Gedseemon
Mannuthy
Thrissur
Kerala, India
Home phone: 91 487 2371039
Home fax: 91 487 2371748
Personal e-mail: militos@vsnl.com v Birthday: July 4, 1954


Life Line
Diocese: Trissur
Original Name:
Date of Birth: 4 July 1954
Ordination (Deacon): 1973
Ordination (Priest): 1986
Ordination (Bishop): 1990
Mar Meletius was born at Elakkaranadu, a typical village in the Ernakulam District of Kerala, to a social worker Mr Markose and Mrs Saramma, Murimakkil.
He had his primary education from the Government School at Maneed. After his schooling, His Grace studied at St Peter�s College, Kolencherry, and passed out with his bachelors in Malayalam.

Coming to the theological studies, he did his BD and MTh degrees from the United Theological College, Bangalore. Thereupon, he took ThM and PhD qualify (old testament theology) from Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago. His Grace has submitted his PhD paper to Dharmaram Vidyashektram, Bangalore. Meanwhile, he studied syriac at St Aphrem�s Seminary, Damascus.

Mar Meletius got into the services of Our Lord being ordained a deacon in 1973 by His Grace Paulose Mar Phelexinos, the then metropolitan of Kandanad Diocese. He was ordained a priest in 1986 by His Beatitude Catholicos Baselios Paulose II. HH Patriarc Ignatius Zakka I, ordained him as Ramban on 22 December 1990 and as Bishop on 23 December 1990 in Damascus. Since then, he is serving the Trissur Diocese as its Metropolitan.

As a priest, he was teaching at MSOT Seminary, Udaigiri. He was also serving as the vicar of St Mary�s Church, Valampur, for about four years. Since 2002, His Grace is also serving the church as the president of Orthodox Christian Youth Movement.

A scholar, His Grace is a visiting professor to the Orthodox seminaries at Nagpur and Kottayam. An accomplished writer, Mar Meletius has few books�Verukal Thedi, Manavikathayude Kazhchapadukal, Swatantravum Swayam Paryapthathayum�to his credit.

This widely traveled Bishop has also published numerous articles in different publications such as Sasthragati, Samakalika Malayalam, and New Vision.




History of the Diocese :

Parishes:

Priests:

Yuhanon Mor Meletius' Space

Christmas Message 2008
Christmas brings us good tidings of God’s presence in our midst. The angels said to the shepherds, “Be not afraid, … to you is born … Messiah” (Luke 2:10). This is probably the most important message we wish to receive today. Fear has conquered us due to the emerging situation in the world and in every country. Economic situation is going bad to worse; people are losing their jobs; price of essential things for life is sky rocketing; unrest is getting widespread; terrorist attacks on innocent lives and commercial and civilian establishments have become frequent than ever before. People lose control of themselves because of all these. It is in this terrible situation once again message of Christmas is brought to us.

Yes we are confronting one of the darkest times in our history. But can we continue to lament about it or rather try to do something about it? Of course we need to act on it. If we look in to the Book of Genesis Ch. 3 verse 10 we would see that Adam invented the word ‘fear’ to express his grave condition of estrangement from the presence of God caused by his lack of respect of the identity of a fellow creation. Jesus’ birth brings the good news of God working in history to put an end to this estrangement. But the question is, how do we actualize this in our lives? This can be done by the total submission of us to the will of God. St. Mary said, “Behold, I am a maid of the Lord; let your word be fulfilled in me” (Luke 1:34). We need to ask for ourselves, what is God’s will regarding me and us?



This question can be answered if we continue to read the passage in Luke’s Gospel referred earlier. The angels said, “For behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people”. The birth of Jesus is a matter of joy to all. We live in a world where people have become so much self centered and selfish. They work real hard to make their lives better and prosperous. But they do it mindless of other’s welfare. They fail to understand that no one can make life better without the help of others. Whatever one may do will certainly affect others. Salvation or ‘joy’ cannot be individualistic; rather they are corporate in nature. Of course individuals in community are taken care of, but not at the expense of another individual’s life. Christmas proclaims, “Joy to the World”. So if we want to be happy and joyful and experience Messiah born for us, let us listen to the words of the angels and internalize it for ourselves. Let us work for the joy of the world and assure our joy through that. This will take away fear from our lives and will ensure God’s presence in our midst. Jesus was called ‘Immanuel’, ‘God with us’ and not God with me (only). Let us ‘take care of each other’ that we ourselves may be taken care of and enjoy the fruit of God’s incarnation. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Women Participation in the Church

I have been following postings in ICON on the subject of women’s participation in the Church. I am a student of Bible and theology. I have been so for the last three decades. I have never seen any passage in the Bible or any statement in the writings of our fathers that will stop us from giving equal participation to women. I certainly was not reading the Bible or the writings of the father from a prejudice on behalf of women. There are people who bring a statement from Paul who said, “Let women be silent in Church” to argue their case. They say that as if they have fulfilled all other directives from Paul and this is only one left to be implemented. Paul was talking to a specific situation and it was not meant to be taken as a universal law. Again Paul also has said, "there is neither male nor female, neither Jew or Gentile before God" ( Read the Epistle to Romans). We can see Jesus’ attitude on this when people asked him about the question of divorce. To answer that Jesus took the creation story from Gen. chapter 1 and not from ch. 2 (only a biblical student will understand the difference – sorry about that). His statement categorically rules out any kind of sex discrimination. If we look at the kind of followers Jesus had we can understand how much He honored the participation of women. However He was wise enough not to include women among his twelve disciples since He knew that in a male dominated society of His time, that will not help spreading of His Gospel, on the contrary will only adversely affect. However, he made them apostles to the apostles after his resurrection to tell the disciples about his resurrection (John 20:17). The fact that Jesus did not have any woman apostle to go to the world is no reason for us not having women in Church general body. Let me state that once again: there is no reason ethical, biblical, social, legal or practical to segregate women from equal participation in the Church administration.
Coming to the practical side of the issue; first our women themselves have to be educated on this. I have seen women who hold very important positions in the service sector of the Church saying “what is their problem, why do they want to be part of the general body? These are all western ideas. Now they ask this, once they get it, they will ask for ordination”. I have seen people addressing women as Mrs. Mathew or Mrs Nair. I think this should be changed. Women need to be seen as they are and not as appendix of some other person. I have seen wedding anniversary prayer requests in H. Qurbana with names like Mrs. and Mr. Thomas or Mr. and Mrs. Abraham. Why can’t they mention the name of the wife also? This happens on memorial- day of the departed too. These people have to be educated. Ours is a democratic administrative system. It has its merits and demerits. Our constitution was framed in 1934. Those days, at-least in our community there was no question of equal participation. Then we were in the court ever since and any kind of change on the constitution was looked up on with fear of losing the battle. So we could not take up this question.
 

In the 1995 judgement of the Supreme Court there was a reference to this issue. The Hon. Court said, ‘you say that all baptized members are part of the Church but do not give equal voting right to women, is it not a contradiction?’. But at that stage we were not able to do anything. After the 2002 Association Meeting, when the new Rule Committee (for the constitution amendment) was constituted, I submitted a petition to them giving eight reasons to make necessary changes to the constitution to include women voting right. But it was not taken up since question of authority of H.H. Catholicos was again brought up in the court by the Jacobites (I do not think that it could not have taken up then itself. But when some say it is risky, people do not venture). Now that all general court cases are over, time is ripe to take up this.
 

Once again, we should remember that ours is a democratic system of government. It is not just for the H. Synod to decide on this. The Rule Committee has to bring this up to the Managing Committee and then it has to approve this. In both these bodies we have only men members. We need to educate them too. That is why I said in my posting, ‘women should keep raising their voice’. Unless there is continuous voicing of the need people may conveniently forget it. Those who receive Bishops, Achens and prominent members of the Church in your Churches and homes should take up this question with them. It is sad and shameful that the wisdom Moses had, some seventeen centuries before Christ, is still lacking in our post modern community (Ref. Num. 27 with regard to the question of the daughters of Zelophehad. This is particularly in regard to the question Mr. Abraham Joshua of Baltimore put before me). To Mr. Abraham, it is not proper on my part to say who is against it. This has been a deep rooted injustice in our system. It can be removed only slowly and through steady and patient handling of the matter. So let us continue to struggle with this, not only women but also all men with a sense of justice and equality should address this question. The Synod has already shown its green signal (thanks to Barnabas Thirumeni who brought this up). Concerned individuals and congregations write to the Rule Committee to take this question up in its next sitting. Let this come in congregation General Body Meetings. Let the Samajam committees send appeals to Church General Body Meetings and let them be an agenda in the meetings. Let them pass resolutions and send them to the Rule Committee. Let them continue to write about it in all forums. This is the only way in a democratic system any change could be brought in.
Let us be led by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit which our Lord said ‘will lead us to all truth’(John 16:13)

Meditation on the Gospel Reading for Hudos Itho Sunday

Many of us want others say what we want to hear. Same was the case between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. Jesus’ talk about a new world and a new regime gave the people hopes about history repeated in political scenario. They had the sweet memory of Judas Maccabeus overthrowing the unholy regime of Antiochius Ephiphanes and establishing a Hasamonian Kingdom in Jerusalem in 165 BCE (Antiochius had defiled the temple by offering pigs on the altar of burnt offering). But Jesus’ interest was not on political power, rather on people and their lives. This is what the leaders of his community failed to understand not only during Jesus’ time but even today.

The gospel reading for the second Sunday of the Orthodox Liturgical Calendar, the Hoodos Itho Sunday (Establishment of the Church), comes from the gospel according to St. John 10:22 to 38. This text talks about the unrealistic expectation of the Jewish leaders and Jesus’ response to that. But for us today it talks about the foundation of the community of Christ. That foundation is: ‘Jesus is God incarnate and his kingdom transcends the petty concerns of this world’ (John 18:36).

People of Jesus’ time wanted to hear a war cry, a cry to organize themselves against the Romans and a call to establish Jewish monarchy in Jerusalem. Jesus was less concerned of who ruled the nation, rather of which all principles governed the people’s lives. He very well knew that even the so called ‘monarchy of David established by God’ did not care so much for the people. So the kingdom was divided in two (1 Sam. 8:4 ff.). Later both nations ceased to exist and people had to go in to exile (Ps. 137). Even when they came back they did not have any caring ruler to govern them. During the Roman period, if the religious leaders wanted, they could have given a better leadership in the community. Lack of political independence was only an excuse for the religious leaders to give a lousy leadership. If they had given the political leadership too, they would have made the people suffer even more. The leaders were concerned of strengthening their hold among the people through political authority.

