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Tanggapan Umat Islam Eropa atas Aksi Pembunuhan Pastor di Prancis
 
Pastor dan umat Muslim di salah satu gereja Katolik di Italia, FOTO: gazzettadiparma.it

Pembunuhan Pastor Jacques Hamel pada 26 Juli lalu menyisakan kesedihan mendalam. Kesedihan itu bukan saja bagi warga Eropa tetapi juga warga dunia lainnya. Bahkan, kesedihan itu juga melanda umat Muslim di Eropa umumnya dan di Prancis khususnya.

Pastor Jacques, 86 tahun, dibunuh di Gereja Paroki Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, dekat kota Rouen, Prancis pada 26 Juli lalu. Peristiwa ini menjadi berita hangat di dunia internasional khususnya di Eropa karena bersamaan dengan rangkaian Hari Kaum Muda Sedunia (WYD).

Teman-teman muda pun kaget sekaligus takut mendengar berita ini. Paus Fransiskus yang hadir bersama anak muda dari seluruh dunia di Krakow, Polandia juga berkomentar. Paus tahu, anak muda ini juga takut dan dia menyerukan agar mereka tidak perlu takut.

Peristiwa itu memang bukan saja menimpa Pastor Jacques. Ada juga dua biarawati dan dua umat lainnya yang terluka. Pembunuhnya diduga terkait dengan anggota ISIS. Satu di antara dua pelaku juga diduga masih muda, 19 tahun.

Pastor Jacques yang terkenal sebagai figur yang tenang dan damai ini rupanya menjadi target kedua pelaku. Pastor Jacques saat itu sedang merayakan Ekaristi di dalam gerejanya. Bersama dia, hadir beberapa umat lainnya. Dari peristiwa dan tempatnya, pembunuhan ini memang mengerikan. Membunuh orang saat berdoa dan di tempat yang sakral bagi umat Katolik.

Bagaimana reaksi orang Eropa atas peristiwa ini?

Ada banyak reaksi tentunya. Ada yang mengecam keras aksi ini. Ini kiranya diamini oleh setiap orang. Siapa pun tidak boleh membunuh sesamanya. Ini sudah menjadi hukum alam dalam kehidupan manusia. Manusia mempunyai hak untuk hidup di dunia ini. Maka, pembunuhan ini termasuk pelanggaran atas hak hidup seorang manusia.

Kecaman lainnya juga tertuju pada latar belakang kedua pelaku. Tuduhan pun langsung kepada komunitas Islam. Tuduhan ini atas dasar indikasi bahwa kedua pelaku beragama Islam apalagi terkait dengan ISIS. Dalam hal ini, Islam memang terkait atau selalu dikaitkan dengan ISIS. Maka, kekerasan yang terkait dengan ISIS pun otomatis menjadi sorotan bagi komunitas Islam.

Warga Eropa pun kebanyakan setuju dengan cara pandang seperti ini. Mereka tidak tahu atau tidak mau tahu jika tidak semua umat Islam terkait dengan ISIS. Tetapi untuk saat ini, agak sulit tampaknya membalik cara pandang mereka. Mereka akan selalu mengaitkan Islam dengan ISIS.

Pastor bersama utusan dari umat Muslim di salah satu gereja Katolik di Italia, FOTO: gazzettadiparma.it
Cara pandang seperti ini juga otomatis mengubah cara pandang mereka kepada teman-teman Muslim di Eropa. Warga asli Eropa juga akan mengatakan kedua pelaku memang sama dengan teman-teman Muslim yang ada di Eropa. Ini tentu saja pandangan yang memukul-rata alias men-generalisir fakta yang ada.

Nah, bagaimana tanggapan umat Islam Eropa?

Boleh dibilang umat Islam Eropa sangat bijak dalam menanggapi situasi ini. Umat Islam di Prancis yang berperan penting dalam menghadapi isu seperti ini. Mereka berinisiatif untuk menyerukan kepada semua umat Islam di Eropa agar membuat aksi solidaritas kepada saudara/i Katolik yang sedang bersedih atas peristiwa ini. Aksi ini dikonkretkan dengan mengunjungi gereja Katolik dan berpartisipasi dalam perayaan misa pada Minggu, 31 Juli 2016.

Benar saja. Umat Muslim memang hadir di gereja Katolik pada Minggu ini. Banyak gereja di Prancis dan Italia menerima umat Muslim bahkan dalam perayaan ekaristi pun. Sontak seperti ada penampakan baru. Di depan altar, ada Pastor yang memimpin ekaristi dan di sampingnya ada Imam dari kalangan Muslim.

