On the ocassion of Gandhi Jayanti - here are some quotes, and some
thoughts of the Mahatma, mostly collected from this and other forums.
Gives us 'Christians' plenty of food for thought about our witness:
Enjoy,
Mathew Samuel,
Albany, NY.
-----------------------
Quotes by the Mahatma:
Mahatma Gandhi said 'beer-mug on one hand and a piece of beef on the
other hand is the kind of Christian I see.'
"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians
are so unlike your Christ. "
"It is better to allow our lives to speak for us than our words. God
did not bear the cross only two thousand years ago. He bears it
today, and he dies and is resurrected from day to day. It would be a
poor comfort to the world if it had to depend on a historical God who
died two thousand years ago. Do not, then, preach the God of history,
but show him as he lives today through you."
http://www.thinkarete.com/quotes/by_teacher/mahatma_gandhi/
----------
British Author Louis Fischer once said of Mahatma Gandhi, "He's more
Christian than most Christians"
------------------
The following is from "The Meaning and Nature of Diakiona" (pp. 25-
26) that Paulose Mar Gregorios Thirumeni wrote for the WCC in 1988.
"St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians about his own credentials as an
ambassador of God. Those credentials are threefold:
a) constant suffering, affliction and humiliation;
b) total openness to all in unhypocritical love;
c) the capacity to take acceptance and rejection, approval and
disapproval,
with the same equanimity and rejoicing.
"When I think of the church's diakonia in my own country, I find this
rarely to be the case. Our credentials as a Suffering Servant in
India are highly defective. not only the official church, but even
the action groups do not produce these credentials. Even Mother
Teresa, who is a tremendously successful Christian deacon, ambassador
and servant to the poor, can hardly produce the credentials which St.
Paul is talking about.
"On the other hand there has been at least one suffering servant,
with these credentials, whom I have encountered in India, in my own
life-time. But Mahatma Gandhi was not a baptized or believing
Christian. He came to the people as a suffering servant of God, with
all the three credentials. He walked into the village of Noakhali,
where Hindus and Muslims were shooting and stabbing each other, in
1947. Clad in loincloth, without sleep and without eating, with just
the old man's walking stick in his hand, this frail and fragile
servant walked into Muslim homes and Hindu homes, saying
to Muslims: "I am a Hindu; kill me if you want to kill a Hindu, but
do not kill others." To the Hindu household, brimming wit the same
passionate and murderous hatred as the Muslim household, Gandhi
walked in and said: "I am a friend of the Muslims; kill me first, but
do not kill others."
"The fact that he succeeded in Noakhali shows only the power of love.
The fact that he was shot down by a Hindu at a joint prayer meeting
of people of all religions confirms the truth that love does not
always succeed, but that the true vocation of the Suffering Servant
is to love to the point of laying down one's life for others.
"Christians, I must say to the shame of my own community in India,
should have seen, but did not acknowledge, their Lord as Suffering
Servant, in this exceptionally free and dedicated "non-Christian,"
who held to the truth as his breast-plate and manifested the love of
God in laying down his life that others may live.
"Draw what lessons you can from this episode of a man of another faith
fulfilling the role of the Suffering Servant in our time..."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianOrthodox/message/17773
thoughts of the Mahatma, mostly collected from this and other forums.
Gives us 'Christians' plenty of food for thought about our witness:
Enjoy,
Mathew Samuel,
Albany, NY.
-----------------------
Quotes by the Mahatma:
Mahatma Gandhi said 'beer-mug on one hand and a piece of beef on the
other hand is the kind of Christian I see.'
"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians
are so unlike your Christ. "
"It is better to allow our lives to speak for us than our words. God
did not bear the cross only two thousand years ago. He bears it
today, and he dies and is resurrected from day to day. It would be a
poor comfort to the world if it had to depend on a historical God who
died two thousand years ago. Do not, then, preach the God of history,
but show him as he lives today through you."
http://www.thinkarete.com/quotes/by_teacher/mahatma_gandhi/
----------
British Author Louis Fischer once said of Mahatma Gandhi, "He's more
Christian than most Christians"
------------------
The following is from "The Meaning and Nature of Diakiona" (pp. 25-
26) that Paulose Mar Gregorios Thirumeni wrote for the WCC in 1988.
"St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians about his own credentials as an
ambassador of God. Those credentials are threefold:
a) constant suffering, affliction and humiliation;
b) total openness to all in unhypocritical love;
c) the capacity to take acceptance and rejection, approval and
disapproval,
with the same equanimity and rejoicing.
"When I think of the church's diakonia in my own country, I find this
rarely to be the case. Our credentials as a Suffering Servant in
India are highly defective. not only the official church, but even
the action groups do not produce these credentials. Even Mother
Teresa, who is a tremendously successful Christian deacon, ambassador
and servant to the poor, can hardly produce the credentials which St.
Paul is talking about.
"On the other hand there has been at least one suffering servant,
with these credentials, whom I have encountered in India, in my own
life-time. But Mahatma Gandhi was not a baptized or believing
Christian. He came to the people as a suffering servant of God, with
all the three credentials. He walked into the village of Noakhali,
where Hindus and Muslims were shooting and stabbing each other, in
1947. Clad in loincloth, without sleep and without eating, with just
the old man's walking stick in his hand, this frail and fragile
servant walked into Muslim homes and Hindu homes, saying
to Muslims: "I am a Hindu; kill me if you want to kill a Hindu, but
do not kill others." To the Hindu household, brimming wit the same
passionate and murderous hatred as the Muslim household, Gandhi
walked in and said: "I am a friend of the Muslims; kill me first, but
do not kill others."
"The fact that he succeeded in Noakhali shows only the power of love.
The fact that he was shot down by a Hindu at a joint prayer meeting
of people of all religions confirms the truth that love does not
always succeed, but that the true vocation of the Suffering Servant
is to love to the point of laying down one's life for others.
"Christians, I must say to the shame of my own community in India,
should have seen, but did not acknowledge, their Lord as Suffering
Servant, in this exceptionally free and dedicated "non-Christian,"
who held to the truth as his breast-plate and manifested the love of
God in laying down his life that others may live.
"Draw what lessons you can from this episode of a man of another faith
fulfilling the role of the Suffering Servant in our time..."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianOrthodox/message/17773
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