According to Jesus, religious leaders had to, on the one hand be studying the word of God and on the other hand relate it to the events around them. If they had done that, Jesus was sure, they would have seen the work of God in Jesus. They could have also seen a quality difference between what Moses and the prophets did in the name of God and what Jesus did with authority. This was enough to help the leaders see that Jesus was truly the word of God in flesh. On the contrary they relied on their own wrong understanding of God which was guided by political and institutional interests. For them, God was too transcendent that he cannot manifest himself in human form. They failed to see the witness of their own scripture which addressed humans as gods (Ps. 82:6). The fathers of the Orthodox Church assert that ‘God became human that humans may become one like God’. Of course there is a quality difference between God becoming human and humans becoming one like God. To the Jewish leaders Messiah should be one who liberates people politically. For them political independence would help bring religious and spiritual independence. But Old Testament prophets are strong witnesses to the contrary. Work of God in history never primarily aimed at establishing political leaders, rather was interested in organizing people under God’s caring and protecting banner. It was to that goal God established kings over Israel from Israel and from outside (cf. Cyrus. Isa. 45:1). During Jesus’ time religious leaders in Jerusalem enjoyed considerable amount of freedom to take care of the community affairs if they wanted. But they used it only to cater to their own vested interests.

To come back to the original statement, the people wanted to hear from Jesus a call to establish a new political regime. But as Jesus said before Pilot, ‘his kingdom was not of this world’ (This does not mean that he was not concerned of this world at all. The truth is to the contrary [John 17:15]. Here by the word ‘world’ Jesus meant what is ‘material’ guided by petty interests). Jesus while was the king of peace brought not passive peace in to the world (Matt. 10:34 ff.). Jesus was talking about a division between those who would accept the teaching of Jesus and those who would not. To those who negatively respond to him, the message of Jesus was disturbing. This disturbing message made them angry and they wanted to put Jesus to death. Gospel message should always be disturbing to the effect that it should make us think of our lives and its ways.

This needs to be put in to perspective in our own situation. Christians these days more and more want to hear what is called ‘prosperity’ or ‘comfort’ gospel. Yes Gospel is comforting. But not the way we usually understand it. Comfort can come only through a proper understanding of the word of God and a correction brought in the life style. Today our concept of Messiah is guided by our concern for better education, lucrative career, lavish spending on material processions and an acceptance by everyone. To us, blessing of God can be translated in to ‘experience of prosperity and success’. We pray to God for all these thinking that they are the symbols of God’s blessing. Yes they are gifts of God, but God does not give them to one over against another. He cares for everyone while we care for only for ourselves. The leaders of the Jewish community of Jesus’ time were not concerned of the welfare and freedom of the people when they wanted to have political freedom. They wanted to widen their power and authority over the people through political independence.

God from the very beginning was trying to liberate his creation, particularly humans from all kinds of limitations and was working with them all the way up to make them able to enjoy fullness of the benefit of ‘form and likeness of God’. Though humans through the initial act of trespass set the pace in reverse order, God continued to work in human history to liberate them. To that end God provided them with new possibilities. The last and final possibility was His own son Jesus Christ. But for the leaders of the community the work of God got frozen in a point in history and claimed that what all Moses gave were the end of God’s work. They wanted to hear only what they understood as Moses said. As a matter of fact what Moses proclaimed was what he heard from God. God revealed to Moses only what he could understand under the circumstance. Here is God’s son trying to convey what God really meant. To Jesus God wanted to lead them to greater heights in relation to God and one another. That can happen only if they followed Jesus and his purpose.

What Jesus said was disturbing to them. It was on this disturbing reality that Jesus wanted to establish his community. What do we think of our foundation of our faith? We need to think what we want to hear from a preacher of the Gospel? Most of the times we wish to hear comforting words. But comfort is not the starting point. Comfort and satisfaction in life is the sum total of a life that walks with Jesus through all those difficult moments to overcome them. Resurrection comes after physical suffering and death. But Jewish leaders were not ready to accept this. They wanted to hear that the day of political victory is near and that Jesus was going to lead them to that goal. They wanted to destroy everything contrary to their expectation. They picked stones to throw at Jesus to kill him. They thought they were acting according to the Law of Moses (Lev. 24:16) where as in fact they were acting just against the spirit of the Law of Moses. They did not know that even God had made a human being (Moses) god to another human being (Aron. See Ex. 4:16; 7:1). One becomes god to another for the purpose of liberating the other. They read only certain parts of the law which catered to their own needs (we do that all the time!).

By one becoming god to another, he/she is following the path of Jesus with in a liberative mission. Jesu Christ established the Church established that it may become god to God’s creation or to be a liberative agent in the world. Jesus asked them to judge him by his works. The question is, can any one of us who claim to be child of God say, ‘judge me by my work’? Can we as a Church challenge the world by saying ‘judge us by our works?’ It is on this challenge the Church of Christ is judged by the world.


On Text Book Controversy
This is my personal opinion on the current Text Book controversy

I am so saddened and disturbed on watching the events on the streets
during the past few days in connection with the protest against some
of the lesions in the new Social Science text book of 7th standard. I
must say that I read the whole book. There was a time when text books
were so much revered and respected. Now I see them being burnt in the
streets with leaders of political parties watching. Several groups are
on the streets protesting against the lesions in the book. I can not
talk about every one of them. But as a Christian I must say that
Christians have no ground to ask for its withdrawal. Reasons are given
below.

I have heard three major complaints against this text book.
One, it talks high about mixed and inter cast marriages. Of course
traditionally Christians in Kerala have been very sensitive about this
matter. But it was not 7th standard text book that talked about this
first. If Christians consider St. Paul as an authentic preacher of
Christianity, it was he who did this heinous sin. Read first letter of
Paul to Corinthians Chapter 7 verses 13 to 15. It says, "If any
woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with
her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is
consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated
through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as
it is they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner desires to
separate, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not
bound. For God has called us to peace". If Paul was able to acknowledge
and accept mixed marriage some twenty one centuries back why can't we
accept this social reality that some times inter-caste marriages do
take place. If that can be in the Bible, why can't it be in the social
science text book?

Second, there has been allegation that communist agenda is propagated
through some of the lesions. May be or may be not be true. It all depends
on the way one looks at a certain historical event. Is there any law
that it should be looked at only one particular way? Egyptian records
of 13th century BC says, 'some slaves who were working in the building
projects of King Ramses II in the border towns of Egypt ran away in
the middle of the night with borrowed ornaments and other articles'.
Whereas the book of Exodus in the Bible presents it as an act of
liberation worked out by God of Israel to save his people from an
unjust lordship. Is this communism? If what we see in 7th standard
text book is communism, what we see in the Bible is also communism.
Then why we Christians are to be angry at the interpretation of the
history?

Third, there has been argument that students are give historical
stories that may make them terrorists by creating anger and hatred in
them. May be this will happen. But will Christians be angry at Jews for
what some of them did to Jesus and will go around and massacre them
today? Is there any one who seen the movie "The Passion of the Christ"
went and killed Jews in his vicinity? Of course students need to be angry at what
happened in the past (this happens even today according to media
reports). But it is the responsibility of the teacher to tell them
that it is OK to be angry, but express the anger differently and
positively. They need to distance themselves from that kind of an
unjust social order and be vigilant against it coming back and exist
in our society in some form.

A final note: Our country is a democratic and secular one. Just as
religion has its place in text books, lesions of no religion can also
be in there. When we talk about our religious rights, we should not
forget that we are a community in the name of some one who had no
rights in his own religion. It is high time we Christian grew up.


I have seen several comments regarding my posting “on the Text Book Controversy”. I also received several personal emails and letters by post. Some of them appreciative and some critical, some approve what I said and some do not. But to my surprise, not many, both among those who appreciated and those who were critical really commented on the issues I raised. This is depressing. I was not trying to make an ‘official’ or absolutist statement. I was trying to begin a healthy discussion on the forum

On the few issues I raised. These are the ones I wanted us to discuss:

First, what would be our response to Paul’ direction in 1 Corinthians regarding wife and husband in two religions and children from that relationship being called holy? If we accept that as some thing valid, how can we Christians oppose to a similar comment in the 7th standard text book? My second question was, if what happened in Egypt can be interpreted in two ways, why not the other side of the story be presented in the text book? My third question was how a narration of an atrocity can create negative impact on people?



These are not essentially political questions to help any political party. Some considered this position as politically motivated. I refuse to accept it, because no one has really addressed the questions put forward by me. In such case interpreting my posting as a political one is only a way of escaping from the real issue.



My statement “if what we see in the text book is communism, what is in the Bible is also communism” was to imply that there is no communism in the text book. To me, rather it is Biblicism we see in the text book. Bible occurred first and then only communism so chronologically there can not be any communism in the Bible. Why can’t we say, communism is Biblicism minus faith in a personal God?



Again think for a moment why do we fear communism? If we were true to our calling and to the principles of Christ, there would not have been any cause for the emergence of communism. Communism is an economic principle and is concerned only of material world and hence can not have eternal existence. Once the economic question is answered, there is no relevance for communism. But that is not the case with Christianity. It has much more than economic concerns. As a matter of fact it goes beyond the physical world and enters in to metaphysical one. Christianity is also concerned of a dimension that communism is not concerned which is spirituality. Of course these days communism also talks about spirituality. But that stays only in the realm of human relationship in the material world. Christianity talks about a spirituality that goes further beyond the material world. So Communism is not a threat to Christianity. More over, communism has existed several decades now and has not succeeded in wiping out religion. So why should we be afraid of it? I think we are fighting a war against a shadow. What is required is we concentrate on our duty as Christians and teach the children its principles. No person will be attracted by any ‘no God theory’ whether of communism or of any thing else if we do that. And then we do not have to quarrel with any one for what they think right. We are not the sole custodians of ‘right’. Let God decide what is right and let us not act as advocates of God.


Sermon on Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

(Delivered in Malayalam at St. Mary's Church, Mannuthy)
Today is the sixth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel text for study and meditation comes from the Gospel according to Matthew 15: 32 to 39. Once again it is a talk about food. The crowd was with Jesus for three days and He had pity on them. But the disciples expressed helplessness. Of course they can not be blamed. No one can ever even think of feeding that big a crowd of several thousands. Then Jesus asked them what they had with them. They had only seven loves of bread and few fishes. Jesus fed the crowd with that and left over was seven baskets full!