Aksi ini memang bukan sekadar asal buat. Umat Muslim di Prancis khususnya di dekat kota Rouen, tempat Pastor Jacques berkarya, mengenal baik Pastor Jacques. Pastor yang merayakan 50 tahun imamatnya pada 2008 yang lalu dikenal sebagai figur yang tenang dan damai. Dia juga menyapa semua umat termasuk umat Muslim yang ada di sekitar gerejanya. Dari sinilah lahir relasi yang baik antara Pastor Jacques dengan umat Muslim.

Baru kali ini ada aksi solidaritas seperti ini. Betul-betul menjadi aksi yang baik bagi relasi antara umat beragama selanjutnya. Rasa solidaritas ini kiranya muncul pertama-tama di Gereja Katolik di Rouen. Gereja Paroki Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, tempat Pastor Jacques berkarya merupakan bagian dari Keuskupan Rouen.Di gereja Katedral kesukupan ini diperkirakan hadir 2.000 umat Katolik beserta 100 umat Islam.

Mereka disambut oleh Mgr Lebrun, Uskup dari Keuskupan Rouen. Dalam sambutannya dia mengajak umat Katolik yang hadir untuk menyambut dengan sukacita para sahabat Muslim yang datang ke gereja.

“Saya atas nama umat Katolik mengucapkan terima kasih kepada kalian. Kalian menolak aksi kekerasan yang berujung pada kematian atas nama Allah. Kami juga mendengar dari kalian bahwa, aksi ini bukanlah aksi seorang yang menganut agama Islam,” demikian sambutan Uskup Lebrun.

Selain sambutan itu, umat Muslim yang hadir juga menyerukan slogan yakni cinta untuk semua dan benci untuk tak seorang pun. Sungguh slogan yang bagus dan akan lebih bagus jika berhasil diterapkan.

Bagaimana dengan Italia?

Di Italia, umat Muslim juga merespons permintaan komunitas Islam di Prancis. Di kota Parma, beberapa orang Muslim hadir dalam perayaan misa hari Minggu di gereja Katedral kota Parma. Dalam gereja yang megah itu, Ketua Komunitas Islam di Parma Amin Attarki menyampaikan maksud kedatangan mereka di hadapan umat Katolik yang hadir.

Mereka datang bukan saja untuk saling kenal tetapi juga untuk membuat aksi solidaritas dan persaudaraan. Amin mengatakan, kami datang supaya kita saling kenal. Lebih dari situ, kami juga hadir bersama kalian dan turut dalam kesedihan yang disebabkan oleh peristiwa yang baru saja terjadi di Prancis.

Di Gereja Katedral kota Parma, pastor dan seorang utusan dari komunitas Muslim di Parma, FOTO: gazzettadiprama.it
Amin juga mengecam tindakan di Prancis itu. Bagi Amin, menghormati tempat ibadah sama dengan menghormati manusia yang menganggap tempat ibadah itu sebagai tempat yang sakral. Maka dalam keterangannya, dia  menambahkan dengan kalimat yang amat indah, tidak respek terhadap tempat ibadah sama dengan tidak menghormati kemanusiaan.

Umat Muslim yang datang ke gereja bukan saja di Parma. Mereka juga datang ke gereja di beberapa kota lainnya di seluruh Italia seperti di Roma, Milan, Palermo, Napoli, Novara, dan sebagainya. Total seluruh umat Islam di Italia yang berperan dalam aksi ini berkisar 15.000 orang.

Di kota Novara aksi solidaritas ini tidak saja berlangsung dalam gereja saat misa. Setelah misa, ada aksi solidaritas lainnya juga yakni bincang-bincang antara umat yang hadir.

Dalam perbincangan itu, ada wawancara yang menarik bersama seorang wakil dari salah satu organisasi Islam terbesar di Italia yakni Coreis (Comunità Religiosa Islamica) yang berpusat di kota Milano. Abd al-Ghafur Masotti wakil dari Coreis mengatakan bahwa aksi yang dilakukan oleh kedua pelaku di Prancis bukanlah tindakan seorang Muslim.

Dia mengatakan, pembunuh Pastor Jacques di Prancis tidak menyerukan seruan Allah adalah belas kasih (Dio è misericordioso) sebelum melakukan aksinya. Mungkin dia hanya berseru, Allahu Akbar, Allah yang besar.

Menurut  Abd, seruan Allahu Akbar ini bukanlah seruan yang berdasar pada Al-Quran. Dia juga menolak jika seruan ini dikaitkan dengan seruan seorang Islam. Boleh jadi, Abd mau mengatakan seruan ini merupakan seruan seorang penjahat yang mau mengatasnamakan Allah dalam tindakannya.

Abd dalam akhir wawancaranya menghimbau kepada umat Islam untuk menunjukkan Islam yang sebenarnya. Katanya, kita umat Muslim tidak perlu mengatakan bahwa Islam itu agama yang benar. Kita cukup menunjukkan hal-hal mana yang bukan Islam. Islam menurutnya, bukanlah Islam yang sedang kita bicarakan saat ini yakni islam yang terkait dengan aksi para teroris.

