6th Dec 2012
To
Archbishop of Trivandrum
Vellayambalam, Thiruvananthapuram.
Greetings! Hope, you are ‘managing’ the archdiocesan affairs and ‘overcoming’ the challenges posed before you with your kind of ‘spirituality’! My wish and prayer is that our archbishop enjoys the ‘freedom of the children of God’ like Jesus himself and ensures that the people entrusted to his care also enjoy the same inalienable right.
Peter, addressing the exiles of Dispersion, assures them: ‘you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people…’ (I Pet 1:9). This is in tune with what his master was teaching all along: ‘…be perfect/holy as your heavenly Father is perfect/holy’ (Mt 5:48), ‘No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.’ (Jn 15:15). Jesus taught his disciples to call God, father (Mt 6:9); gave them the same title he claimed for himself: the ‘light of the world’ (5:14). The very first book of the Bible in its very first chapter asserts: ‘…God created man in his own image… male and female he created them (Gen 1:27).
This is to drive in some basic and fundamental Bible truths which you seemingly ignore for reasons best known to you alone! Whereas you and those of your kind hold so fast on certain things which Jesus desisted time and again: ‘…the Son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Mt 20:25ff). Rudolf Bultmann went to the extent of saying that this is the most genuine of Jesus’ sayings. It is said that John has substituted the ‘institution’ of Eucharist with that of the washing of disciples’ feet! Why? We have forgotten Jesus lamenting: ‘…the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head (Mt 8:20) and the hungry Jesus cursing the fig tree (Mk 11:12ff). We seemingly are comfortable with our cassocks, sash, mitre, scepter, palatial residences, royal table and multi-crore churches when the poor go hungry, have no proper roof over their heads and so on. Do we realize that they are the ‘Anawim’ of Yahweh on whose behalf he intervenes decisively? It is good to remember the sarcastic comment Gandhi had on Churchill calling him ‘half naked fakir’: ‘you have dressed up enough as if for both of us!’ It was this same Gandhi seeing a poor woman washing one end of her sari while wearing the other end for want of a spare one threw of his dress and went around half naked thereafter. Is it not the meaning of ‘incarnation’?
There was an amazing question-answer in a Tamil magazine: ‘Did any god ever have eaten the food offerings?’ The answer: ‘Will any mother ever eat anything without feeding her hungry children? Likewise, when there is no hungry child on the face of the earth, gods will certainly eat the food offered!’ Jesus knew hunger and so could he justify his disciples plucking ears of grain on the Sabbath (Mt 12:1ff). So was he ‘not willing to send the crowd away hungry, lest they faint on the way’ (15:32). Is not Lk 24:30-31 a commentary on Mt 25:31ff? When bread is broken/shared Jesus will be recognized even among the least of his brothers! ‘Life wage’ was a right won even through papal encyclicals! Do we give it to those working with us? We don’t have any hesitation to ask them to work for charity when we live a comfortable life with all possible security! Can we ever really understand the struggles, uncertainties of a family man/woman?
I wonder how do we understand the meaning of incarnation! “…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men...’ (Phi 2:7). Are we not the most unbelieving ones to whom Jesus tells: “…do not be anxious… seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things shall be yours as well” (Mt 6:25ff). How can you people be comfortable with titles, honours like ‘reverend’, ‘monsignor’, ‘excellency’, ‘eminence’, ‘grace’ etc against the backdrop of Mt 23:1ff)?
[to be continued...]
