REFLECTION
Dialogue:
danger and benefit
Sincerely
dialoguing with another person is an experience full of possibilities
and risks. A dialogue that is really a dialogue (and not a monologue) always
has the potential of changing the perspectives of those involved. Dialoguing
transforms us. The moment that someone strikes up a conversation with the
sincere intention of exchanging ideas and opinions, that person has implicitly declared
that he or she is open to modifying his or her convictions. For this reason, all those who hold dialogue
in suspect, do not trust in it and avoid it, perhaps do so because they,
without recognizing it, hide within themselves doubts and insecurities with
regard to their beliefs and options.
These persons at most say they
dialogue, but in reality they lecture and preach. There are persons, in fact, who prepare their
conversations as if it were a combat, with well thought out tactics and
strategies, because for them the encounter consists in exactly that – something
that has to be won. They have convinced themselves beforehand
that they precisely know what works, what is of value and what is not, and they
have the duty of showing others what is the right path. That is not a dialogue.
Only those who are aware of their own fragility truly dialogue, accepting the possibility of being wrong.
With
this notion of dialogue we can understand the rejections of many in the Church
of the proposal of the Council, which is essentially
one of a willingness to dialogue. Those who then mistrusted this attitude are
the same who later rejected and continue to reject today (more or less
openly) the Conciliar documents or some of their aspects. They sensed then and continue to sense now
that the call to enter into dialogue with modern culture has the potential of
changing the Church, and their rejection is based upon the fear that it would indeed
happen. Naturally, what does happen then is that without dialogue there is no advancement: we end up with a
repetition of the same concepts,
that soon become incomprehensible to the ears of those with whom we did not
want to enter into dialogue. The Church,
like other institutions and persons, has before it two options: it can close
within itself, fortified in its positions, refusing to dialogue, and become paralyzed; or it can sit down
without fears to converse with modern and postmodern culture, with
non-believers and with dissenting believers, and with everyone it can, knowing
that in this dialogue it may lose
securities but gain depth. Knowing that this dialogue will change
it. The key is precisely in assuming
that this transformation, instead of a disgrace, is a benefit. When we let ourselves, as persons and institutions,
be enriched by the perspectives and criticisms of others, we end up winning.
Martí Colom
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