A person who goes to the market to buy provisions for the family will certainly look at his purse and wonder how can I buy all that we need for the family with what I earn? This is our problem today. This text talks to us about this issue. Recently, unlike on previous occasions, our finance minister Mr. P. Chidambaram said the situation is very serious. Earlier he used to say, ‘it is a temporary phenomenon and will not last long, every thing is under control and the government is taking all steps to bring the inflation down. Well they had been trying it for several weeks and now it has crossed the double digit mark.



Some time back the government had what was called “National Savings Program”. Now the situation is different, now we talk about “National Borrowing Program”. We are not trying to feed ourselves with what we have, but what we do not have and what we borrow. This culture slowly got in to the system of individuals and families and if there comes any need we immediately think of where can we borrow. Interestingly there are hundreds of money lending agencies to help us out. So this has become part of our culture. For the political administration there are World Bank, ADB, IMF etc. For common public there are this and that bank and this and that financiers. They have their own system of lending money and system of recovering it. Some of them recover from living people and some from dead bodies.



Again there is the question of what are our needs? In the text we read, the need was some thing basic. They were without food for three days and badly in need of a simple meal. What are the reasons for us to borrow? The governments borrow for infrastructure building. That means we can not find our own resources to make our own roads and bridges, our own water supply scheme and health care establishments and transportation facilities. So we borrow. What are the reasons for the individuals to borrow? We borrow for education of children, for building houses and for buying vehicles. But only little is spent on the specified purpose; even if we spend, we spend not on need basis but on luxury basis. We never ask the question Jesus asked, which is “what do you have”? We never ask whether we can afford this luxury or not. Look at the houses we build, it is the sum total of a life time earning. Look at our vehicles; it is the symbol of our pride. Look at our life style, it is affluence walking on foot. Look at our clothing and ornaments; they are symbols of our pride. They are not out of what we have; they are the result of what we borrowed. Even if we had money to buy them, that money was not just for us to lead a lavish life mindless of millions of people in and around us in our society.



During my childhood days we had to buy only few things from provision shop like red chilly, salt, tea and sugar. Otherwise most of vegetables, rice, chicken, egg and many more of what we needed for daily life (even coffee), we produced in our back yard. So if some one had asked, ‘what do you have’? We would have replied, most of what we need for our lives. We bought them to the Church for auction. We also shared them with our neighbors and they also did the same. But now in the post modern globalized world, we stand just like the disciples did before Jesus, wondering how can we? Of course it is not possible to produce so much in places like Mannuthy or Thrissur as they are small cities and people do not have much land for agriculture (Of course there are people who produce vegetable on roof top in soil filled sacks. But there is a limit for that). But what if you try to live a life of Ambani brothers when you do not have much resource? Only way is to borrow or steal (Crime in Thrissur is in fast growth pace). Life is becoming more and more difficult to lead in this world. Because we adapted a culture of living with what we do not have, rather what we borrowed or took from others. This resulted in suicide of hundreds of farmers, business men and even students causing so much misery to millions of people. This is because; we do not eat of what we and our fellow beings have, rather of what we borrow or take by force. The result is starvation and death. Borrowing will not work all the time. Those lenders will start asking to return what was borrowed and then they will stop giving. Of course there are people who think, they have enough resource for their luxury. But they will also starve for different reason. Some one who is putting up thirty six storied building in Mumbai to house his family can not live a happy life with his widowed mother and brother. He is also starving, because he was borrowing happiness and brotherhood from others with his money.



What we have is to be shared among the whole community. It is the responsibility of the leaders of the community to make a distribution system (thanks to Nobel prize laureate Dr. Amarthya Sen) so that what they have will be distributed among all members justly. Political leaders in administration, community leaders and Church leaders in society have this responsibility. But what do we do? On the one hand we eat most of what we have and then in the name of charity we give little to others, or we do profit making commercial business out of what we have (like what we are doing these days with our educational and medical establishments). Then either we pass on the responsibility of feeding the multitude to the government or say how can we feed this many people. At the same time the leaders live a life of luxury and affluence. But this life is at the expense of every member of the community.



These are days after Pentecost, the days of the renewing of the Holy Spirit where we should be living in the guidance of the Spirit. We need to learn to live and let others live with what little we have.


Shepherd to the Whole Creation
Ecological Crisis: An Orthodox Perspective

Introduction

Few years back soon after I took charge of the diocese of Thrissur, I had the privilege of visiting one our parishes near the famous reserve forest, the Silent Valley. A member of the congregation took me around the area and I was literally shocked at the condition of the land there. It was a waste land. The people there reported that when they initially came thirty years back, it was a rain forest with rain all around the year pouring like small threads of cotton even in summer. The forest was cleared and people started cultivating various crops one after another including Rubber, Cashew, Aracanut, Banana, and several others. But all failed, and now it is a barren land. I saw with my own eyes what evil and violence human, son of Adam can do to his/her habitat. We are today confronted with one of the most serious problems humanity has ever faced; ecological crisis. The issue is so complex and highly sensitive that it needs a deep and through study. We do not know yet what shall be the full intensity of the consequence of environmental disturbance. Hence we should count this as our top priority matter. There are several ways of looking at the problem and analyzing it. I am attempting here to study the issue as an Orthodox Christian. This need not be a study in isolation. I admit that it is only one way of looking at the matter. What we need to do is to integrate all possible methods and have an in-depth and solution oriented research.

Orthodox Worship

To an Orthodox Christian, worship is the center of life. She/he goes out from worship to face live in the world and comes in to the house of God to renew the vitality needed for a healthy and dynamic life of quality.

Worship and Freedom.

To be Christian is to enjoy the freedom of standing before God the father as his/her child. Freedom is actualized in its most sublime and concrete form in this world through worship. In worship, to an Orthodox, we are entering in to the presence of God through the Son in Holy Spirit and having a pre tasting of the Kingdom of God. It provides us with the ability to, know His will and to enjoy the freedom to cooperate with Him in actualizing His will in history. It is a reasonable question, how humans can enjoy the freedom we being created ones? This is probably the greatest gift of God to us. The image and likeness of God present in us enables us to enter in to the divine presence and participate in the discussion going on there concerning the working of the will of God. This is evident in the vision of Isaiah (ch. 6) where the prophet was invited to listen and respond to the discussion God had with his celestial hosts, where His will was revealed. Later Isaiah was sanctified and was able to speak in the heavenly council.

Orthodox Eucharistic worship begins with a reference to this incident among several other similar ones during which humans were given the freedom to enter in to God’s council. If during the Old Testament times this possibility was with a limited scope and given only to selected individuals, through Jesus Christ, this privilege of was offered to every one in Him. Freedom enables humans to cooperate with the creator God in the rule of the universe. We are provided with a renewed command concerning the garden in which we live. Adam was revealed the will that he was to ‘till the ground and keep the garden’ (Gen. 2:15). Tilling the ground was primarily to keep the vitality alive and dynamic and only secondary objective was to provide food for human. By the word keep God was giving definite direction about the responsibility of humans to keep the identity, integrity and individuality of the garden in general and every element in it. But we should be blamed for thinking that nature has no other reason for existence except to serve man (only man).

Again in worship we also receive the freedom to stand in the company of every element in the created world without any hindrance or break in relationship. By the gift of the privilege of ‘naming the animals’ humans were given the ability to establish communication with the animal world (Gen. 2:19). Communication facility thus established enables humans to worship more meaningfully. Mary Antonette says that “the scope of ecology includes studying interaction between organisms (any form of life, - plant, animal)”. It is in the company all these we achieve a perfect worshipping mood. In the West Syriac liturgy of Eucharist, the priest says, “let us all join the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the seas, and the first born whose names are written in the heavenly Jerusalem in adorning the one who is to be adorned”. We can not enter in to the presence of God meaningfully while we having an estrangement from the nature around us. Adam was afraid of God and was not able to stand before Him as he violated the privacy of the tree and thus spoiled the relationship with it. That is why God said ‘because you have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it … thorns and thistles it shall bring forth’ (Gen. 3:18). The earth has not decided not to respond to the ‘tilling’ activity of humans as he has failed in his responsibility to ‘keep’ its identity. This broken relationship was mended by Jesus who was hanged on the tree (see, Good Friday Liturgy). Now we could stand with the little herb and huge tree, the tiny insect and the colossal elephant, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, the reptiles on the earth and insects in the soil before the creator without fear (Isa. 11). On Palm Sunday placing the Palm leaves on the alter, we pray and say, “God the creator of the heavens and the earth and every thing in them, bless these leaves and the trees out of which they are cut and have mercy on us and bless us”. It is interesting to note that several of the elements of the Eucharistic worship are included in the liturgy of the blessing of the palm leaves.

This suggests that the blessing human receive is shared by the nature and vice versa we share the blessing received by the nature. The word of the curse of God, ‘because of you the earth is cursed’ is crucial and significant. We may be reminded of the passage which talks about the blessedness of Joseph son of Jacob which says, “from the time that he (Potipher) made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’ house for Joseph’s sake, the blessing was upon all that he had, in the house and field (Gen. 39:1 ff.). The field was blessed because a blessed person was in charge of it.

To sum up, the freedom we enjoy in worship is the freedom of fellowship and participation with the creator and the creation in the context of the salvation received through Jesus Christ. The foundation of Christian faith and worship is the incarnation of the word, the second person in the H. Trinity. This salvific word of God was not just for humans alone. Rather it was for the whole creation. The tem ‘ecology’ is related to oikos or household. The Church stands as one family of the whole creation. In the prayer of public confession of the Eucharist the leader would say, “I beseech you O Lord, for the absolution and pardon for the sins of the whole creation”. Worship and Church Catholic

The catholicity of the Church is understood in a wider and all inclusive manner. It is not to be in a horizontal manner alone including just ‘all nations and peoples’, but also in a vertical style to include all species in nature. British scientist James Lovelock’s theory (1979) named after Greek goddess ‘Gaia’ says, ‘the earth, its rocks, oceans, atmosphere, and all living things are part of one great organism, evolving over the vast span of geological time’. In the Church worship becomes meaningful only when humans realizes that he/she is part of a larger community stretched to all world and all things. God is confessed as creator and Lord of all that is seen and unseen. The very term ‘ecosystem’ may mean the same.

This fact also calls for a fresh evaluation of our attitude towards nature. Since every element is part of the Church Catholic, it becomes the duty of the humans to bring together each of those elements in to our community and work in cooperation and perfect mutual understanding with them. The kiss of peace is to be shared with the fellow creatures in nature just the way we share it with our fellow human beings. Each of the elements both human and non-human should work in cooperation as parts and organs of the same body of Christ for its own betterment and for the glory of the head which is Christ himself. Thus our faith in the Church catholic compels us to take up the responsibility to bring together with us in perfect harmony all the species in the nature.