Abd mengajak umat Islam untuk menunjukkan Islam sesuai yang tertulis dalam Al-Quran. Di situ tertulis, siapa yang membunuh seorang manusia, dia membunuh kemanusiaan itu sendiri.

Pastor dan Umat Muslim di salah satu gereja di Italia, FOTO: italy.s5.webdigital.hu
Apa pun reaksinya, langkah komunitas Muslim Eropa ini patut diacungi jempol. Komunitas Islam Eropa sudah mampu menunjukkan bahwa Islam juga mengajarkan umatnya untuk berani meminta maaf dan berinisiatif untuk berbuat aksi solidarietas dan persaudaraan.

Bagaimana dengan Islam di Indonesia? Saya tak pantas menilainya. Biarkan umat Islam Indonesia dan seluruh warga Indonesia sendiri yang menjawabnya.

Sekadar berbagi yang dilihat, ditonton, didengar, dirasakan, dialami, dibaca, dan direfleksikan.

PRM, 1/8/2016
Gordi

*Dipulikasikan pertama kali di sini


ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 24 July 2016

PHOTO: en.radiovaticana.va

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!

The Gospel this Sunday (Lk 11:1-13) opens with the scene of Jesus who is praying alone, apart from the others; when he finishes, the disciples ask him: “Lord, teach us to pray” (v. 1); and He says in reply, “When you pray, say: ‘Father...’”(v. 2). This word is the “secret” of Jesus’ prayer, it is the key that he himself gives to us so that we too might enter into that relationship of confidential dialogue with the Father who accompanied and sustained his whole life.

With the name “Father” Jesus combines two requests: “hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come” (v. 2). Jesus’ prayer, and the Christian prayer therefore, first and foremost, makes room for God, allowing him to show his holiness in us and to advance his kingdom, beginning with the possibility of exercising his Lordship of love in our lives.

Three other supplications complete this prayer that Jesus taught, the “Our Father”. There are three questions that express our basic needs: bread, forgiveness and help in temptation (cf. vv. 3-4). One cannot live without bread, one cannot live without forgiveness and one cannot live without God’s help in times of temptation. The bread that Jesus teaches us to ask for is what is necessary, not superfluous. It is the bread of pilgrims, the righteous, a bread that is neither accumulated nor wasted, and that does not weigh us down as we walk. Forgiveness is, above all, what we ourselves receive from God: only the awareness that we are sinners forgiven by God’s infinite mercy can enable us to carry out concrete gestures of fraternal reconciliation. If a person does not feel that he/she is a sinner who has been forgiven, that person will never be able to make a gesture of forgiveness or reconciliation. It begins in the heart where you feel that you are a forgiven sinner. The last supplication, “lead us not into temptation”, expresses the awareness of our condition, which is always exposed to the snares of evil and corruption. We all know what temptation is!

Jesus’ teaching on prayer continues with two parables, which he modelled on the behaviour of a friend towards another friend, and that of a father towards his son (cf. vv. 5-12). Both are intended to teach us to have full confidence in God, who is Father. He knows our needs better than we do ourselves, but he wants us to present them to him boldly and persistently, because this is our way of participating in his work of salvation. Prayer is the first and principle “working instrument” we have in our hands! In being persistent with God, we don’t need to convince him, but to strengthen our faith and our patience, meaning our ability to strive together with God for the things that are truly important and necessary. In prayer there are two of us: God and I, striving together for the important things.

Among these, there is one, the great important thing that Jesus speaks of in today’s Gospel, which we almost never ask for, and that is the Holy Spirit. “Give me the Holy Spirit...!” And Jesus says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him for it!” (v. 13). The Holy Spirit! We must ask that the Holy Spirit comes within us. But what is the use of the Holy Spirit? We need him to live well, to live with wisdom and love, doing God’s will. What a beautiful prayer it would be if, this week, each of us were to ask the Father: “Father, give me the Holy Spirit!”. Our Lady demonstrates this with her life, which was entirely enlivened by the Spirit of God. May She, united to Jesus, help us to pray to the Father so that we might not live in a worldly manner, but according to the Gospel, guided by the Holy Spirit.


After the Angelus:
In these hours our mind has once again been shaken by the distressing news of deplorable acts of terrorism and violence, which have caused pain and death. I am thinking of the dramatic events in Munich, Germany, and in Kabul, Afghanistan, where many innocent people have lost their lives.

