A Jewish worshipper draped in a Ukrainian flag takes part in the Cohanim prayer (priest's blessing) during the Passover holiday at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on April 18. (Photo: AFP)
In a rare confluence of Abrahamic religious feasts this month, Jews observed Passover, Christians celebrated Easter and Muslims began their holy month of Ramadan.
The feasts follow their own different calendars such as Hebrew, Gregorian and Arabic but are closely linked to the full moon that comes after the March equinox, the start of spring when the sun seems to be moving northward when seen from earth.
Linked to the spring moon, the Jewish holiday of Pesach, commonly called Passover, and the Easter date of Christians occur quite close together. But they rarely fall on precisely the same date.
This year Passover started on April 15 as Christians observed Good Friday and Muslims observed the second Friday of Ramadan. Jews celebrated the Seder meal on the midnight after April 15 leading to the Easter celebration.
While Easter celebrates the new life that Christ brought with his passion, death and resurrection, the Jewish Passover commemorates the story of their Yahweh freeing their ancestors from slavery in Egypt.
Although they lay stress on worshipping the one and only God and consider Biblical Abraham as their father of faith, the stress on differences and each considering the others as those living in darkness have made the three classical protagonists wage war in the name of a clash of civilizations.
Judaism, the oldest among the three Abrahamic religions and also the smallest, has been waging a relentless campaign against Palestine Muslims under state patronage
Together they carry with them a large majority of humanity and a huge landmass while also posing a civilizational threat.
In their holy land of Jerusalem, pilgrims from the three monotheistic religions came together in large numbers. Tensions here can easily snowball into wider flare-ups as happened in May last year when police actions to quell riots triggered an 11-day war in Gaza.
Judaism, the oldest among the three Abrahamic religions and also the smallest, has been waging a relentless campaign against Palestine Muslims under state patronage.
However, there was bonhomie this year due to the rare confluence. The meal offered by Christians to Muslims at Abraham’s House on the eve of Palm Sunday was a testimony to the principles of peace and fraternity in the Holy Land.
Christians are fleeing the Holy City. In the Gaza Strip, where nearly 1.8 million Palestinians live, there are about 1,070 Christians today.
Abraham’s House, located in the heart of the crowded, largely Muslim, Palestinian neighborhoods of Silwan and Ras El-Amud, offers a place to stay for pilgrims, particularly those with limited financial resources.
With the penitential season of Lent and the holy month of Ramadan falling together, Christians in Asia and other places made it a point to reach out to Muslim brothers, which augers well for peaceful co-existence.
A Catholic nun, committed to promoting peace and interfaith harmony in Indonesia, is fasting as a sign of spiritual communion with Muslims during the month of Ramadan.
The idea of fasting occurred to Sister Philips, who holds a master's degree in Islamic philosophy and mysticism from the Islamic College for Advanced Studies in London, when Lent and Ramadan coincided in 1991. Her experiment with fasting started that year as a spiritual weapon.
There were also echoes of the rare confluence of festivities in religiously conservative Pakistan, where Christians are prosecuted and harassed through state-approved legislation
India's Sister Gerardette Philips of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been doing this since 2000 in Indonesia.
A song centered on Ramadan and the coronavirus, and featuring three nuns in front of an altar, garnered 40,000 views on YouTube and more than 60,000 on Instagram in the largest Muslim country in the world. The beauty of a life in tolerance is the title of the song dedicated to the "brother who celebrates Eid.”
In Catholic-majority Philippines, the Silsilah movement of PIME missionary Father Sebastiano D'Ambra has been trying to find similarities in Christianity and Islam to build dialogue and peace since 1984.
There were also echoes of the rare confluence of festivities in religiously conservative Pakistan, where Christians are prosecuted and harassed through state-approved legislation.
Raja Walter, a Catholic entrepreneur running a fast food joint in the Youhanabad district of Lahore who offers meals to the needy cutting across religious lines, told the Vatican news agency Fides: “In March 2020, Muslims gave us food during Lent, after which the month of Ramadan started for them and we did the same.”
In Egypt, Muslims and Christians treat Ramadan as an opportunity for sharing spiritual and material proximity. Some Coptic Christian youths even undertake fasts during Ramadan.
Lent and Ramadan going hand in hand this year was the main highlight of the April 2 message of Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II to Muslim compatriots in Egypt, where attacks on churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria killed 48 churchgoers on Palm Sunday in 2017.
If the Abrahamic religions that are praying and fasting together this year bury their differences and embrace similarities, they can turn into natural friends. And April seems the right time to make a start.
* The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
