| Jacob
Kavunkal, SVD
Some of the Biblical texts like the Johannine Prologue or the creation account of Genesis show how God’s presence through God’s Word extends to the whole cosmos. Creation is the beginning of God’s revelation and saving activity. Hence all participate in God’s saving revelation. In this context we have to ask anew as to what is the mission of the Church. In the past it was fairly easy as it was presumed that the Church’s mission was affording salvation for the people as it was considered to be the custodian of the salvation effected by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Vatican II acknowledged that the fruits of the Paschal Mystery reaches all human beings (GS, 22) and that salvation is available to others as well (LG, 16, AG, 9, NA, 2). In the past, as E.P. Sanders points out, the Church was more concerned about the significance God attributed to Jesus’ death, i.e., he died as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, than with his teachings and activities in Palestine. For this we have to return to the Gospels. The first thing that we come across in the gospels is that Jesus is not working to change God’s attitude to people, to win back divine friend ship, rather he tries to change people’s mind to each other and to God. In fact some of the parables like that of the Vineyard (Mk 12: 1-12) clearly state that the passion and death of Jesus was due to the disbelief of the people though by raising him God made him the cornerstone of the Kingdom. For Jesus the main issue was religious faith permeated by fear due to ignorance, suffering from a sense of distance from the divine. In this context he calls for repentance. It is a question of the change of mind, of attitude. "It is about changing (converting) peoples thoughts and images about God and how they see themselves in relationship with God", observes Michael Morwood. Hence we have to make a transition from the Paschal Mystery to the Ministry of the Lord which I would describe as the "stone rejected by the builders" and make it the "corner stone" of our Missiology. Through his ministry, according to the gospels, Jesus is busy in the realization of the divine reign. In the following pages we shall describe that in the context of the presence of the Word in the world, church’s mission is primarily that of witnessing to the Incarnate Word and his mission and thus realizing the divine reign for India. This calls for the Indian church’s conversion to the cultures and religious traditions of India as well as to the poor. A New Relationship The Word Incarnate, through his ministry, manifests not only God’s nature as love and compassion, but also shows how this God relates God’s self to the world. In Jesus of Nazareth people come into contact with God. God enters into their lives in a new way which in turn changes their world-view and lives. Whether it is Zachaeus, the tax collector or the woman caught in adultery, the woman healed of the flow of blood, Jairus whose daughter was restored to life, the blind man at Jericho, the Gerasene demoniac, the paralytic at Capernaum, the lepers at Galilee, the man with the withered hand, the Syrophoenician woman, the blind, the lame, those who were fed, etc., all experience God coming into their lives through the action of Jesus. They have a new relationship with God which Jesus qualifies as ‘faith’. God as manifested through Jesus is not so much concerned about God’s own self, as about the "other", God’s creation, and humans, more so, "the little ones". This relating effects a change in the attitude of the people so as to "glorify God" and to be good to all as the Good God who makes the rain to fall on all. This relating of God to the world and the people is to be continued through the ministry of the church. Hence mission has to do with the way the church relates itself to the world, to peoples, their cultures and religions. Church’s relating itself to these must manifest Jesus’ concern, respect and commitment. Thus the church becomes the sacrament of God’s relating to the world. The church through its ministry points to God and God’s interaction with people as manifested in the Word Incarnate. He was the manifestation of God’s plan for the world, the divine reign. This ultimately is what the church has to become, Emmanuel, God with us, for Matthew 1:23 cannot be divorced from Matthew 28:20. The ministry of the Word Incarnate is confirmed by God by raising him from the dead and establishing him Lord of all creation. Hence he sends his church to continue that presence and that ministry. The Church and the Indian Culture If the Word is present in every reality of the world, it is obvious that all the cultures of the world are also the dwellings of the Word. Every culture, then, is to be approached as though a temple, with respect and love. Hence for the church it would be a sin against the Word and the Spirit to consider any culture as foreign or unworthy of making it a home. Culture is the vital space within which the human person encounters God (EA, 21). It is the "language" through which God has been speaking to peoples. Culture of a people includes factors such as their world-view, history, experiences, values, hopes, aspirations, anxieties, etc. Though culture is human made, in so far as it is the "en-block" which a particular human group has transformed for themselves in the canvas of nature, giving them identity and rootedness, it has an absoluteness and irreducibility in so far as the human nature created by God can