6 amplifies on the effects of good conduct: Character and doing good “saves”. Zeal for the faith, said Br. Matias, must be done in good conduct.

He added, “If good conduct is a genuine manifestation of a firm faith, then good conduct is in itself a proper defense of that faith `worthy of salvation’. Good conduct is already an exemplary act of martyrdom. Here, we are not negotiating the concept of martyrdom but clarifying it.”

Salvation, Br. Matias pointed out, rests more on our character and good conduct and less on our conviction for our faith, on the defense for it, and on the number of conversions done or attempted for this faith.

Lastly, he gave a short and sweet Lesson 7: Pray for perseverance. We must persevere in a spirituality that will bless us with a transformation of our character.

And to close his talk, Br. Matias invited everyone to pray what he flashed on the screen alongside the San Damiano Cross: “O Great Spirit, Bless us with a strong character that we may understand what we cannot understand. Fortify the Faith that we profess to believe in by granting us the energy and tenacity in doing good, in accepting diversity that leads to unity, and in serving others through collaboration in the problems that concern us all that we may one day return to you and share in your glory.”

Open forum

In discussing Lesson 6, Br. Matias had urged the participants to see heroic sanctity not only from the perspective of firmness in belief but also from the perspective of serving others through the confrontation and the resolution of our common problems, as St. Oscar Romero and nuns of the Missionaries of Charity as well as lay people are all helping the ill.

He added, “We now mythologize the story of the encounter and admire Francis in our day in spite of his failure, because we feel he is helping us resolve a problem that we have today. We see therefore the holiness of Francis in that `failure’ in the distant past.”

At the open forum Prof. Tito Loyola, a founding member like ISA Executive Director Fr. Ponce of the Anawim Mission for the Poor, lamented how, despite its precepts on a good character, religion has been used for what he called economic disorder such as landlordism.

Br. Matias said, “Social justice issues are at the heart of religion and so, it can bring us all together to confront these problems and even bigger ones. This is the direction we have to take.”

Asked by another participant about concretizing the lessons of Damietta, Br. Matias proposed the practice of the theology of sameness.

He explained, “It is about ordinary people who meet other human beings in the street and who see that we are essentially the same, anthropologically and cosmologically. Because all of creation have a common essence, we should eliminate embellishments that set people apart or even rule them.”

And for his part, Prof. Antonio Moises Villasor of the University of the Philippines Diliman Extension Program in Clark, Pampanga said, “We now have to nurture the koinonia that will continue our search for peace.  Let us see how St. Teresa of Avila and our other spiritual guides did this. She may have been in her castle, but she kept abreast of the news and she integrated them into her daily work and her spirituality.”

Related event

Fr. Ponce said, “In this lecture we also mark World Interfaith Harmony Week which involves Moslems, Hindus, Buddhist and Christians. Now on its tenth year, it was proposed to the United Nations by the King of Jordan to heighten awareness of peace. Held every first week of February, it is also the response of the Interfaith group of UniHarmony Partnership Manila.”

Fr. Ponce recalled two years ago in 2018, ISA began attending the breakfast meeting coordinated by the Archdiocese of Manila and hosted by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, an honorary member of the ISA Board of Trustees.

“Monday, February 3 was the last time for the Cardinal to host us before leaving for the Vatican to head the Congregation of the Evangelization of Peoples,” Fr. Ponce recounted.

“He spent time with ISA and the other groups present to gather and listen to different stories, and to encourage our activities for the Week, such as the planned camp for young internally displaced people.”

To close the event, ISA presented Br. Matias with a certificate of appreciation and invited him to grace the photo opportunity of the first public lecture for 2020.

Fr. Rico Ponce thanked Br. Matias, who is into peace, geography and spirituality. With his talk I hope we can work more to have peace in our communities, countries and the world.”

By: Perla Aragon-Choudhury