It has been written: “To know the religion of the other person implies living in the skin of the other person, seeing the world as the other sees it, penetrating the meaning that the other finds in being Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist.”
But how do we “enter into another person’s skin?”
Only love can do something like this, but it has to be true love.
And we know what true love is. Jesus showed it with His life. He was God and He became man. And as a man He allowed Himself to be crucified for each one of us: He became sin in order to redeem us sinners.
Therefore, love means – and the experiences we heard bear witness to this – “making ourselves one” with the other person.
This kind of love, to the point of making ourselves one with the other person, enables us to understand him or her. And this is essential for dialogue. – Excerpt from Chiara Lubich’s talk on the occasion of the “Civilization of Love” Prize in Rieti, Italy June 4, 1996.