In response to Mathew Samuel, Philadelphia, and some general thoughts,
My words are neither blasphemous, nor heretical; I agree to most of what you
wrote, but I feel you missed my point, hence the confusion. Kindly bear with
me as I try to clarify. Also, I am a novice in these fields, these are just
efforts in learning from my side, the discussion can only help me.
===============================
If we respect other religions, should we worship another God?
No, that is not what I am saying. For me, there is no God but
Christ.
Whom do I turn to when I am helpless?
Who is my help and refuge and strength?
Whom do I worship each Sunday during the Holy Eucharist?
Whom sustains me each moment of my life?
No one, but Jesus.
If any day, I were to worship any other God as I worship the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, I will be a sad and defeated man.
However, let us focus on the point I am trying to make. Jesus
is "The Way" like He Himself said. For me, this means He is my God
and my Master, no two thoughts about that. However, I cannot (mis)
interpret this to mean all others are wrong and that I am the only
one who has the right and complete knowledge of Him. Let us not put
words into the mouth of Jesus. To me, the words of Jesus to Peter in
John 21(:20 forward) is very loud and clear. When Peter asked about
the beloved disciple, remember His words -"..what is that to you?".
Let us not pretend to have out-thought "the Alpha and the Omega". We
are grateful that He has revealed Himself to us, but let us not use
that revelation to proclaim ownership of God. Let us not claim that
the revelation to us is the "ONLY" revelation. We are too small to
understand God's design entirely. Just like He has revealed His Son
Christ to us even though we are unworthy, we have to accept with
humility that He could have revealed Himself to others in other
religions in different ways; we just do not know. All are creations
of the same God. Let us not fool ourselves and others by thinking
that we know all about Him. We are entering God's jurisdiction here,
let us leave the judgment to God alone, and concentrate on things we
have to do as His Creation, rather than try to see the world through
the Creator's eyes.
You may be absolutely right and I may be absolutely wrong; or it may
be the other way around. The truth is that -- we just do not know.
Let us admit that. Many of us are plagued with the chronic ailment
of self-righteousness (I mean not personally, but as a group, as
Christians) when it comes to looking at other religions. This makes
us behave as strange creatures in society. While we have a great
depth of revelation in our religion, there are a lot of things to be
learnt outside of our religion. All this is lost to us, because of
our narrow mindedness. A few among us have managed to break out,
free themselves and see the world in a whole different perspective,
a few luminaries like V.C. Samuel Achen, Paulose Mar Gregorios
Thirumeni have shown us the way - yet we struggle in the darkness.
We may not agree entirely with the teachings of other religions;
that is natural. Where there is a group, there are bound to be
differences of opinion. But to shut them out entirely without caring
to learn from them, or know about them is wrong. Also, even when you
have differences of opinion, I believe we show the love of Christ in
a truer sense, by respecting their sentiment, 'by respecting what
you do not understand' - that is another aspect of true love, which
we often tend to ignore. How can I love my neighbor as Christ wanted
me to, if I do not have a respect for his reason, his faith, his
thoughts? Remember, I am speaking of faiths that preach the same
values and principles that we stand for, as Christians.
If I have respect for other religions, does that belittle the
sacrifice of Christ?
I sincerely do not think so. Christ's first and foremost message is
love - unconditional love, true love, the love that makes you lay
down your life for your neighbor, as He did. (not a love that
generates hatred and suspicion to the witness of Christ). In the
Holy Qurbana, we pray for the entire creation, we are offering the
sacrifice as a representative of the entire world - which includes
Christians and non Christians. Christ's passion was for the entire
mankind, and each one of us, being a "selected race" (again, not to
be arrogant, but "selected to serve") have a duty to spread that
true love in this world.
So we are all faced with a classical dilemma, how to spread Christ's
Gospel of true love to all, but at the same time nurture a respect
for others. Each of us, I am sure, is challenged by this, and each
of us tries to find our own answers for this. As for me, I am
convinced that in today's India, the missionary zeal practiced by
many Protestant missionaries is not the way to spread the true love
of Christ. We end up hurting the name of Christ by these practices.
I understand the ideology of these western missionaries, they have
not generally known another religion in their society (I mean not
known culturally, traditionally - it takes a lifetime to appreciate
the worth of these other faiths, [so I also do not know much]), so
for them, all other eastern religions are absolutely worthless,
there are no ethics in them, no values in them, they are all sources
of Satan, they have this idea because they do not know more. My
issue is with those of us from India who have had the opportunity to
see the richness of her various diverse religions from up close;
when they try to ape these western missionaries, they end up causing
more damage to the church than these foreign "evangelists".
