MESSAGE FROM THE DIOCESAN BISHOP
The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' “ – 1 Corinthians 11.23
Dear friends in Christ,
Greetings to all in the PRECIOUS NAME of our LORD & SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST,
We are in the season of Lent. The 50 days of lent gives us enough opportunity to renew our life by confessing our sins and seeking God's grace for the transformation of life. As members of the church we will observe the Holy Week to meditate on the entry of Jesus to Jerusalem, his arrest, death on the cross, and resurrection. The Eastern Church gives more emphasis to the passion of Jesus Christ, his self-emptying and resurrection from the dead. We are an Easter community. It means that we are empowered daily with the power of the resurrection of Jesus continuing our spiritual journey to grow to the full stature of Christ. We say with St. Paul, “for me to live is Christ.” Phil 1:21.
This issue of the Mar Thoma messenger has articles on “sacraments & sacramental living.” The church universal identifies seven sacraments which are baptism, confirmation, confession, Holy Qurbana, Priesthood, marriage, and anointing the sick. Among these the sacraments of baptism and Holy Qurbana are generally identified as Dominical sacraments, as they are observed in the church in accordance with the words of Jesus the Christ. When we identify sacraments in this manner let us also understand spiritually that our entire life is also sanctified to be a sacrament. Therefore sacraments are in the church for administration to the people and the life that receives these sacraments are meant for sacramental living. Any sacrament is a means of grace, receiving the grace of God. In sacramental living the life becomes a means of grace for other people.
On Maundy Thursday, we remember how Jesus Christ observed the Passover festival with his disciples and how that celebration became an institution of the Holy Qurbana. Jesus and his disciples came together to praise and thank God for the deliverance God gave to the people of Israel while they were in bondage in Egypt. God listened to their cry and saw their affliction and sent Moses to be the leader of the people; a people who were brought out by God from the injustice they had to face in the hands of the hard-hearted Pharaoh. God was delivering them while Moses was only an instrument in the hands of God, to be a means of grace. The book of Exodus reveals that Pharaoh was becoming more and more hard-hearted when Moses spoke to him the message of God that the people are to be set free. God touched Pharaoh's life by taking away the life of all first born including his son. As a result the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt as they were spared because of the blood of the lamb was spread on the doorways. This deliverance was remembered by the people and the generations through the Passover festival. When Jesus Christ celebrated it with his disciples, he assumed himself to be the lamb slained to spare God's people from the clutches of sin. Jesus was seeing his death on the cross and therefore symbolized it by taking the bread, giving thanks , breaking it, and giving it to his disciples saying , ‘This is my body…do this in remembrance of me.' In accordance with these words of Jesus and after his death on the cross, the church that is redeemed by his blood is celebrating the sacrament of Holy Qurbana. This sacrament is for the remission of our sins and for the health of our body and soul.
'As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.' The sacrament of Holy Qurbana is the only sacrament that is repeated again and again in the Church for the participants to repeatedly experience the renewal of life in Christ. When we participate, we say together: ‘Lord we remember your death, we celebrate your resurrection, and we look forward to your second coming.' The Holy Qurbana is a renewing experience which enables us to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and to live in faith and hope looking forward to the spiritual consummation one would have at the second coming of Christ. The mystery and authenticity of the sacrament though expressed in the liturgy can be fully understood only through one's own experience. The sacraments are community events. 1 Cor 10: 16, 17. Therefore the community worship and participation in the sacrament are very significant in the spiritual growth of a person.
Sacramental living is a God-given mission. One significant aspect of this is the incarnational ministry through our life in Christ. Jesus Christ came down from his heavenly throne to be born and to live in the world among his creation. He not only accepted the manger in Bethlehem but also found his dwelling among the villages of Galilee and its outskirts where people were marginalized and rejected. We can see this incarnational life in the followers of Jesus down through the centuries. Father Damien, Albert Schweitzer, Ida Scudder, and Mother Teresa are only a few examples. All these people committed their lives to reaching out to the unreached and to impart abundant life by becoming a means of grace in their time. Each of us who live in this world now are created with a mission not only to receive the grace of God but also to become a channel of blessing (Diaconial life = Servant life )so that others would receive God's grace and become enriched by it Gal 4:19 .There is always a call for every person for sacramental living.
Breaking the bread is a symbol of the Holy Qurbana. It points to the Lamb of God who broke His body on the cross. “On the night he was betrayed…” 1 Cor 11:23. Pain and suffering are inevitable when one is called to deny oneself, take up the cross, and follow Jesus Christ. Mercy Mathew who is now popularly known as Daya Bhai and who lives in Madhya Pradesh is an example of such a life. Though she had graduated in social work she chose to live among the Tribals in Madhya Pradesh, identify with them to develop the living conditions of the people. After years of living among the tribals, when she came back to Kerala to visit her parents, her father couldn't believe his eyes in seeing Daya Bhai in the complexion of a tribal. When he asked her, “Mercy, was this much necessary in your life?” Pointing her finger to the crucifix on the wall she asked her father “Was that necessary for the life of Jesus?” Phil 1:29. When we take the cross of Jesus seriously, the words on the cross echoes again and again, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” It is easy to see the broken bread and the crushed wine in the sacrament of Holy Qurbana but it is very, very hard to internalize it and realize that one's own body is to be broken and the blood is to be shed if life is to be redeemed from the clutches of sin and satanic forces. Phil 2:17.
Sacramental life was demonstrated when the disciple John was asked to accept Mary as his mother and Mary to accept John as her son. The Heavenly Father is teaching us every day that this is to be practiced by accepting “the other.” What else is the lesson of loving thy neighbor as thyself? This is sacrificial life, which involves self desertion and the spirit of giving. It is only the love of Christ that enables us to go beyond the human set boundaries to accept other human beings irrespective of race, color, or creed. No one is unwanted in the sight of God and it should be so in the sight of humans. No one is beyond the scope of redemption in the sight of God and we can realize it when we believe that the death of Jesus is the sufficient sacrifice for redemption. Though the people will be separated on the Judgment day because of their conscious choice of evil over good and misuse of God-given freedom, the heart of God is always longing for the redemption of all, including the least, the last, and the lost. It is to this end that we are also called to be Christ's ambassadors. Let us remember that we are baptized to identify ourselves with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The powers of the world found the death of Jesus on the cross a victory but Jesus through his death challenged all these powers and conquered them through his resurrection from the dead. Pain, suffering, perseverance and renunciation are all inevitable in sacramental living but these do not make it a failure. The power of resurrection in Jesus made the early Christians more than conquerors. The early apostles turned the world upside down not because of their might, but because they became a channel of God's grace. Today we are all called to experience this AMAZING GRACE and to lead a sacramental living for the world and ages to receive God's grace in and through our lives.
I wish you all a Happy and Blessed Easter.
Yours in Christ's Ministry
The Rt. Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius
Diocesan Bishop