Worship and the H. Trinity

In Orthodox pietism worship is directed to the H. Trinity. The priest after each bit of prayer would, some time even to the extend of becoming repetitive and hence monotonous, say “we offer up glory and praise at this time and at all times and at all seasons and at all ages, to you God the Father and to you son and to your H. Spirit”. The blessed Trinity is the focal point of our worship. The H. Trinity also becomes a paradigm for the mutual relationship that should be established between the participants in the worship. We believe that the three persons in the H. Trinity is worshipped and glorified as one God due to their mutual love and relationship or in other words sharing of the same substance. We stand before God as one community, and it is our mutual love which makes us one (Jn. 15:14 ff.). This oneness is accomplished not only the humans but also with every other element in creation. The quotation referred above from the Eucharistic worship which says, ‘we stand with the cosmic community before God’, proclaims without doubt that we can not forget nonhuman elements when we consider our togetherness in worship. “All components of an ecosystem are interrelated, interconnected and interdependent with each other” (Mary Antonette). In one of our prayer hymns we sing, “let us adore Him who is adored by all creatures”. Hence in worship the H. Trinity becomes not only the object of worship but also a model for our love relationship to be established between all elements in nature including the humans. Here our love relationship with nature is quite important. We can not take them for granted our use them as we please.

Orthodox Mysticism

Orthodox mysticism explained by the Syriac word rose is some thing which helps us enter in to a realm where every thing in this cosmos is experienced as such in its own identity and integrity. We are no more to hide behind the tree for fear and lack of understanding. The tree is not to come between us and God as a medium of hiding, but as partner standing with us in the presence of God as creatures. Here we try to overcome human sinfulness. Christian mysticism hence, is not an attempt to take us away from this world, rather helps us to approach this world in a healthy and genuine manner. We take this world seriously as God created it and found it good and as Jesus Christ became incarnate and lived in this world to sanctify and perfect it. It is through the mysterious changes that occur to the bread and wine, the produce of the land, we today celebrate the atoning sacrifice of Christ. If we believe in the Kingdom of God we got to believe in the coming of it in to this world.

Christian mysticism is an experience of togetherness and not of separated-ness and aloofness. An experience of being with God and with creation never promote escapist tendency. The Assisi declaration of 1986 emphasizes this aspect. Therefore, Gal. 2:20 (yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me) is taken seriously not to say that ‘I lose myself completely but to know that in Christ I am with every thing else and that is where I find my own identity’. To know that I am not alone itself makes me out of fear, free and relaxed. We do not live as independent individuals living in detachment, but as individuals and parts of one community.

Mysticism if on the one hand is an experience of being together, is also an experience of searching for the complete meaning of this togetherness and each participant in the community. The meditative aspect of Christian mysticism is thus for us to take up this search seriously. When we are together we realize that we need to explore and get to know each other better. This will enlighten us and make us respect other elements in creation.

We as creatures are having certain limitations that are to be overcome finally. The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not to be eaten from, though every thing else was for food for human. This tells us about the mysterious nature of the garden which also provides individuality and uniqueness to the garden and every thing in it. God created ‘earth according to its kind’. Humans are called to respect this individuality and explore its meaning in itself and in relation. Eating of the fruit of the tree of the garden certainly breaks the relationship and closes the door of exploration and knowledge. Thus the tree of the knowledge becomes a tree of lack of knowledge and darkness. This was why Jesus had to come as the true light of the world, a good teacher filled with knowledge (Lk. 2:40). We today in and through our mystical participation with Christ share this possibility of knowing others.

Our knowledge of the individuality of various elements in creation compels us to approach them with respect. This respect of course, does not go to the extent of worshipping them. “The earth is sacred to us. We are connected to the earth. If it is lost, so are our lives” (Datu Mampadayao). We understand that, just like we do, each other individual in this created world has its its own unique kind of relationship with God the creator, and we are not in a position to understand it exhaustively. Hence they are not at our complete disposal. This is for sure, contrary to the traditional understanding of the usage the phrase ‘have dominion’. There shall not be any confusion between dominion and domination (Gal. 1:26). Dominion is to act with care and to hold it in its proper position in creation. We understand the other elements in creation only in relationship and not in our own absoluteness.

Here mysticism is to be understood as a ‘life style’ which compels us to mystically explore the meaning and relevance of each element in creation and try to understand own self in relation (Sanayasins of ancient India are to be remembered in this context). Thus eco-friendly attitude becomes a life style for a Christian mystic.

History and Ecology

Orthodox position regarding history is quite significant. History is not made by humans alone, though most of the time we assume that it is so. Rivers and the water in it, hills and the trees on it, seas and the minerals and creatures in it, earth and its vitality and air and the birds in it, all have their own share in creating the history as we have it now (Hos. 4:14). A tiny little tree and its fruit reversed the destiny of the man and his wife. If the tree at the center of the garden responded passively to the aggression against it, things would have been different for us. History of India would have been evidently different if not entirely if Mount Himalaya was not there to prevent Alexander the Great during his military campaign. Species of Kerala brought the foreigners to South India and consequently the history of the region including that of the ancient Church was changed. The ‘dividing’ of the red sea and the river Jordan on the way of Israel to Canaan had definite binding on the making of the history of Israel. Rivers and trees have contributed so much to the ancient cultures of human race. Isaiah 24:4-7 is quite telling in this context. “The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh” (Isa. 24:7).

Conclusion

Hence, our attitude to the rest of the creation makes a lot of difference in the way we and our coming generation would live in this world. In our road to liberation from bondage pertaining to our daily life, these factors play a vital role (Rom. 8:22). Life situation is the “combination of all conditions affecting an organism, including the physical and chemical conditions (eg. Climate, soil, etc.) as well as the influence of other living organisms. More simply, environment s what surrounds an organism, the conditions for its development and growth” (Mary Antonette). We could bring bread and wine before the altar only when wheat and vine bush behave friendly with us. The very historical re-enactment of the salvation event (H. Qurbono) is possible only if we experience the favor of the plant world. In other words, plants too join us in our celebration of salvation in history and consequently in planning our future history.

Eco-scientists say that our behavioral patters are formulated and controlled by even the tiny little amount of pollution in our atmosphere. It is estimated that 65,000 commercial compounds enter our environment every year and some of them are extremely poisonous and cancer causing. When the green plants refuses to convert the all the carbon dioxide produced by our industrial activity in the atmosphere as plant food, humans and animals suffocate. Shellford’s law of tolerance says, “An organism can tolerate change in conditions of its environment as long as these do not exceed the organism’s tolerance limit for such change”. But it has now certainly exceeded for several organisms. Life became hard for Adam as the field refused to respond to him. Cain realized that God was not pleased in his sacrifice when he experienced a crop failure the year following the sacrifice. In short, when God attempts to intervene in human history to make it salvation history, the created world around us also plays an important role.


