UN World Interfaith Harmony Week 2012

The first days of February are not only dedicated to the UN World Interfaith Harmony Week, but also, especially in Munich, to the world known Munich Security Conference (MSC) where prime ministers, foreign and defense ministers meet, and to the not less famous Munich Peace Conference, initiated by different peace organizations.

So it was very good that the local UPF opened these meaningful days of peace for the world through an inter- religious meeting.

This gathering may have been in terms of numbers the smaller one in relation to the other two, but the words that were spoken were surely not less important. And these words are not shallow and empty, but always a beginning and soon they will be reality.

The motto of the ‚Interfaith Harmony Week‘ is: Love God and Love your Neighbor. And exactly to this slogan, especially to the first part ‘Love God’, we wanted to dedicate ourselves in choosing the topic ‘The Mysticism of the Religions’. Mysticism was and still is a search for God and an encounter with Him, from where always rises a love for humankind and lasting peace..

After some introductory words and a definition of the UPF moderator the Imam of the Muslim community of Munich West spoke to the audience of about 30 Christians, Muslims and Unificationists about the Islamic mysticism, in particular about the traditions of the Sufi order. He said that the journey to God would be a journey to the inner self and that God would be an eternal treasure that wants to be discovered.

Dr. Alfons Wellenhofer spoke about the Christian mysticism. The following are exerts of his talk: One essential aspect of mysticism is that it heads for a union with God and that this union can already be experienced in the here and now. It is a way in three steps. The first is the purification, then comes the illumination of the mind and finally the union with the divine… The Christian mystical way is the striving for moral perfection as a preparation and foundation for the spiritual way….

This topic is very useful that the religions can come closer to each other, because there are many parallels and common points.

In the final part Robert Bentele, UPF, spoke about aspects of mysticism in the teaching and work of Rev. Moon, the founder of UPF. In his encounters with God he often experienced Him in deep loneliness hoping that His counterpart, humankind, would respond to him. His ideal of Love and that of His creation would not be separate from each other or different. God, heaven and earth need each other in order to experience love. The loving God can be liberated when His object of love responds…. And so Rev. Moon comes to very keen conclusions: In order to be happy a reciprocal relationship is necessary. That is true for humans and so for God. You can affirm with conviction that God can not be happy without you!

It was a really moving inter-religious gathering and all participants are looking forward to the next meeting.

Love of God Love of the Neighbour

World Interfaith Harmony Week München 1. Februar 2012