unfold itself only in a culture. The primary implication for the Indian church in its mission in India is the love and respect for the cultures of India and the need to make them its own. It is a process of discovering, unveiling, the Word present in the Indian cultures even as St. Paul unveiled the Word present in the Areopagus culture (Act 17:22f). Though the historical person, Jesus of Nazareth, could not be said to have gone through a process of conscious unfolding of his self in the Jewish culture, because as a human person, it came natural to him, in becoming incarnate, the Word, apart from his creative indwelling in all cultures, makes the Jewish culture his own. He becomes a perfect Jew. At the same time, as the Word Incarnate he transforms the Jewish culture by being counter cultural to whatever was dehumanizing, i.e., whatever was inconsistent with his relation to God as the "Abba". This he described in terms of the Kingdom of God. Thus the "Abba experience", the Kingdom, and inculturation are inter-related. This is the mystery and the model of inculturation for every community of his disciples to follow. As the human person Jesus was a Jew, the community’s natural identity is its own culture. The community’s faith in Jesus assumes a specific expression in this culture, which will obviously be different from the expressions of that faith in other cultures, in life-style, worship, theology, structures, mission, etc., because they are moulded by the community’s world-view, history, values, experiences, hopes, aspirations, anxieties, sufferings, and so on. At the same time its faith makes it to be counter cultural to all those factors that are dehumanizing in its own culture. This process of the growth of a church in a particular culture is inculturation and the result is the coming into being of a local church. Since the earliest Christian community in India began already during the Apostolic times, its identity was one with the Indian culture, before it came into contact with the sister churches from out side India, first the Syrian Christians of Mesopotamia and then the Latin Christians from the West. The former imposed on it the Syrian form of worship while the later Latinized its liturgy and banned the use of many aspects of social life. As far as the Latin church in India is concerned, consistent with the theology and outlook of the colonial times, it was a flawless transportation of the Western church. Though insightful persons like Robert de Nobili, John de Britto, Brhmabhandav Upadyaya, Swami Abhishiktananda and many others have tried to mould the Indian identity of the church in India, due to the powerfully centralized control, their attempts have remained marginal. The urgent need of the time is to carry ahead the work of these pioneers to its logical conclusion. The impact of centuries of unchallenged Eurocentrism makes it difficult for the Indian church to enter into dialogue with the composite culture of India. Vatican II opens up avenues of genuine theological discernment and debates on differing theological positions. This must encourage the Indian church to go through what can be described as a process of "exculturation", i.e., die to the imposed identity, and spell out initiatives to express itself in forms and structures responding to the genuine demands of India. In this the Greek inculturation of the early church can serve as a model and not the mould. Like Jesus of Nazareth, the secular identity of the Indian church will not in any way differ from that of our fellow citizens. However Jesus of Nazareth called his fellow Jews to a transformation, conversion, based on his relationship to God. This call has to be continued through the community of his disciples in India. The spelling out of that call in the Indian context today is its mission. Relating to Other Religions One of the striking features of creation is the pluralism that permeates it. An example of this pluralism is the mind-boggling variety of life that fills the earth. In so far as the whole creation is the work of God through the Word who enlightens everyone coming into the world (Jn 1:1-4,9), every religion too is permeated by the Word. Religious pluralism is an enrichment and a source of creative catholicity. The gospels do not present Jesus as a representative of any particular religion. His passion was God’s reign, as we have explained. True, he formed a community and commissioned this community to continue his mission of witnessing to the good news. No doubt eventually this community became a new religion. This transformation in its identity from the "way of the Nazarene" to the Christian religion, should not lead to the conclusion that its mission is to displace other religions, rather it is relating to other religions. Vatican II opened a new chapter in the church’s mission by exhorting Christians to "acknowledge, preserve and promote the values of other religions" (NA, 2) and also to enter into dialogue with the followers of other religions. This attitude of openness to the followers of other religions was manifested already in 1964 by Paul VI during his historic visit to India. Quoting the famous Upanishadic prayer, "lead us from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality" (Br. Up.1.3.28), the Pope qualified India as "the land of ancient culture, the cradle of great religions, the home of a nation that has sought God with relentless desire in deep meditation and silence and hymns of fervent prayer". He exhorted all to meet as "pilgrims who