I am close to the families of the victims and to the wounded. I invite you all to join me in prayer, so that the Lord may inspire in everyone resolutions of goodness and fraternity. The more insurmountable the difficulties seem, and the darker the prospects of security and peace, the more insistent our prayer must be.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, in these days many young people from all over the world are heading towards Krakow, where the 31st World Youth Day will take place. I too will leave next Wednesday, in order to meet these young people and to celebrate, with them and for them, the Jubilee of Mercy, with the intercession of St John Paul II. I ask you to accompany us with prayer. Even now I extend my greeting and gratitude to those who are working to welcome the young pilgrims, with many bishops, priests, men and women religious, and laity. I extend a special greeting to their numerous peers who, though unable to be present in person, will follow the event through the media. We will all be united in prayer!

I wish everyone a Good Sunday. And please do not forget to pray for me. Have a good lunch and Arrivederci!


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ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 17 July 2016

PHOTO: greekamericangirl.com


Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
In today’s Gospel the Evangelist Luke writes about Jesus who, on the way to Jerusalem, enters a village and is welcomed into the home of two sisters: Martha and Mary (cf. Lk 10:38-42). Both welcome the Lord, but they do so in different ways. Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and listens to his words (cf. v. 39), whereas Martha is completely caught up in preparing things; at a certain point she says to Jesus: “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me” (v. 40). Jesus responds to her: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her” (vv. 41-42).

In bustling about and busying herself, Martha risks forgetting — and this is the problem — the most important thing, which is the presence of the guest, Jesus in this case. She forgets about the presence of the guest. A guest is not merely to be served, fed, looked after in every way. Most importantly he ought to be listened to. Remember this word: Listen! A guest should be welcomed as a person, with a story, his heart rich with feelings and thoughts, so that he may truly feel like he is among family. If you welcome a guest into your home but continue doing other things, letting him just sit there, both of you in silence, it is as if he were of stone: a guest of stone. No. A guest is to be listened to. Of course, Jesus’ response to Martha — when he tells her that there is only one thing that needs to be done — finds its full significance in reference to listening to the very word of Jesus, that word which illuminates and supports all that we are and what we do. If we go to pray, for example, before the Crucifix, and we talk, talk, talk, and then we leave, we do not listen to Jesus. We do not allow him to speak to our heart. Listen: this is the key word. Do not forget! And we must not forget that in the house of Martha and Mary, Jesus, before being Lord and Master, is a pilgrim and guest. Thus, his response has this significance first and foremost: “Martha, Martha why do you busy yourself doing so much for this guest even to the point of forgetting about his presence? — A guest of stone! — Not much is necessary to welcome him; indeed, only one thing is needed: listen to him — this is the word: listen to him — be brotherly to him, let him realize he is among family and not in a temporary shelter.

Understood in this light, hospitality, which is one of the works of mercy, is revealed as a truly human and Christian virtue, a virtue which in today’s world is at risk of being overlooked. In fact, nursing homes and hospices are multiplying, but true hospitality is not always practised in these environments. Various institutions are opened to care for many types of disease, of loneliness, of marginalization, but opportunities are decreasing for those who are foreign, marginalized, excluded, from finding someone ready to listen to them: because they are foreigners, refugees, migrants. Listen to that painful story. Even in one’s own home, among one’s own family members, it might be easier to find services and care of various kinds rather than listening and welcome. Today we are so taken, by excitement, by countless problems — some of which are not important — that we lack the capacity to listen. We are constantly busy and thus we have no time to listen. I would like to ask you, to pose a question to you, each one answer in your own heart: do you, husband, take time to listen to your wife? And do you, woman, take time to listen to your husband? Do you, parents, take time, time to “waste”, to listen to your children? or your grandparents, the elderly? — “But grandparents always say the same things, they are boring...” — But they need to be listened to! Listen. I ask that you learn to listen and to devote more of your time. The root of peace lies in the capacity to listen.

May the Virgin Mary, Mother of listening and of service and of attentive care, teach us to be welcoming and hospitable to our brothers and our sisters.

After the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters, there is deep sorrow in our hearts for the carnage that occurred on Thursday evening in Nice, which cut short so many innocent lives, even many children. I remain close to each family and to the entire French nation in mourning. May God, the Good Father, welcome all of the victims into his peace, support the injured and comfort the families. May he disperse every plan of terror and of death, that man no longer dare to shed the blood of a brother. I offer a paternal and fraternal embrace to all the residents of Nice and the entire nation of France. Now, everyone together, let us pray as we think of this massacre, of the victims, of family members. Let us pray first in silence....

Hail Mary....

I warmly greet all of you, faithful from Rome and from various countries. In particular from Ireland, I greet the pilgrims from the Dioceses of Armaugh and Darry, and the Permanent Deaconate of the Diocese of Elphin, with their wives.

I wish everyone a happy Sunday. Please, do not forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch. Arrivederci!

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