So what then is the right way to witness Christ?
I believe the answer to this question can be easily found if we look
inwards, rather than outwards. Let the Words of the Master guide us -
"Remove the speck from your eye, then you will see clearly to
remove the log from your neighbour's eye" Our church, with her
endless litigations and petty interests, has lost focus on the core
issues, hence some of us try to seek the easier way out by a
senseless manner of proselytization.(I am thankful that this
thinking is still confined to a few, and there are not many takers
for it)
True love of Christ can only be preached in India by our church
reaching out to the poor and needy and being a help and comfort to
them(I am happy that the church is doing this in a big way, thanks
to the Mission Board spearheaded by the saintly Geevarghese Mar
Osthathios, as also innumerable workers of the church whose names we
do not know), working with other major religions, learning from
them, learning to respect them and telling them about us in the way it should
be(many leaders have been following the path shown by the likes Paulose Mar
Gregorios to work in this arena).
About the Bible -
We have many verses in the Bible, which are in direct conflict with
the philosophy of the Church. The church does not stress on these
verses, she guides the faithful with the true teachings, steering
clear of the pitfalls. We all understand that the Bible witnesses to
its incompleteness. The Bible as we usually know it is actually the
Protestant Bible. There are more books accepted by our church which
are not part of the 66 book Bible most of us have. I believe that
the verses in the Bible have to be read with critical reasoning, not
blind faith, though many times the ways of God are beyond reason
(please note that His ways are beyond reason, because He is not
confined within our sense of reason, but He is not against reason)
The Holy Spirit helps us to understand the words, and the words
become alive in the context of our lives. But this does not make it
open to literal interpretation always (in fact, often this is
dangerous). The Holy Spirit is alive and working in the world, even
after the last word in the Bible was written. He has been changing
the world; these changes are not many times truly reflected in the
Bible, since more books were not added later. He has been giving
shape to history and working with mankind, sustaining and fulfilling
the Creation. Let us not worship the Bible, but use the Bible more
to know about the revelations of the Creator.
Regards,
Mathew Samuel,
Austin, TX
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianOrthodox/message/7724
My words are neither blasphemous, nor heretical; I agree to most of what you
wrote, but I feel you missed my point, hence the confusion. Kindly bear with
me as I try to clarify. Also, I am a novice in these fields, these are just
efforts in learning from my side, the discussion can only help me.
===============================
If we respect other religions, should we worship another God?
No, that is not what I am saying. For me, there is no God but
Christ.
Whom do I turn to when I am helpless?
Who is my help and refuge and strength?
Whom do I worship each Sunday during the Holy Eucharist?
Whom sustains me each moment of my life?
No one, but Jesus.
If any day, I were to worship any other God as I worship the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, I will be a sad and defeated man.
However, let us focus on the point I am trying to make. Jesus
is "The Way" like He Himself said. For me, this means He is my God
and my Master, no two thoughts about that. However, I cannot (mis)
interpret this to mean all others are wrong and that I am the only
one who has the right and complete knowledge of Him. Let us not put
words into the mouth of Jesus. To me, the words of Jesus to Peter in
John 21(:20 forward) is very loud and clear. When Peter asked about
the beloved disciple, remember His words -"..what is that to you?".
Let us not pretend to have out-thought "the Alpha and the Omega". We
are grateful that He has revealed Himself to us, but let us not use
that revelation to proclaim ownership of God. Let us not claim that
the revelation to us is the "ONLY" revelation. We are too small to
understand God's design entirely. Just like He has revealed His Son
Christ to us even though we are unworthy, we have to accept with
humility that He could have revealed Himself to others in other
religions in different ways; we just do not know. All are creations
of the same God. Let us not fool ourselves and others by thinking
that we know all about Him. We are entering God's jurisdiction here,
let us leave the judgment to God alone, and concentrate on things we
have to do as His Creation, rather than try to see the world through
the Creator's eyes.
You may be absolutely right and I may be absolutely wrong; or it may
be the other way around. The truth is that -- we just do not know.
Let us admit that. Many of us are plagued with the chronic ailment
of self-righteousness (I mean not personally, but as a group, as
Christians) when it comes to looking at other religions. This makes
us behave as strange creatures in society. While we have a great
depth of revelation in our religion, there are a lot of things to be
learnt outside of our religion. All this is lost to us, because of
our narrow mindedness. A few among us have managed to break out,
free themselves and see the world in a whole different perspective,
a few luminaries like V.C. Samuel Achen, Paulose Mar Gregorios
Thirumeni have shown us the way - yet we struggle in the darkness.