set out to find God in human hearts. Person meet person, nation meet nation, as brothers and sisters, as children of God". Pope John Paul II has laid the foundations for the Indian church for its mission in the context of religious pluralism through his various addresses. In his very opening address during the 10 day visit to India in 1986, replying to the Indian President’s welcome, the Pope said: "I wanted to meet as many of the beloved Indian people as possible, and come to a deeper understanding of the rich cultures of your country. I pray that my visit will serve and support the good of your nation and the well-being of all the Indian people". Further he said, "I take this occasion to express my sincere interest in all the religions of India — an interest marked by genuine respect, by attention to whatever we have in common, by a desire to promote inter-religious dialogue and fruitful collaboration between people of all different faiths". John Paul II qualified the church’s presence in India in the midst of religious pluralism as one of "a pilgrimage of peace and good will" and recognized the values of "the dignity, equality and fraternal solidarity of all human beings" which prompts "to reject every form of discrimination". Addressing the Catholics at the Indira Gandhi stadium on February 2, 1986, the Pope reminds them how God is present in every person and in every culture as all are created in God’s image. Continuing the same spirit he told the Bishops of India, "Another matter that occupies your zeal is inter-religious dialogue. This too is a serious part of your apostolic ministry. The Lord calls you especially in this particular circumstances in which you are placed, to do everything possible to promote this dialogue according to the commitment of the Church". Each Christian personifies the loving church of Christ that wants to be open to the world, in order to listen and to offer friendship and service and each has the duty of "expressing the church’s respect and esteem for all your brethren for the spiritual, moral and cultural values enshrined in their different religious traditions". While addressing the religious, political and cultural leaders of India the Pope acknowledged how India has so much to offer to the world in the task of understanding the truth of existence. He said that India gives a "noble vision of man, as a pilgrim of the Absolute, traveling towards a goal, seeking the face of God". According to the Pope, the Indian motto, "Satyam eva jayanti" (Truth alone triumphs), refers to the Truth about God and the truth about humans which impels us to a whole programme of world wide commitment and collaboration. Not only Christianity has a mission to India but India too has a mission to the whole world: "India’s greatest contribution to the world can be to offer it a spiritual vision of man". John Paul reasserted similar thoughts while addressing the leaders of other religions at Madras and Calcutta. At Madras he said how he was longing to visit India the land of many religions and was looking forward to the spiritual fellowship that was arranged there. He went on to say that there was the possibility of true dialogue as the Catholic Church recognized the truth contained in the religious traditions of India. On his return to the Vatican, during the public audience on February 12, 1986 the Pope recalled fondly the dialogue he had with the various leaders in India and described his pilgrimage to India as linked to the church’s institutional dialogue with the religions professed by the majority of Indians. He concluded by saying, "The pilgrimage in India was, therefore, among other things a providential occasion for continuing dialogue with all who believe in God and seek to orient their lives from the perspective of a transcendental reality. The quest of the Absolute and the yearning for peace are very evident in the spirituality of the various religions present in India". The Pope continued the same line of teaching on his return to India in 1998. The very symbolic gesture of the Pope at Vigyan Bhavan, where he joined hands with the Sankaracharya Madhavananda Saraswati and raised them together at the loud applause of the audience, indicates the course that the Indian church has to follow, one of Dialogue and collaboration. His message was simply one of God’s love, with the counsel to refrain from the paths of isolation, division and conflict. "I came among you", said John Paul, "as a pilgrim of peace and fellow-traveler on the road that leads to the complete fulfillment of the deepest human longings". Having asserted that the meeting at Vigyan Bhavan was a message to the world of the things that unite all religions, viz., the common origin and destiny, and the shared responsibility for people’s well-being and progress, the Pope assured the participants: "My presence here among you is meant as a further sign that the Catholic Church wants to enter ever more deeply into dialogue with the religions of the world. She sees this dialogue as an act of love which has its roots in God himself." John Paul II insisted that the challenges now facing the society can only be met by building a civilization of love, founded on the universal values of peace, solidarity, justice and liberty. "And how can we do this", he asked, "except through encounter, mutual understanding and cooperation?". Having insisted on the need to discern and welcome whatever is good and holy in one another, he concluded: "To choose tolerance, dialogue and cooperation as