Jeremiah's Letter to the Diaspora

Introduction A community going away from homeland and settling in another place is not a new thing in history. People have always moved as individuals and as communities for various reasons from place to place. There are more than one ways of looking at this transplantation. Some look at it negatively and others positively, some may consider it as a misfortune and others as a possibility. Israel and its Experiences Israel at several occasions in its history has experienced this transplantation. It always been a question where does the history of Israel begins, whether with Abraham or with Moses. In both cases the community begins with a setting out to a different geographical location and cultural environment. Even during its life in Palestine, it experienced at least two situations of moving out. In the case of Abraham and Moses the setting out were considered as due to God’s call to come out. God brought Abraham out of the land of Chaldeans (Deut. 26:5) that he may become a great people and a blessing to others. It could be interpreted a taking out of cocoon that the larva may grow in size and relevance. It was a liberative act so to speak. In the case of the exodus event it was to bring the people out of an oppressive regime and to provide them with a better future (Deut. 6:21 ff.). This became one of the central events in the history of Israel as an event that provided the community with independence and identity. Although lot of suffering and crises situations were involved in it, it was also looked at positively. But the other two were not considered so much positively. The first one caused by the Assyrian conquest (2 Kings 17:5 ff.) and the second Babylonian invasion (2 Kings 24). Both of them were looked at as a result of the sin of the people. We do not have so much talk about the first in the Bible. But the second produced a lot of literature and history was considered influenced considerable by it (the first went to oblivion as the Jewish scriptures were written by the Southerners). Many of the prophets who wrote about exile interpreted it as caused by Yahweh to punish his people for its wrong doings. Jeremiah who worked in Jerusalem also wrote about it in the same line. But once it happened, the prophet wanted the people in exile to take it as a challenge and an opportunity. According to Jeremiah 29:1-24, the prophet sent a letter to the people in exile in Babylon explaining his point. Historical context By early 7th C. BC the Assyrian empire started declining. Neo-Babylonians in BC 625 under Nebopolassar liberated themselves from Assyrians. Jeremiah was able to see the shift in the political arena. The prophet was not so much concerned of Zion theology as he came from the tribe of Benjamin in Anathoth (1:1 ff.). But he was deeply concerned of Exodus and Covenant traditions (from other sources we learn that Zion tradition was developed from political ambitions of David. He wanted to strengthen his authority over all the tribes of Israel by using religious faith which controlled all faculties of Israel’s life). Jeremiah’s association with prophet Hosea and his disciples also made him less concerned of place of worship than the deity worshipped and his works in history. Jeremiah reminds Israel of its first love to Yahweh (2:1-13) which the people forgot eventually (2:14-19, 32). The prophet does not threaten people, rather complains in a sober voice. He was happy to see the reforms of Josiah who reestablished genuine Yahweh worship involving all tribes (in 621. 22:11-19). To him Jerusalem was not formidable, .rather it was the relationship with Yahweh that made the city important (7:1-15). He was sure that God was to bring great changes in the international political scene. Judah will be brought under Babylon (27:5 ff.; 37:8, 17; 38:3. etc., and there was no point in depending on Egypt). The hard-line nationalists in Judah started persecuting Jeremiah (38:4 ff.). What the prophet had predicted did happen in 598/7 and 587. A major part of the population was taken in to Babylon as captives. In 568 Egypt also fell to Nebuchadnezzar. Lot of Judeans had fled to Egypt. One group took Jeremiah along with them forcefully and he died there some time after the second deportation (587). Before he was taken to Egypt the prophet sent a letter to those in Babylon (29:1-23). The Letter The letter has two main points, first an advice to be good citizens, and two always trust in God and hope for a re-establishment of the relationship. The second part becomes important since the exile was considered a punishment. But if it was not, then what would important be only the first part (29:5-7). The prophet advised the people to become integral part of the community in Babylon. Of course it was not easy for them. They always thought Jerusalem was formidable and no one can ever destroy it. Now it was pulled down. They thought worship in Jerusalem was established for ever, now the temple was in ruins and the people were in alien land. So they lamented “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Ps. 137:4). They looked at being in Diaspora in a totally negative way. But the prophet asked them to look at it as a possibility and challenge. He asked them to engage in the social and economic life of the land. He said, ‘build houses, plant gardens and eat its produce, get married to people of the land and work for the welfare of it” (29:7). Our Challenge Today. The challenge for a religious person today is some what similar. It has come to a stage that people do not belong to any particular geographical locality any more permanently. They are always on the move for various reasons. New generations emerge in entirely different socio-cultural context than those of their parents. There are lot of people who consider this as an unavoidable evil due to pressure of survival. So they take so much trouble to keep many of their old customs and practices continued. But it becomes an additional burden for them as many of these may not fit in with the context they lived in. The younger generation born and brought up in the new environment may find many of those old practices, symbols and customs meaningless and irrelevant for them. Not so much different was the case with those who went in to exile in Babylon as far as their religious life was concerned. When they were asked by the prophet to get married and participate in agricultural and other activities of Babylonian community, he was also asking them to participate in the religious rites associated with them. People particularly those days related their daily life and activities in relation to their faith in the divine. If we examine the common prayer book published by Mar Julius Press, Pampacuda, we can see that even the very insignificant activity such as washing the hand is accompanied by a prayer. Of course these days we do not follow them very strictly. But in ancient communities were welfare in life was interpreted solely in religious terms, they were followed very ardently. Jeremiah did not ask to forget or forsake Yahweh God of Israel. Jeremiah asked them “Pray to (only) Yahweh for the welfare of the land” (29:7). They were only advised to use symbols and mediums of the religious life of the people of the land in which they were put in to worship Yahweh. In simple terms the advice was ‘except for Yahweh every thing need be local’. This is a valuable message for people in Diaspora these days for good or for not so good reason. Every thing except Christ, need to be local. We Orthodox Christians in Malankara got the good news about God’s salvation in Christ through Saint Thomas one of the apostles of Christ. Later several foreign Church fathers and leaders came to this part of the world. They brought symbols and mediums of worshipping God in Christ. We took some of them and internalized. Until they came the Church predominantly was local in all its forms. But these incluences finally ended up in having most of the symbols and expressions of our religious life those borrowed from out side. Now much of them having got rooted in our system and we are not able to think of having a truly Indian Church. Even stary attempts are suppressed and opposed. While we claim that our system is the best, we also complain that lot of our people, particularly young ones, leave our Church attracted by other systems. This does not open our eyes either. We blame it on others calling it ‘sheep stealing’. We do not ever ask ‘is there some thing wrong with us in presenting this system to our own people? We have to accept that in Kerala we have failed to a great extent in making our faith local, relevant and dynamic. Then our people went in to Diasporas. Some considered it as a blessing, some as some thing essential for existence. But we did not ever read Jeremiah’s passage seriously and tried it for ourselves. We tried to use the inherited symbols and mediums which were though quite familiar to the older generation alien to the situation they were put in. It was like water and oil. Jeremiah asked his readers to involve in the life of the community socially and religiously except for the deity. This is the advice given to every community in Diaspora situation of our times. The question will be, is it just for Jeremiah’s word this methodology should be adopted? The answer is no. There are two other reasons too. First just as it helped them make Yahweh relevant and living, it will do the same for us. Israel always thought Yahweh can be experienced and worshipped only in Jerusalem. To them, God’s influence for them was only in the territory of Judah. But now they realized that God can be present when they engage in farming, in business, when they get married and in other activities even in a yet unknown and alien territory. Thus they were able to liberated God from their limited understanding. It was indeed a challenge for them. This will exactly be what we will have. Second, Israel was able to expose their faith in God in different and meaningful ways. They realized that animal sacrifice was not the only way of relating to and worshipping Yahweh. They learned hymns and psalms for worship; they realized that ziggurats, institutions and building projects need not be effective tools for keeping people together. They learned that Yahweh is not only the savior God, but also a creator God. They learned all these from the land and culture they were put in. This was a way of enriching their faith in God and making him present and relevant in the context they were living in. We will also be able to achieve this enrichment. Conclusion Our people who are put in various socio-cultural contexts try hard to keep all their customs and practices they learned in their place of birth. It is a box they were born to. This box also teaches them a lot about the divine they have to believe in. But they need to come out of it and also liberate God of their limited understanding just as Israel did in Babylon. If we believe and confess that God is the creator of every thing seen and not seen, we also need to realize that there are yet unknown and unseen ways of relating to and worship God we believe in. Every context people are put in can be looked at positively and make it an opportunity to grow and be enriched socially and religiously. This is what Jeremiah was advising the people of Israel in Babylon and that was exactly they slowly started to do. They became very successful people in Babylon as testified by the stories of Nehemiah and Mordechai (in the book of Esther). This is probably the best way to live a religious life in Diaspora at any given time. This is the challenge, how can we be a local religious people even while we keep our faith in God unaltered.

A Couple of Christmas Thoughts
Mathew 2:9 reads: “… and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was”. We on a daily basis confront events, phenomenon and happenings all around us. Some of them may be very pleasing to us while others may not be so. Some of them may be very disturbing while others promising, some profitable and some not so. Where do they guide us to? The three wise men who were looking for the fulfillment of promise was guided by a heavenly luminary. Any thing that is in this created universe will have a message to convey to us from its creator and the will always be a message about the birth of Salvation in Jesus, the liberator of the creation. Psalmist said in Psalm 19:1 “Heavens proclaim the glory of God and the firmament the hand work of its creator”. We need to look at the nature God created and history God is guiding to see the message from God. I know that you looked at the events in history of your Church and decided to take a steady step forward just as the three wise men to reach a place of joy and satisfaction. This needs to be continued all through your lives. Again among all that God created and that conveys a message to others, humans have a special role. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). We need to be the light that guides the world to the salvation in Jesus Christ. You have already shown to the people in your congregation the path to liberation from the bondage of unjust hierarchy in the Church. We need to continue this path also in other areas of our lives. We need to show Christ through our lives. These days the world is going away from the true goal which is Christ like the three wise men went to the king’s palace who happened to be a killer and power crazy ruler. We have to bring people back from road to sin and self-destruction. Let us be luminaries that show the path to Christ and also looking for the message that history and nature gives us. This is the message of Christmas this year.

The New Culture of the Cross


"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." [Matthew 5:21-26] On the Sundays after the festival of the Cross, the scripture lessons are arranged to meditate on a new theme: “the culture of the Cross”. This culture is placed over against a culture that existed in Jewish community of Jesus’ time and which may also be seen today in our society. The foundation of the culture of the Jewish community was the Law of Moses. Of course, Jesus respected and upheld the Law of Moses. But in the hands of the Jewish teachers and interpreters, it lost its spirit. Jesus wanted to bring back this spirit. The ‘culture of the Cross’ certainly was something God wanted to have in human community from the very beginning itself. It is with this backdrop that we should read this lesson. This culture would help people to live a peaceful life in this world. Everyone, under this system, will be taken care of and the identity of each will be respected. When God created things on earth, he created each according to its kind. Then again God brought all animals before humans that human name them. Further God wanted each one to be responsible for his/her brother. When God failed to see this happening, He asked Cain, ‘Where is your brother?’ With the tragedy that occurred in the Garden of Eden, the whole thing went upside down. God’s dream was, for a while, in jeopardy. Mutual respect and caring was lost not only in the realm of humans, but also between humans and nature. Life in the Garden became impossible and God had to send humans out. We can see the dream of God about the returning of the situation in the 11th chapter of Isaiah. This was finally put to practice in and through the life of Jesus Christ. His life, work and mission were to make the dream of God come true. In the new culture based on the Cross of Christ, law never would become the final word. Rather, law shall work as a tool to make the culture established. What is primary is the relationship between each of the elements in creation. If the law helped to establish this, it is good; otherwise it is useless. Law was not originally bad. It was made bad in the hands of the Jewish teachers. So it had to be revitalized. This is what Jesus was trying to do here. The Jews had only a limited way of looking at an offense. They would say, willful murderers are liable to the sword of justice and causal ones to the judgment of the city of refuge (Lev. 24:17; Nbr. 35:6). The social context of the origin of the law is also brought in here through the phrase ‘that it was said by the men of old’. The forefathers have handed down these laws to the current generation. Applying them without ever understanding the context and spirit will spoil the whole purpose of the law. For the Jews laws were just political and municipal. For Jesus it should primarily be spiritual that would help the relationship grow and be in a better shape. Again, for the Jews law was important because it helped them keep the society under control. Jesus had to criticize them at several occasions for not taking humans and their free and peaceful existence into consideration when they interpreted and applied Law of Moses. No law can be good just for the reason that it was handed down by people of old. In the present case, for Jews only the physical act of killing was all that mattered. But for Jesus that is only one side of the story. He knew that people could be killed in several ways. Jews were incompetent to interpret the law with various dimensions of it in mind. For Jesus anger can be the first step for killing as in the case of Cain (Gen. 9:5, 6). In our text, the word used for ‘anger’ in the Greek New Testament (rake) is not a Greek word. It is an Aramaic word probably used by Jesus himself. It can be used for killing too. So physical killing is not differentiated from the emotional or psychological torture and annihilation. The use of words like, judgment, council, hell of fire may not refer to categories of trial in the judicial system. In the Jewish system anger is lawful but for Christ it is a sin. It is the case with calling one’s brother ‘fool’ (For Prov. 21:24 calling someone fool comes from pride. For Psalmist [64:3] bitter words are as arrows that hurt others). God has created each one in this world as worthy and valuable individuals. To call one among them ‘fool’ is to say that God was unable to make this person good. Anyone who does this sin is liable to receive hell of fire. The word used for hell fire is ‘Gahanna’. The picture of this is taken from the kind of capital punishment existed among Jews that is to put a person in the valley of Hinnom (2 Chr. 33:6). There were two other ways of executing capital punishment, which are beheading and stoning. In any case, for Jesus, even a word of hatred or curse can be violation of the commandment ‘You shall not kill’ (Ex. 19:13). Further Jesus takes the question in positive tone. The question is how to look at the Law of Moses in a new and positive way. Jesus says, every one has to be mindful of what others think of themselves. It is not what I think of the other, what the other think of you, that is the question. Jesus says if you learn that your brother has something against you, and then you need to be reconciled with him before offering any sacrifice before God. One can pretend to be righteous without doing any harm to others. For Jesus, that is not possible. In the Culture of the Cross-, one has to consider whether the other person has something against him/her. If there is something, then that needs to be sorted out. Many a time what we do out of our innocence to help others may not always help them rather may harm them even. What we think good for others may not be good in fact. This may invite displeasure. Then that person may have something against this person. Hence every step and action needs to be with utmost care and caution. Unknowingly we may harm others. Here the word ‘brother’ does not need to be taken literally. It can mean anyone or anything, even a tree and its fruit as we see in the case of Adam and Eve. It is important to perform the religious rites or duties, but it can be meaningful only if it is followed by a peace initiative with the fellow being (remember we should have kiss of peace after the reading of the Gospel and before the Holy Qurbana proper begins). No religious act or rite has got any magical effect, as some people may think. It is a natural step that comes after an establishment of peace. The point is further explained through a familiar example from life situation. If there is a quarrel between two people and one takes the other to court, and if the first knows that the fault is with him, then it is better to reconcile with the other before they get to the judge. Here the role of judge is that of Jesus. He is waiting for us to come to him after having reconciled with our brothers. Otherwise Jesus will have to leave that person for condemnation. The Culture of the Cross-is the culture of a just relationship and reconciliation. St. Paul in 2 Cor. 5:18-20 talks about the sacrament of reconciliation. God in Christ has reconciled with us and Christ has handed over to us the ministry of reconciliation. Now it is for us to be liberated from legalism and learn to live in peace and harmony with others.


