Sometimes, I hit a mental roadblock when I think about Francis and Clare or read academic writing about them. If I am honest, I often feel like our world today does not resemble theirs at all. Brooklyn in the present does not resemble Assisi in the 1200s. In fact, Brooklyn today does not even resemble Brooklyn a few decades ago. So, by extension, I struggle to see the map and the pattern of correlations that would let me recognize the wisdom of old teachings in my own life. It sometimes seems like the teachings and me are separated by too much time and space, too much difference.

Early in the spring, I saw a presentation at an academic conference that, seemingly all at once, helped me over the roadblock. According to University of Scranton Professor of Theology Dr. Christian Krokus, my problem is not uncommon. And, more importantly, it is not insoluble. In Dr. Krokus’s presentation, he refers to the 2019 Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together. If that sounds like an ambitious title, wait until you read what it says.

The document was co-authored by Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, and Pope Francis. Rather than hollow, why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along platitudes about the importance of inter-religious dialogue, Dr. Krokus points out how the document, composed by two of the great religious leaders of our time, is far more daring. It is, I think, a transcultural statement of human solidarity. The co-authored document concludes, “God has created us to understand one another, to cooperate with one another, and live as brothers and sisters who love one another.” I think it is a big deal that two leaders with such enormous differences could see past those differences and, reaching across them, find a common language. Even more, the words they find together are so moving and so urgent.

For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to the language of the common good. What I do and what you do are not separate from one another. We act but also interact: my operations and your operations can set the stage for higher cooperations that would not be possible without us working together in a common cause. Everywhere I look, indeed, every experience I have ever had only supplies more evidence for this. But that is not the whole story.

What I learned from Dr. Krokus is that, as I understand the ideas he put forward, the common good of solidarity is a form of time travel. To put the point even more dramatically, we do not need to find a way to invent a time machine. The human person is already a time machine. When we learn, we use what we have already come to know to understand something new. Moral and religious knowledge work the same way as any other type of intellectual discovery. The head and heart belong to one body. If a pope and an imam can reach across differences that seem impenetrable in their weight and scope to many of us, then I should be more eager to meet the challenge of my roadblocks.

In fact, Dr. Krokus’s research helps me understand better how to go about doing so. The truth of the matter is that Brooklyn and Assisi are not so different. Each city is a cultural product, unstable, and subject to revision. At their best, both places are the result of human creativity and cooperation. The world’s religions ideally work the same way, too. Francis, not the present pope but rather the long-ago itinerant preacher, beggar, and apocalyptic prophet for whom this pope is named, was especially sensitive to injustices in his time that are still with us today. But that just proves the point anew: my roadblocks and yours are only as real as we let them be. Since the past is never all that distant, we can find common cause with ancient forbears, traveling back in time to find potential solutions to present difficulties. Likewise, as we travel to the future, in solidarity with one another and with the past we share, we should be careful to make responsible decisions going forward, easing the journey for anonymous generations to come.

Clayton Shoppa
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
St. Francis College