the path into the future is to preserve what is most precious in the great religious heritage of humankind". The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India too from its early history had been promulgating dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions. It established a dialogue commission and dialogue centres already in 1966. In 1976 the CBCI Commission for Inter-Religious dialogue published a Guidelines for Dialogue which was revised in 1989. The Guidelines declares that the plurality of religions is a consequence of the richness of creation itself and of the manifold grace of God. Though all coming from the same source, peoples have perceived the universe and articulated their awareness of the Divine Mystery in manifold ways, and God has surely been present in these historical undertakings of God’s children. It goes on to say that Inter Religious Dialogue will be able to lead us into the mysteries of the divine-human dialogue as it takes place in different religions. While intolerance has become a way of life for many, especially in the garb of religion, Christian mission should dissociate itself from religious myopia both in its exclusivistic and inclusivistic shades. We have to acknowledge at all platforms the universalistic realism that pervades the bible and upheld by the recent Magisterium. The mission of Inter Religious Dialogue "is not simply a strategy for peaceful coexistence among peoples; it is an essential part of the Church’s mission because it has its origin in the Father’s loving dialogue of salvation with humanity through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit" (EA, 29). Evangelization in Asia has to be from "the framework of complementarity and harmony" (EA, 6). Hence the church in India will have to do everything possible not only to promote Inter Religious Dialogue but also to assure the different religions of India that the mission of the church is not targeted against them.
The Kingdom Perspective We saw how the mission of the Incarnate Word had God’s reign as its foundation. It was the prophetic transformation of the culture of his times. He brought a new meaning and a new approach to the Law, sometimes evolutionary (Mt 5:17), sometimes revolutionary (Mt 18:22). In all he showed how God was not primarily concerned about God’s own self, but that of God’s creation and of the Humans. Humans are not for the Law but the law is for the humans (Lk 6:1-11). All through his ministry we see Jesus trying to integrate those whom the Jewish society had marginalized in one way or the other. He worked for these "little ones", the lower classes, the poor, the uneducated, the farm workers hired out for the day, those known as sinners, those ignorant of the law, the harassed people who were like sheep without shepherds, those carrying heavy burdens, the tax collectors, the sick, the maimed, the blind, the lepers, the possessed, those bound by the powers of the times, etc. All these belonged to the lower rungs of the society due to one or the other criteria that the culture had imposed. Restoring justice to them was his concern and this he proclaimed as the divine reign. The presence of the Word in the World calls for certain secularization of the church to be expressed in its service to human history. The church is not mainly an agency to propagate a particular religion. It has to address the whole world with its transforming commitment. It is taking human history with a more positive note. History is the anticipation of "God’s future". In the context of the vandalization of the human person, whether it be in the form of social ostracization of the dalits, the disenfranchisement of the poor, the dispossession of the tribal people, the discrimination of women, the brutal annihilation of female life from womb to tomb, the marginalization and exploitation of children, etc., the defense and the upholding of the human rights and human dignity is the urgent task that the church in India is called to render. The "new way of being church" (Guttierrez) in India is above all a call to be in solidarity with those whose human rights are violated or threatened in one form or other. The human person is the primary concern of the church in India. Hence it has to involve in the empowerment of the poor, hear their cry for participation and acknowledgement as human persons. The mission of the church is not an ecclesial question, nor even a theological one but basically it is an anthropological question. It can be described as a Christological issue in the sense the church’s preoccupation is how to make the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ and which it has experienced in Jesus Christ, meaningful to these people. It can be described also as an ecclesiological issue in the sense the community has to be the sacrament of this love. Christianity is not an alternative to this world. It exists to be at the service of this world and to transform it. It is not by despising the world, but by loving the world through its struggle to anticipate the hereafter already now as far it is possible that the church fulfils its mission. Christians, like all others, will have to take the world and its problems as the primary space for their service. The Council emphasized the challenge of Christian presence in the world. Lumen Gentium 31 speaks of the secular character of the people of God and its vocation to seek the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing these according to God’s will. By entering into a life