Orthodox Position Regarding the Remembrance of the Departed


The question of our faith regarding the departed has to be approached from two sides. One: explaining the matter from our position. Two: defending our faith against criticism.

First, by way of explaining our position we may say that our faith though is very much Biblical, not so much based on individual references. We believe that Church is the body of Christ and any one who is baptized will be part of His body. As Christ lives eternally His body also should be living eternally. Jesus said “who ever eats of my body and drinks of my blood shall live eternally (John 6:54). Life eternal can not be challenged by physical changes. Because physical is not eternal, eternal is beyond physical. Death is only a physical change brought on humans. Living means living dynamically. Eternally living is to be eternally dynamic. In Christ being living and dynamic is to be being in participation. Participation of an organ of Christ’s body is participation with Christ the head and with other organs or members. This participation also need not be physical. Therefore, the paramount form of participation is that in worship.

The Orthodox believes that there is a celestial eternal worship that goes on in heaven. All living and dead are participants in this worship. The classical example for this is the event at the transfiguration mountain (Mtt. 17:1 ff.). Our worship in this world is a time and space bound participation in this celestial worship. The priest in our Eucharistic worship exhorts: “At this time our hearts, thoughts and minds be in at the high and exalted above where the Son of God is seated at the right hand side of the Father”. A worshipping community is a dynamic loving and caring community. Love and care are not primarily physical and material phenomenon, rather they are spiritual and metaphysical. Our love and care can thus be better expressed in mutual prayer support. We remember each other in prayer. When we remember them our love towards them make us wish they be with Christ and be remembered all the time. All our prayers are placed before the merciful God. While we do so we present our wish also before Him.

We know that Christ can forgive our sins. So we also pray that just as our sins other’s sins may be forgiven and be accepted in the company of all the celestial worshippers. In this intercessory prayer we not only include those who are living in this world but also those who have passed away from here and joined the unseen members of the body of Christ. We believe that the departed can also do the same on our behalf because they are also part of the dynamic and eternally living body of Christ. Thus we become truly loving and caring members of the same body of Christ transcending time, space and physical boundaries.

Secondly, we can consider our defense against criticism from other communities. Two things need to be said initially. First it is not easy to answer all question raised against our faith as they work with a difference approach to Bible and Church tradition. They also adopt different methodology to explain faith. Secondly, every thing we do in the name of remembering the departed and praying on their behalf may not be strictly on the basis of our faith rather will be related to cultural practices and for lack of proper understanding of our faith. It will be hard to defend many of such practices. In such cases we need to be humble enough to accept criticism.

One of the major objections raised against the remembrance of the departed is, ‘how can God forgive sins done while alive after they are not in the body in this world’. Firstly our prayer for the departed is not primarily for the forgiveness of sins. We remember them since we know them and we love them and are concerned of them. It is for God to decide whether to forgive them or not. Again, this is a question we also struggle with and is expressed in one of our prayers too. But on the one hand we put our trust in God and hope that He is able to do that if He wishes so. On the other hand our love towards them makes us pray even if there is only little chance of being forgiven. Hoping and praying is not a bad thing to do.

A second question is based on the Psalmist’s words in Ps. 115:17 where it is said “The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down in to silence”. There is more than one response to this. Basically a Christian faith can not be challenged by a passage from Old Testament which does not contain themes of many of the Christian faith affirmations. If at all we take it as useful, we have to take the whole Psalm and continue to read verse 18 where it is said, “But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for ever more”. Here ‘ever more’ can be taken as a time beyond physical world. Further there is an instance where God asked prophet Ezekiel to talk and prophecy to the bones in the valley of death Eze. Ch. 47). God through the prophet promises the bones that they will be brought back to life. Question is how can the bones hear what the prophet was saying if the dead can not hear the words of a living person? Again Christ called Lazarus out of the tomb and called him to life (John 11:43). If Lazarus can not praise God in death how can he hear the calling of Christ?

The third question usually raised is, ‘can the dead be benefited by our prayers’? The first answer would be that we Christians do not do things to get some thing back or for a reward. That is a utilitarian materialistic attitude which is contrary to Christian way of life. We do things because of our love and care. It is for God to decide the benefit. More over we do things because we have already received some thing great from our Lord which is Salvation and right to call God ‘our Father’. Motivated by the love we received from our Lord, we try to express our love to others and remember them in our prayers without minding whether they are living or dead. We are not concerned of the benefit which is for God to decide. We also believe that benefit from God is not out of what we do. It is God’s gift to us.

A forth question asked is, ‘do we have evidence in the Bible to support what we do in this matter’? To an orthodox what we do in Christian worship and in life is not solely based on what we see in the Bible. We are guided by the basic principles we see in the Bible and also in the teaching of the fathers of the Church who witnessed Christ and His salvific work. Of course the second has to agree with the basic principles of the teachings of Christ. We do not think that loving the departed and remembering them and praying for their welfare is against Christ’s principle. There is no passage in the Bible which would suggest that remembering the departed is meaningless. If we take the passages in the Bible strictly and literally even burying the dead would be against Christ’s teaching as Christ once said, “Let the dead bury the dead” (Matt. 8:22). Burying the dead is considered by every one as a humanitarian thing. Our love and concern for the welfare of our dear ones go beyond the physical world and that is not contrary to the teaching of Christ. As said earlier, we have evidence that Christ Himself remembered departed one when He was conducting a worshipping atmosphere at the transfiguration mountain. He invited not only Peter, James and John to that worship, rather also Moses who died some thirteen centuries before Christ and Elijah who died some eight centuries back. It is also noteworthy that these two were more active in worship that the living ones. Atleast Peter was concerned of the troubles and hard times waited on the bottom of the hill and was planning to build three booths for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. He found life up on the hill better than life in the valley. If Jesus can invite dead members of the Old Testament community to worship, how much more He can do it with the New Testament worshipping community? We only recognize that probability in remembering them in our worship. There is where we stand regarding our attitude to the departed.


A Brief Note on Deaconesses in Orthodox Church

The study the office of deaconess needs to begin with Jesus Christ and his attitude to women. It is evident from the New Testament that Jesus accorded women a higher position than she ever had before. In the Orient woman was a mere possession of man. In Jewish tradition man blessed God as he was not made a gentile, a slave or a woman. But Jesus' attitude towards women was of respect and participatory. Later in the time of Apostles too the faithful women were active in the ministry.

The word deacon comes from the Greek word diakonein which means servant. This was a common gender word and was used for all voluntary services. It was for Phoebe the word was used first as a title (Rom. 16:1. Of course, in the book of Acts of the Apostles, the seven chosen ones are called deacons these days, but it was not used on them in Acts as a title). The use of the word for Phoebe tells us that it was a neutral word. The words of Paul in the epistle tell that, women enjoyed a respectable position in the community and she was doing a ministering service. The next reference to the title is in 1 Tim. 3:8 ff. may suggest that a deacon has to be male. But scholars of NT suggest that there is an editorial work which changed the setting. Originally it should have referred to both men and women deacons as diakon is a common gender word. It could also point to a shift that took shape in the Church to the effect that only men can be a deacon. Taking the example of Phoebe, we could very well say that in the initial stage there was no distinction between male deacons and female deacons. But as we see in the edited text in 1 Tim. this was changed to say that the title deacon referred only to male. But there is no doubt that the office of the female deacons is of apostolic origin. This is testified by both Clement of Alexandria (155-220 A.D) and Origen (185-254 A.D).

The first reference to deaconesses outside the New testament occurs in a letter written about the year 112 A.D by Pliny, Roman Governor of Bithynia, to the Emperor Trajan, asking how to deal with the Christian sect. The Apostolic Didascalia gives the need for the office of the deaconess in Ch. 17. It says: “Wherefore, O Bishop, thou shalt appoint unto thee laborers of righteousness, helpers with thee unto life. Those that seem good to thee out of all the people thou shalt choose and appoint Deacons, a man for the doing of many things that are needed, and a woman for the ministration to the women. For there are houses where thou canst not send the Deacon unto women because of the heathen; but thou shalt send the Deaconess. For also in many other things the Office of a woman [that is, a Deaconess] is required”.
The Apostolic Constitution tells of the Church practices perhaps a century or so later than the Syriac Didascalia, both before and after Nicaea. In this the deaconess is mentioned after the deacon and before the sub-deacon. The constitution also provides a prayer that is used during the ordination of deaconess which is same as the ordination of deacons. She receives the laying of the hand just as the deacon does. The Testament of the Lord, A fourth Century document, lists the duties of the deaconess as:
1. Assist at the administration of the baptism of women (“It is required that those who go down into the water [of baptism] shall be anointed with the oil of anointing by a deaconess”).
2. Instruct newly baptized women (“When she that is baptized cometh up from the water, the deaconess shall receive her, and shall teach her and instruct her how the seal of baptism may be unbroken in chastity and holiness”).
3. Take messages of the bishop to women, where he could not send the deacon.
4. Ministering to the sick and poor.
5. Ministering to the martyrs in prison.
6. Presiding over the women’s entrance into the church; examining the commendatory letters of strangers and assigning them places.
7. Oversight of the widows and orphans.
8. Take the Eucharist to women who were sick.

