indeed the world, of the positive, creative contribution which religion can and

must make to civic society.

Distinguished friends, today I wish to refer to a task which I have ad-

dressed on a number of occasions and which I firmly believe Christians and

Muslims can embrace, particularly through our respective contributions to

learning and scholarship, and public service. That task is the challenge to

cultivate for the good, in the context of faith and truth, the vast potential of

human reason. Christians in fact describe God, among other ways, as creative

Reason, which orders and guides the world. And God endows us with the

capacity to participate in his reason and thus to act in accordance with what

is good. Muslims worship God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, who has

spoken to humanity. And as believers in the one God we know that human

reason is itself God's gift and that it soars to its highest plane when suffused

with the light of God's truth. In fact, when human reason humbly allows

itself to be purified by faith, it is far from weakened; rather, it is strengthened

to resist presumption and to reach beyond its own limitations. In this way,

human reason is emboldened to pursue its noble purpose of serving mankind,

giving expression to our deepest common aspirations and extending, rather

than manipulating or confining, public debate. Thus, genuine adherence to

religion - far from narrowing our minds - widens the horizon of human

understanding. It protects civil society from the excesses of the unbridled ego

which tend to absolutize the finite and eclipse the infinite; it ensures that

freedom is exercised hand in hand with truth, and it adorns culture with

insights concerning all that is true, good and beautiful.

This understanding of reason, which continually draws the human mind

beyond itself in the quest for the Absolute, poses a challenge; it contains a

sense of both hope and caution. Together, Christians and Muslims are impel-

led to seek all that is just and right. We are bound to step beyond our

particular interests and to encourage others, civil servants and leaders in

particular, to do likewise in order to embrace the profound satisfaction of

serving the common good, even at personal cost. And we are reminded that

because it is our common human dignity which gives rise to universal human

rights, they hold equally for every man and woman, irrespective of his or her

religious, social or ethnic group. In this regard, we must note that the right of

religious freedom extends beyond the question of worship and includes the

right - especially of minorities - to fair access to the employment market

and other spheres of civic life.

9 Dicembre 2009 -11 :14 pagina 514 e : /0693_9 /Lavoro /Acta_Giugno_9.3d GRECCO

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