Maundy Thursday: Our small steps of commitment and faith

Maundy Thursday is celebrated the world over as a time for Christians to come together and partake in the communion of the body and blood of Christ. People who have confessed their short comings and have taken the decision of being at peace with one another flock to church to receive the communion set in motion by our Lord Jesus Christ. But what is indeed the significance of this communion or the Holy Qurbana (o) in church?

Jesus commits to his disciples and says that he wanted to have this meal with them before he suffers and that he won’t do this again till the fulfillment of the Kingdom. He then says the formulaic sentence followed by many churches up till today and announces that he is giving them his body and blood as a sign of the new covenant between God and human beings. We are all under this new covenant of commitment that Jesus makes to us. It is a commitment to suffer for the cause of many and to fight for all. As we partake of the body and blood of Christ we are also coming under this covenant and commitment to do good. For that we have pursued a tough time of cleansing ourselves of all things which are anti Christ. Today we then come forward in that commitment that as God has made a covenant with us we also make a covenant with God that we will do what God seeks of us, which is to be Christ like.

What could be the good expected of us? Isaiah 58:6-9 offers us a splendid idea. “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.” We are bound to a commitment of doing specific things which are expected as part of our fast and commitment to God. It is a clear call to do good like Jesus chose to do. Fight injustice, let the oppressed go free, cover the naked, share our bread with the hungry and the Lord will hear our cry and say “Here I am.” Allowing the body and blood of Christ to work inside us is necessary as otherwise we only partake and nothing seemingly happens out of that. The wonderful opportunity to partake and to effect change brings about a true commitment from God to hear our cry and reply Here I am.

The partaking of the body and blood of Christ makes us enter into covenant with God and gives us the unique opportunity to be co-workers in God’s kingdom. The partaking is not a simple act of dealing with our short comings and coming forward to accept communion but steps of commitment and faith saying that I will heed to the wish of God to correct injustices in society and open my life to the poor and let the oppressed go free. Those small steps towards communion that we take are big steps of a commitment that I will contribute my bit to change the world that I live in. What a beautiful thought it is and what a wonderful commitment we share. Amen.

Praise to Thee, O Lord, To Thy Father Praise,
Worship, glory be To the Holy Ghost.
Grace and mercy be on us sinners all,
Opened be to us Zion’s gates above
May our pleas be heard at the throne of Christ.
Praise to Thee, O Lord, Praise to Thee, O Lord,
Ever praise to Thee, Our hope. God bless.


(Excerpts from a sermon preached in St. Ignatius JSO Church, K.R. Puram, Bangalore during Pesaha service yesterday night.)
Picture courtesy www.lds.org

How a Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Christian can make a difference for the environment

The United Nations based World Environment Day (WED) was held on Wednesday, June 5th in several parts of the world including India. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which is instrumental in the conduct of the WED has as this year’s theme “Green Economy: Does it include you?” The Indian media was filled with interviews with environmentalists and some had a list of human made ecological disasters in India. On the whole it was a day when we were all encouraged to do something for our mother earth and for the generations to come.

Solutions for the crisis that we are facing include decreasing our consumption of various commodities which make use of water, natural resources and fuel to be delivered to us. Local produce will not only ensure food security but will also ensure that less resources will be used and less communities will be robbed of what is theirs to use. Other local solutions include using modes of transportation which do not run on petrol and diesel, using less electricity and water, managing waste and recycling.

As churches are also encouraged to set apart a day for the environment and remind people of the importance of integrating the gospel learning's in our lives, it is important to reflect on what each church can contribute to this. The Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church in India is seen as traditional, old, ritualistic, repeating, and rigid by other members of society. Yet all these very nomenclatures may eventually show us something which will help us to see the environment as part of our lives and therefore as “our environment.”

For the purpose of looking into one’s own church for offering contributions for WED, one can look at four points. One, reducing our carbon foot print, two, reducing the usage of water and electricity, three, using natural energy and four, recycling and renewing. All these four things have corresponding contributions from our ancestors in the church.

Festivals in the JSOC are a part and parcel of the church. Festivals are conducted in the name of several saints and St. Mary. One of the significant parts of a festival is the long walk undertaken by the faithful to the said church. This is a walk which is done with meagre resources and the only fuel burnt is "one’s own." One such walking pilgrimage that I have witnessed and been part of several times is the Manjinikara festival in Kerala. People walk for several kilometres together to reach the destination. This walk of faith uses as less as possible. People are in fact told that one should survive on the least possible means. The essence of this walk of faith is to consume as less as possible. If more people were to take part in these festivals and make this as a part of their very lives, we would be able to reduce our carbon foot print significantly.