We may not agree entirely with the teachings of other religions;
that is natural. Where there is a group, there are bound to be
differences of opinion. But to shut them out entirely without caring
to learn from them, or know about them is wrong. Also, even when you
have differences of opinion, I believe we show the love of Christ in
a truer sense, by respecting their sentiment, 'by respecting what
you do not understand' - that is another aspect of true love, which
we often tend to ignore. How can I love my neighbor as Christ wanted
me to, if I do not have a respect for his reason, his faith, his
thoughts? Remember, I am speaking of faiths that preach the same
values and principles that we stand for, as Christians.
If I have respect for other religions, does that belittle the
sacrifice of Christ?
I sincerely do not think so. Christ's first and foremost message is
love - unconditional love, true love, the love that makes you lay
down your life for your neighbor, as He did. (not a love that
generates hatred and suspicion to the witness of Christ). In the
Holy Qurbana, we pray for the entire creation, we are offering the
sacrifice as a representative of the entire world - which includes
Christians and non Christians. Christ's passion was for the entire
mankind, and each one of us, being a "selected race" (again, not to
be arrogant, but "selected to serve") have a duty to spread that
true love in this world.
So we are all faced with a classical dilemma, how to spread Christ's
Gospel of true love to all, but at the same time nurture a respect
for others. Each of us, I am sure, is challenged by this, and each
of us tries to find our own answers for this. As for me, I am
convinced that in today's India, the missionary zeal practiced by
many Protestant missionaries is not the way to spread the true love
of Christ. We end up hurting the name of Christ by these practices.
I understand the ideology of these western missionaries, they have
not generally known another religion in their society (I mean not
known culturally, traditionally - it takes a lifetime to appreciate
the worth of these other faiths, [so I also do not know much]), so
for them, all other eastern religions are absolutely worthless,
there are no ethics in them, no values in them, they are all sources
of Satan, they have this idea because they do not know more. My
issue is with those of us from India who have had the opportunity to
see the richness of her various diverse religions from up close;
when they try to ape these western missionaries, they end up causing
more damage to the church than these foreign "evangelists".
So what then is the right way to witness Christ?
I believe the answer to this question can be easily found if we look
inwards, rather than outwards. Let the Words of the Master guide us -
"Remove the speck from your eye, then you will see clearly to
remove the log from your neighbour's eye" Our church, with her
endless litigations and petty interests, has lost focus on the core
issues, hence some of us try to seek the easier way out by a
senseless manner of proselytization.(I am thankful that this
thinking is still confined to a few, and there are not many takers
for it)
True love of Christ can only be preached in India by our church
reaching out to the poor and needy and being a help and comfort to
them(I am happy that the church is doing this in a big way, thanks
to the Mission Board spearheaded by the saintly Geevarghese Mar
Osthathios, as also innumerable workers of the church whose names we
do not know), working with other major religions, learning from
them, learning to respect them and telling them about us in the way it should
be(many leaders have been following the path shown by the likes Paulose Mar
Gregorios to work in this arena).
About the Bible -
We have many verses in the Bible, which are in direct conflict with
the philosophy of the Church. The church does not stress on these
verses, she guides the faithful with the true teachings, steering
clear of the pitfalls. We all understand that the Bible witnesses to
its incompleteness. The Bible as we usually know it is actually the
Protestant Bible. There are more books accepted by our church which
are not part of the 66 book Bible most of us have. I believe that
the verses in the Bible have to be read with critical reasoning, not
blind faith, though many times the ways of God are beyond reason
(please note that His ways are beyond reason, because He is not
confined within our sense of reason, but He is not against reason)
The Holy Spirit helps us to understand the words, and the words
become alive in the context of our lives. But this does not make it
open to literal interpretation always (in fact, often this is
dangerous). The Holy Spirit is alive and working in the world, even
after the last word in the Bible was written. He has been changing
the world; these changes are not many times truly reflected in the
Bible, since more books were not added later. He has been giving
shape to history and working with mankind, sustaining and fulfilling
the Creation. Let us not worship the Bible, but use the Bible more
to know about the revelations of the Creator.
Regards,
Mathew Samuel,
Austin, TX
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianOrthodox/message/7724
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