in the midst of the world, through the social and political institutions, Christians by their communion with God proclaim the Goodness of the Kingdom. The CBCI in its General Body Meeting at Goa in 1986 called upon the Catholics to involve themselves actively in the field of politics and so play their part in influencing the destinies of the people. In the midst of the terrific non-Kingdom reality manifested by the untold suffering and death prevailing, the role of committed Christian presence for legislative and structural changes to usher in an egalitarian society, cannot be exaggerated. In the context of repression, oppression and exploitation, compounded by a mindless communal frenzy let loose by the rabid power mongers, who criminally polarize religions to hang on to power, the prayer "Thy Kingdom come", becomes the cry from the heart of India. It is a challenge to engage in political activity so that the political arena is influenced with the values of love, justice and peace. Without any triumphalism Christians have to retrieve the spirit of the early Christians as the soul of the world. The early tradition of the church as the voice of the voiceless and the conscience of the society, have to come alive. This is another way of expressing the Gospel command to be "the salt" of the earth. To refuse to be involved in political transformation is a denial of Christian identity, as the Asian Bishops have said. Christian indifferentism contributes to the unchecked growth of injustice and corruption in political life. Christians must whole heartedly collaborate with any movement that has its aim justice and the good of the poor and the discriminated ones. Any political party that has the well-being of the nation and of all the citizens of India without any sort of discrimination, merits Christian participation. Such Christian participation with commitment to justice and to the cause of the poor can influence party politics even if only in a minor way. That is part of the conversion, transformation that Christians can bring about. Even as Christianity was instrumental in effecting the reform movement within Hinduism in the 19th century, today too the Christian community can bring about a change in the Indian society through a casteless and pro poor politics both in its own life and outside. Christian centres of higher education can play a significant role not only by education, but also by guiding and moulding public opinion in favour of the marginalized and the underprivileged through information and analysis. For instance at the time of the budget making Christian Institutes of Management and Administration can come to the aid of the poor by influencing the policy makers through informed and competent discussions. Unfortunately this has been an area ignored by our specialized and prestigious centres. The guiding principle of Christian politics is not minority rights or the interests of the Christian institutions but the basic human rights and the transformation of the society into a just and humane one. This obviously can be done only in collaboration with others. What hampers life for the millions in India is not their brokenness from God but because they are willfully kept in the life-denying situations by the powerful people and the decision-makers. This can happen even in ecclesial life. Hence there is pressing need to transform and humanize the many structures so that all can participate in life fully. Such a transformation in effect is a conversion, a conversion first to justice and to those who are denied of justice. It is a conversion that bears the self-emptying love of Christ. Christians, through a life of professional excellence, objectivity and integrity can render an incisive role in the civil society. Similarly Christians can make use of political field to be shining examples of integrity and dedication to public welfare. A refusal to appreciate the value of political field and to be involved in it is a refusal to acknowledge the presence of the Word in the political scene. As the Council reminds us the Word and his Spirit are present in the secular realities as they manifest humanity’s legitimate desires and aspirations and its struggle for justice and human dignity (GS, 26). Elsewhere in the same document we are told how mission requires an in-depth discernment of all the social, political economic, cultural, and religious signs of the times in today’s world (GS, 4). John Paul II has linked this presence of the Word in the world to whatever is human. "Man is the primary route that the Church must travel in fulfilling her mission: he is the primary way for the Church, a way that, in a sense, is the basis of all the other ways that the Church must walk" (RH, 14). Human rights and the dignity of the human person, human progress, fullness of life for the human family are the object of our service. The world of human reality that we encounter in India and the divine love that we have experienced in Jesus Christ are the two sides of the Christian service in India. Jesus Christ, though as the pre-existent Word is operative in all religions, became incarnate to make human beings whole. Hence it would be more realistic to say that our mission today is fulfilling the inner human aspirations rather than fulfilling other religions in Jesus Christ. Sign of Divine Love Jesus was the sign of God’s love and God’s reign. He made the reality of God visible and tangible for us humans. He embodied God through his life and ministry. By raising him God affirms