The Council of Nicea (325 AD) while talking about readmitting some of the apostate people into the Church in Canon XIX talks about the re-ordination of deaconesses. Most of the leading Greek fathers ( eg. St. Basil -326-379 A.D., St. Gregory of Nyssa -died 396 A.D., Epiphanius - died 403 A.D., Chrysostom - 344-407 A.D., Theodoret - 393-457 A.D.) have spoken of the office as an honorable one held by persons of rank, talent and good conduct. It was his deaconess assistants helped St. Chrisostom, bishop of Constantinople, escape from Constantinople while the emperor was trying to exile him. After the sixth century the order began to decline, both in number and position. But it was never abolished.

In the Syriac Church, the office of the deaconess was not taken very seriously during recent centuries. It is now limited to the membership in the Choir. However, I have witnessed in St. Gabriel Monastry in Turkey, a nun who was a deaconess as well assisting a monk baptize a girl child. She undressed the child (only a year or so old) after all the prayers before immersion by the monk, immersed her in the water while the monk laid his hand on the child’s head and later anointed the child and dressed her. I also have performed an ordination service of deaconess (they are called msamronito) in the mission Church of Thrissur diocese in Los Angels, California which is an ethnically Syrian congregation. The liturgy used is the same as the ordination liturgy of the male singer otherwise called Msamrono. The office can not be spoken strictly as of a deacon. I do not think that this could happen in the near future in the Indian Church. A Kalpana from H. H. Catholicos after a decision of the Episcopal Synod (1982) to permit women to read the Old Testament lesions before the Eucharistic service in the Church was never put to practice in most of the Orthodox Church in India.



Participation in Suffering and Death

It was one of the most painful and troubled moments in the life of Jesus. He knew he was to be killed the next day. He also knew that he had to stand before at-least four times in three courts before noon the next day followed by terrible torture and a long and humiliating journey with the heavy cross to the slaughter ground. He did two things to prepare himself for that. First he called all of his disciples for a meal with him. That was of course the anticipatory Passover meal. All his disciples attended, but one walked out in the middle. It was heart breaking and worst things were yet to happen. He was not sure whether others understood the meaning of that meal and all that happened at the table. Secondly Jesus called three of his chosen ones and took them to a garden that they will pray with him and will support him in his most difficult time. That was supposed to be a time with his Father and with his friends. He thought this will strengthen him and prepare him for the terrible things to happen in his life.



Jesus left his disciples at a distance and he went to spend some time with his Father. He wanted his disciples to pray for him. He wished that the suffering may go away. But his Father told him, it shall not. So he agreed and said "Not as I will, but as you will". He came back to his friends and found them sleeping. This was so disappointing, painful and frustrating for him. He had to ask them "Could you men not keep watch with me at least for one hour?" (Matt. 26:40). Peter had earlier assured him that he would be with him even if it would cost his life (Matt. 26:35). James and John had assured him that they are ready to take the baptism and the cup that Jesus would take (Matt. 20:22). So he was rest assured these three would be the best ones to keep watch and pray with him. But they did not keep their word. It indeed was the most heart breaking experience.



Jesus had called them 'to be with him' and to participate in all that he would do for the salvation of his creation (Mark 3:`4). Any call from God to be with Him is to participate in what He does to save the creation. God called Moses and sent him to Egypt to work out His plan of liberating the people from bondage. God had promised Moses that He would be with him (Ex. 3:12). It also means that Moses had to be with God and work out God's plan. Moses had to go through all the trouble of standing before the tyrant Pharaoh, taking the most rebellious crowd and leading them through the hostile terrain. God Himself too traveled with them. This was the suffering God took on Himself for the sake of His people and Moses had to participate in it with God. Same was the purpose for which the disciples were called. This can be achieved only through participation in the suffering death and resurrection of Jesus. What people usually are happy to be part of is the resurrection. But there will not be any resurrection without suffering and death (John 12:24). Any one who is reluctant to have part in the suffering will not have part in the Kingdom. This is what one of the thieves on the cross show to us. But the three chosen disciples did not quite understand this.



We need to look in to our own lives, in a meditative mood, to see how our participation with others is. Husbands and wives are called to share lives together. Sharing of moments of sorrow and joy, suffering and salvation, of times misfortune and fortune are part of life together. Same is the case with parents and children. Children should share the pain of the parents in making a better life in the family. The parents should share the burden of children they bear in growing up as well. Many a time either we fail to share or put our burden on others. The disciples failed to share the time of suffering with Jesus. Remember that all the three at some point expressed their desire to share the glory. Peter asked Jesus what he and would get having left everything and followed him (Matt. 19:27); Zebedee sons wanted to have their seats on the left and right hand sides of Jesus (Mark 10:38) but not in suffering. Look in to our own society. How many around us are under deprived conditions and we live mindlessly. Most of the deprivations people are in are due to other's failure to participate in their lives.



The disciples were called to be fishers of men (Matt. 4:19). Their job used to be catching fish for their own lives and the lives of their immediate family. Now on the one hand they are to fish men for God and on the other hand they had to leave their own bread earning occupation. This is the suffering they had to take up. Fishing people for God is drawing people near to Him. This can be done only if they are able to share the lives of people. Lives of people are a mixture of joy and sorrow and times of frustration and satisfaction. In participation with the sorrow they can eliminate sorrow from their lives. The beginning of that is in their participation with the suffering of Jesus. In that participation they learn how to be empathetic towards the suffering of others and they also will be actually participating in Jesus in the suffering of the whole creation. This is what Paul meant when he said, "My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you" (Gal. 4:19). This is not just a figurative speech alone. Sharing the pain of Christ will help share the lives of people because Jesus was suffering for the lives of people. Here 'Christ' may mean every thing that will make the lives of the people and the rest of the creation better and saved.



Without sacrifice of self and every thing related to self nothing can be earned for others. God left his glorious abode and came down to the world of pain and suffering to earn His creation. It does not mean than the disciples will not have a life at all. Their life will be a life in participation. Their life style will be changed accordingly. This is just as a man or a woman after marriage becoming a wife or husband. It will change their daily routine and life style. The primary concern of a dedicated wife or husband will be, as they are entrusted at the time of wedding, to take care of the partner. Even while the husband does not have any thing to eat, he need to work hard to feed his wife, it will happen the other way too. Thus both will survive in a mutually caring and complementary way.



Lack of readiness to participate in the suffering is lack of faith in the person and work of Jesus according to the Epistle of Philippians 1:29. So faith in Jesus helps us to participate in the suffering of others. Without this participation faith becomes meaningless. So if one claims to have faith in Christ, it is imperative that that person has the readiness to share the suffering of others which is in fact the suffering of Jesus himself (Matt. 25:45). This is what Militos of Sardis meant when he said "In every situation of human suffering Christ is present and suffering". If we claim that we are the children of God we need to take up suffering (Rom 8:17). But many of us consider cross as some thing that is meant for others.



Look at Jesus who bore the cross for the whole creation. This is just as Isaiah said in 53:4 to 5; “Surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed”. We are called to share His suffering for others. The cross is always an invitation to us, to be part of the suffering of creation to make its life better and whole. But this invitation is not responded positively most of the time. People say ‘let me say good bye to my household first or let me go and bury my father before I follow you (Luke 9:57 ff.). The very concept of ‘my’ is against Christian principles. If some one's father is dead, it is not just the concern of that person alone. It is primarily the concern of Jesus, and consequently others too. If one is so concerned of his father, it means he has not understood the meaning of Christianity and Christian life style. One who is concerned of ‘mine’ can never be concerned satisfactorily of others. If not concerned of other, he can not share the suffering of others. If can not share suffering of others, he can not participate in the suffering of Jesus. Of course we claim that we on Hasa Friday share the suffering of Jesus. But that is only a mechanical expression mostly in words, not even liturgical (a liturgical expression can never be a verbal alone expression). The whole question of private is not quite at home for Christian understanding of community (Acts 4:32). If we do not participate in the suffering of Jesus, we can not be with him in his glory. The gift of salvation for one of the thieves crucified with Jesus was on the basis of his recognition of the vicarious suffering of Jesus. This was his way of participating in the suffering of Jesus and consequently of the whole creation. That made him eligible to participate in the Kingdom of God.



We need to consider how we are trying to observe the Passion Week and Hasa Friday? It needs to be a liturgical observance. As said earlier, liturgical observance is not just a verbal expression or symbolic physical expression (prostrating and fasting etc.). It is the beginning of actual participation in the suffering of our fellow beings expressed and symbolized in the suffering of Jesus. You may be able to fast for several days in the name of God, but if you can not skip a meal to feed others it can not be called fasting. You may be able to prostrate in prayer several times. But if you can not bend your knee before your brother what benefit it may have? Our observance of the suffering and death of Jesus need to be translated in to our participation, in a concrete and meaningful way, in the suffering of our fellow beings. The question ‘Could you men not keep watch with me for at least one hour’ is asked today in our contemporary social situation where we usually consider ‘my suffering is mine alone and my joy is also just mine’. With this attitude we will always be working to remove this ‘my’ suffering. This tendency is what was taken away on the cross. He was not concerned of his salvation though he was challenged by the crowd to save himself (Matt. 27:40). Let us paraphrase and ask ourselves "Could you not keep watch with fellow being for at least one hour?" because Jesus said "what ever you did to one of these, you did it to me" (Matt. 25:40).

EASTER MESSAGE

The women who went early in the morning to pay homage to the dead and buried Jesus at the tomb were worried about who would remove the heavy stone that covered the face of the tomb for them. They found with surprise that the stone was already been removed. But it was not for them to pay homage to the dead one, rather was for the resurrected one to come out of the tomb.



Humans have to face obstacles and hurdles on a daily basis in this world. It is our hope and prayer that they be removed from our lives. We wonder who would help us do that. But the relevant question is why should they be removed? Just as the ladies who went to the tomb, we too have misunderstanding about the purpose. The ladies accepted the existing fact that Jesus was killed by the Jews and the only thing they could do further is just pay their respect to the buried one. This is not a healthy attitude. We are not to respect the existing unfavorable and unjust situation, rather should look for better possibilities.



We should understand that some thing better is always in the waiting. In the Nicene Creed we confess and say, “We look forward for the new life in the world to come”. This world is not only the world after death, rather it is the world that emerge out of the old one every moment in our lives. We need to be ready to welcome it as and when it will be given to us. This is the true spirit of Christian life of resurrection. But many people do not look for some thing better, on the contrary become content with what peripheral and little given to them. What we need to have is our self respect, identity of personality, independence and hope for a better future assured. And it is for that purpose the hurdles are to be removed. It is to prepare the way for resurrection that we should remove the stone. God is willing to remove the obstacle that block the liberation of our self as he did at the tomb. But the question is whether we are ready to accept that God is doing it for our outliving and not for submission to death and slavery to sin.