People earlier also believed in communitarian live styles. Everything was done together. House prayers were conducted by all in the family sitting together in one room and in the process switching everything else off. The communitarian lifestyle thus ensured single energy use in comparison to multiple energy uses. People were very conscious of the energy used and always wanted to consume and use less.

Natural sources of power were used abundantly. The sun as a source of power is indeed one of the strongest sources. People slept early and woke up early and in essence made use of solar power as much as possible. They used natural light for many things. Everything was put to use. The sun was used to dry coconuts and every perceivable thing which could be used as a food source. All the food was shared between humans and animals (cattle, dogs) and the rest was returned to the soil to provide manure for new life and supporting existing life. Instead of air conditioners for cooling down rooms, trees were planted and they did the job of two or three air conditioners at a time.

Finally houses in the old days were recycling centres and women were at the heart of recycling. Everything was re-used. Newspapers, bread packets, rubber bands, bottles, ropes, and wires were all reused for other purposes. Even old t-shirts were reused as table wiping cloth. Everything had a coming back effect. It was as if the ball had a strong thread attached to it. Whatever was thrown came back and was used again.

In John 6:1-13 Jesus feeds the five thousand plus crowd with five loaves and two fish. Everything here was also highly environment friendly. Jesus shared the little food that was there with everyone. The community sharing of food made sure that very little energy was consumed to make it. What remained was shared again. Jesus’ model suggests a “sharing without ceasing” and has something in common with the church understanding of "liturgy after liturgy". Sharing simply cannot end. The Holy Qurbana or communion in the JSOC is also like this. The bread is single bread which is shared among all. The bread for the next communion is made from the part of the dough from the previous communion. This is the yeast which works on the bread. Here the concept of sharing without ceasing continues. The church thus contains the secret to renewing, recycling and reforming.

Therefore a church member can say that I belong to a green economy. But the challenge is to bring the past into the present. Instead of saying I belonged to the green economy or my fore mothers and fathers belonged to a green economy, can we translate this tradition of being green into our own lives? This WED let us take small steps to continue our tradition of sharing without ceasing.

Will you be my Valentine this lent?

Yesterday in church I preached about preparing for the great lent. But I also preached on Valentine’s day. Obviously one would immediately resent any relation between the two. I would agree that Valentine’s as it is celebrated now does not have much in common with lent. But before we come to an obvious conclusion, let us look at both separately.

The great lent in the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox church starts after the Sunday worship, with the wedding at Cana as the gospel reading. The lent actual starts after the evening prayer on the same day. We are initiated into the great lent with thoughts from the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine to save the wedding attended by his mother Mary and his disciples. The act of Jesus suggests love, trust, mystery and satisfaction. The love for his mother and the love for the people makes Jesus intervene, although he himself says it is not yet his time. His mother Mary despite his disinterest maintains a deep and profound trust in him when she tells the helpers at the wedding to do as he says. What happens then is a total mystery, just as worship or qurbana is a mystery. The ordinary water turns into wine. How this happens is beyond us. Finally the chief steward tastes it and declares that it is so good. He goes on to say that usually the best is given at the beginning but in this case the best is saved for the last. The satisfaction is for those who have waited till the end!

Valentine’s day is a celebration in itself and is especially popular with young people. But the myth or even history about Valentine is quite different from what we see now. Sifting among the various stories, one which is believable is one in which the priest Valentine went against the emperor’s edict that young men should not marry because he wanted them to be in his army. The priest goes against this and encourages couples to get married. Truly by this account, it is a call to a life long commitment!

Valentine’s day now has become some kind of a pressure for girls and boys, men and women. The pressure of going out with someone and being a part of a cultural performance. But I wonder whether this is how it is meant to be. The church is helping to make people understand that love is a more permanent feature and not just some one off thing once a year. This is also why we can connect Valentine’s day and the great lent.

Of course this is not an attempt to impose something on to the younger generation. What they want to do is obviously their own decision. The church or priests like me cannot judge them based on this. But what we can do is to offer our interpretation of Valentine’s day. And at the end of it all, it won’t just be a one sided version of love and love between young couples only, but a more comprehensive definition of love and how this concept can help us. We can use the concept of Valentine’s day to understand, profess and spread love to not just young couples, but to all kinds of people, groups and dispensations. The love which is compassionate, involves trust, is a mystery and gives satisfaction for those who wait patiently.