his ministry and tells us that we too will participate in that fullness of life, that destiny if we live that life style. Irrespective of the negligible percentage of Christians in India, the Christian community has to become a tangible and visible sign of the divine reign and divine love and manifest God’s plan for humans, that of true community. Hence the Christian community has to be conformed to Jesus Christ, being transparent to the will of God. Mission becomes above all, the Christian praxis of discipleship, than an enterprise. What is to be emphasized is that Jesus Christ is the one whom we follow rather than the end of our pilgrimage which of course, is God whom Jesus manifested. The salvation effected through incarnation is the very way in which the Son of God went about in this world and it is this very same way of going about in the world that is bequeathed to the community of his disciples. The self-emptying and the poverty of the Lord who had no where to lay his head must be the hall mark of the church in India. For this it will have to become a "church in-side out", i.e., its centre of gravity will not so much be its own well-being and growth, but the world and the world’s well-being. Its own identity will only be for the sake of the world. Naturally for the sake of the world, to continue the mission of the Word Incarnate, the community has to be there always. Hence it will always be open to new members who want to join it. But then, the membership is for the sake of service. For the self-emptying church to arrogate for itself the right to exist as the only true religion would be a contradiction, not to speak of the irreconcilability of such a claim with the divine plan of pluralism manifested in nature. The church has no other ambition than "to serve human beings by manifesting the love of God made present in Jesus Christ" (RM, 2). The church points to God and God’s interaction with people as manifested in Jesus Christ. As Jesus Christ brought about a new relationship with God in the lives of the persons with whom he interacted in his ministry, the church also must become an instrument of the divine interaction with people today. This relationship leading to harmony in the midst of plurality, is the chief character and focus of the church’s mission in India. It springs from God’s relation to creation, and it participates in the Son’s relating to history and is continued in the church’s service through the Spirit. While speaking about relations we have to insist that all humans, male and female are created in God’s image and God dwells in them without any discrimination. Hence the church has an urgent task to disown gender discrimination in any form and anywhere including in its own life. Another important aspect is our relation to the earth, our home. We should develop a sense of connaturality and kinship with the earth. When human greed is exploiting nature with the sole motive of profit leading to the present ecological disaster the church has to raise its voice with sisterly concern. The Christian community must be unreservedly committed to the protection of environment and collaborate with the redemptive Word present in Mother Earth. Thus we must rediscover the whole creation as God’s handiwork and preserve its integrity. Due to the intimate relation between theology and culture, our theology must keep pace with the scientific progress and the knowledge of the universe. For most part, our theology developed in a solar centred or may be even in an earth centred concept of the universe. Modern scientific knowledge has brought us to the awesome awareness of the existence not only of our own galaxy with more than 200 billion stars or the Milky Way with its cluster of 30 galaxies but of the existence of an estimated three hundred billion galaxies, each with billions and billions of stars. Our knowledge of this universe is still in the infancy stage. Further, science tells us the universe is expanding limitlessly. This opens up the possibility of the existence of any number of earths, with living beings including humans. The existing theological notions and systems may be inadequate. In this context the wisdom of the tribal religions bode well for a new understanding of the divine activity. Through the so called animism they tell us how life, the divine is coextensive with nature. Every cell of nature and the universe is impregnated with the divine. We may add that through Incarnation that divine presence becomes personal and this has to be continued through the ministry of the church. Conclusion The deepening of our faith in the presence of the Word in the whole creation, demands that our missionary vision becomes all-encompassing as God’s own vision. God’s protective and caring love cannot be restricted to any group or area. In the light of the biblical realism, genuine mission cannot anymore be through a denial of others or by claims of exclusivism or superiority, but it must be anchored in the limitless love as well as the all-embracing and expansive plan of God who does not dissociate from any of God’s works even when that God imprints God’s image on the face of Jesus Christ. The church’s mission is only to continue what happened in the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not a notion to be discussed or a dogma to be imposed but a person to be followed, a mystery to be lived.
E.P.
Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus, (Allen Lane: The Penguin
Press, 1993), 1.
Ref.: Text from the Author for SEDOS.
|