Those ladies who did not have this hope thought that the stone was removed to smuggle out the Jesus’ body (John 20:1, 2). The Jewish leaders published the same since it suited their purpose. Thus the propagation of an essential truth was put to doubt by lack of readiness on the part of the followers of Jesus. How about us, what is our attitude? This is the question posed by the Festival of Easter. We need to hope for the reestablishment of the essential good by God himself which is beyond the power and ability of humans. This is the message of the Feast of Easter.



Follow Me

“Follow me” is a call seen in the New Testament at many places. Most of them come from occasions where Jesus calls his disciples. Follow whom is the fundamental question raised before us. It is God in Jesus that we are called to follow. It is easy to say we should follow Jesus Christ or God. But what exactly mean by Jesus Christ or God is to be addressed. Any search in to the divine leads us to the content of the work of the divine. But many a time we search in to his essence through a philosophical methodology. But only though his work we can know him.

The primary knowledge of Israel about God was based on the liberation from Egypt. God was always known in Israel, as Jeremiah would put it, as a liberating God (2:6; 11:7; 34:13 etc.). That is why when Israel codified its creed, the liberative work of God and its effect on the people gathered prominent role (Deut. 26:5-11). God reveals himself through his work in history. When he was asked by Moses what his name was, he said ‘I shall be that I shall be’ (Ex. 3:13, 14). Phrases like ‘I have come down’, ‘to liberate’, ‘to lead’ etc. also further explains this point. What Israel saw in the acts of God helped them to understand God as a loving, caring, just, protecting and judging God. Jesus did not accept Peter’s confession ‘that he was the Son of God’ as some thing that could be proclaimed in public at that point of time (Matt. 16:16, 20). Before it was proclaimed verbally, he had to show to the world and to his disciples what kind of Son of God he was through his passion, death and resurrection. Even the word of explanation regarding all these that came soon after did not help the disciples to understand Matt. 16:21 ff.). Peter’s response to that evidently shows that he did not understand the full meaning of what he said just a while ago. It is through the work of Jesus at the court of Sanhedrin and Pilate, on the road to Golgotha, on the Cross and in the empty tomb that he had to tell the people what kind of Son of God he was. This is a clear lesson for the Church and its leadership that tries to proclaim their presence in the world though claims of absoluteness and uniqueness.

In the history of the Church we could see the Church trying to explain God through philosophical categories. Unfortunately it only helped divisions in the community. Phrases like blasphemy, excommunication, anathema etc. became key phrase in this context. This was further taken to imply that the essence of God can be represented in the essence of the representatives of God or in the clerical office. Thus a new equation emerged: God’s essence is shared by God-men (not women. Remember Gn. 1:27) and so what God-men would say ex-cathedra would be exactly what God says (God has no other choice!!). Disobedience to God-men can be interpreted as disobedience to God himself. Thus the God-men will get all justification to expel people who do not agree with them. This will not be possible if we follow the work oriented understanding of God. Knowledge based on work will be dynamic, relevant and live. The journey of Abraham in search of the unseen land was of constant struggle and movement. It was in this journey that he understood God as el-elion (Supremacy of God. Gen. 14:22), maker of heaven and earth (universality of God. Gen. 14:22), el-shaddai (Power. Gn. 17:1) etc. This God was experienced as the destroyer of evil people at Sodom and was know as the shield (Gen. 15:1). We have other instances too where name of God is derived out of life experiences. Only God who works in history of humans can make quality influence on lives of humans. What happens here is, God and human together creating history and through that new faces of God-human relationship are evolved. Hence we need to search for the content of the personality of God in what he does in human situations. This is the message we get in Matt. 25:36 where Jesus says that any thing that was not done to one of those little ones was not done to him and any thing that was done to them was done to him. God needs to be searched in the struggle of humans to make their lives better and meaningful. Take for example Jesus’ temptation (Matt. 4:1 ff.). Jesus displayed his divine power not in his search for food, rather in his attempt to satisfy the hunger of tens of thousands of people who were with him for several days. He was not worried about hitting his feet against rock, rather was concerned of keeping the lives of humans from breaking in to pieces. He was not worried about his glory before others, rather was anxious of the divinization of the creation. Consider for a moment what we, the so called ‘called ones’, are worried about.

Today the Church which is worried about its own bread, power and acceptance is snatching away the bread from the hands of humans; and surrender all honor and glory for the sake of power. Let me say without prejudice, the litigation history in our own church is an excellent example. God who reveals himself in the human life situations through his works, requires of us participate in his redeeming work. This is what is meant by following him. This makes Christ, us and the Church relevant in the world. But unfortunately we do things the old fashion. We think old stories are still meaningful and effective. On the contrary we are in fact making God and his Church irrelevant and outdated. Today God and the Church do not play any vital role in many of the areas of crucial struggle of humans to make life better. We have kept God resting in the altar and in palaces. People who search him do so not in divine works in history rather in the noisy crowd of charismatic gatherings and in pilgrim centers. We are not able to see the presence of God in the ‘burning but not consumed bush’ which is just the situation humans are put in these days. To follow may also mean to follow the revelation of the divine in history. History is always dynamic. But we prefer to embrace some of the frozen moments in history. This is what we do when we talk about the throne of the patriarch of the catholicos, in the argument regarding cross with or without the crucifix, in the sweet memory of once upon a time happened reformation and six decades old Church unity.

Those of us who build beautiful tombs to our beloved departed ones do not see the moments and events that make them live even today. This makes us too frozen in time and space. We do not have any adventurous or innovative areas of work apart from those traditionally been handed down and got outdated. We are not able to find any new area of mission. This adversely affects the nature, visibility and witness of the Church. God does not want us to follow him blindly, it is not a slaves’ attitude he wants from us. Jesus said, I do not call you slaves any more, rather call you friends (John 15:15). Since following is not slavish, there will be committed and definite stand taken. And this stand is that of solidarity with every situation in human history that strives for liberation.

Jesus even while dining with the rich and famous Simon did not forget his mission to proclaim his solidarity with the marginalized. (Matt. 26:6). This was at the risk of losing his reputation and acceptance in the community along with losing the friendship of his host. He was ready to go and spend night with Zacchaeus even when people were trying to find fault in him (Lk. 19:7). He was ready to reveal the littleness of law before human hunger even when the Damocles’ sword of Sabbath violation was over his head (Mk. 2:27). He did not hesitate to proclaim that he was in the world to testify to the truth even before the judge who had the authority to sentence him for death for what he claimed (John 18:37). They were all based on his definite stand he took without change even at the face of challenges, attractions and threats. Only one who can keep his stand unaltered can proclaim solidarity with those salvific situations. This is where we see the Church many times stumble. To those leaders who reside in mansions and travel in moving palaces the struggle of common humans on the street is unfamiliar. Hence the utterances and proclamations of these leaders in the ivory tower never touch the dark corners of human survival.

Most of the time there comes from the Church not a word regarding the dehumanizing situation in history. We are most of the time satisfied with few traditional gimmicks that we learned from our fore-fathers and fore-mothers. But the Church is called by God to be dynamic and that is what the world expects of the Church. When nationalism in India is celebrated through nuclear test explosions, when the country is sold piece by piece to trans- national corporations, when our air, water and land are polluted, when aboriginal are denied their rights, when dignity of women are sold in ice cream parlors and official rest houses, when the childhood is snatched away from children in the name of education, when high interest banking mafia rule the economy, when agriculture becomes no culture and when family suicide rate escalates, the Church has no comment about them.

The Church has no stand regarding them and its voice never heard in public. It could be a very risky and dangerous matter to take a definite stand. Jesus had to face death due to what stand he took in his life. But only through this change can be brought and there is no short cut to solution. The attitude of Peter who said, ‘Lord, it shall not happen to you’ was a satanic stand for Jesus (Matt. 16:23). Mahatma Gandhi who fought for the freedom of India was rewarded with a bullet; Martin Luther King who worked for the liberation of the blacks in US had the same fate; Nelson Mandela in South Africa had to spend most his life time behind the apartheid bars. Those few Christian missionaries who work in North India in educational and health care sector and through that try to create in the oppressed lot a sense of self respect and awareness of their rights face persecution and death. But does the Church take an official position in various areas of its activities similar to this? There is the risk of loosing the political power and riches of the Church. May be it will invite the displeasure of the administration. When the Church in Latin America was confronted with similar threat, it was able to stand up and fight for the rights of the people. If the Church has to occupy the seat where Christ is seated, there is no other way, but the way of the cross. We are asked to follow the one who had no place to lay his head (Mtt. 8:20). Actually this is the kind of share the Church should have in the glory of Christ. The meaning of the word ‘glory’ for Jesus was what lied beyond the dreadful experience in life (John 17:1 ff.). This is how the Epistle to Hebrews sees it (Heb. 2:9). But most of the time we considered the foundation of our glory in our claims about out Brahmin origin, about the Syriac tradition and the institutions and buildings we created. We many times failed in participating in the people’s struggle for another world, even though we talked about the theme ‘another world is possible’. We some times even found fault with those who raised their voice for their rights. In cases of land reform act, education bill, inheritance and succession bill, and the recent self financing institutions bill and several other instances our stand was not so much in line with Jesus’ attitude. Yes, we failed to follow him. Instead a new prosperity theology was promoted by the Church. Blessing of God was interpreted in terms of material gains. This material prosperity can be had through women-trade or private banking called ‘Blade companies’, or Teak, Mamchium or Jasmine companies or Abkari contract or even by selling Gospel in retail. Recently the Church has been so concerned of minority rights. By minority rights we mean our right to collect any amount of capitation fee and tuition fee from students of Christian institutions, to protest against drama like sixth wound of Jesus or movies like The Da Vinci code. We forget that this is what the majority fundamentals also do. On the other hand we had no prick of conscience to say that BJP and its allies are not untouchables to Christian communities. Until recently, until they lost the last Parliament election of course, majority fundamentalist party leaders were regular speakers in our Gospel Convention meetings. This double standard shows that the Church has no true commitment to the cause of calling. What is needed is to stand with the oppressed and the marginalized and work for their equal participation in the community and through that help them gain self respect and independence. We also need to address situations where injustice is promoted and slavery is brought in. This is what we are called for. This is how we should follow him.

"To err is human and to forgive is divine" "Please forgive...!!!