The Catholicate and our celebrations around it, sometimes remind me of the term "Theotokos" which has become popular in the Church. It refers to the Mother of God (God bearer). However it became a known term only when excessive heresies surrounding the very nature of Christ began to threaten our understanding about Christ. The term became a tool to teach the divinity of Christ, that the one born from Mary was truly God. Thus the term "Theotokos" tells us more about Christ than about Mary. We must remember this aspect of the history of the term when we try to understand the "Theotokos". In the Church. it is always about Christ.
Similarly, in the Indian Church, the term Catholicate became popular only when the God given freedom of the Church of St.Thomas was threatened. We gathered around the Catholicose of the East, we rallied behind the Catholicate, only when the external interference in the affairs of the ancient Church of India came to a head. When our freedom was threatened, when the realization dawned that we could not bear fruits as the Church of Christ in India if we continued in the old fashion, that was when the Catholicate became a uniting force for us. If this was not so, we who had not bothered about the Catholicate for 20 centuries of our history as Christians in India, would have continued in the same way. Only when there was threat to the freedom, inorder to grow fully as the Church of India, inorder to be able to provide the right witness of Christ in India, did we begin celebrating the Catholicate Day. The Catholicate has thus become a tool to teach and grow the right faith and tradition in the land. This aspect should not to forgotten either - hope we, both the factions of Orthodox Christians in India - are able to see the value of the independent Catholicate for the flourishing of the mission of the Church in India, because in the Church, the focus should always be on Chirst.
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