A sensitive young boy born and raised in the first half of the twentieth century in British India in a traditional Christian family eagerly hungers and thirsts for meaning in life. He notices that his religious tradition, which lacks vitality, pays more attention to preserving its traditions rather than serving the humanity. However, he notices some vitality in the western Christianity, especially in its missions abroad. Making use of the opportunity of higher education in the West, soon he discovers that the vitality in the West lacks depth. He digs deep in the Christian tradition for a source of inspiration and meaning, and he finds it in the Eastern Christian fathers of the fourth century. Through Gregory of Nyssa, an eastern father, he attains a very powerful and meaningful vision of Christianity. He found that the vision and mission of Jesus Christ can be a powerful inspiration and driving force for modern humanity. He declared that the mission of today's Christian church needs to be the same as the mission of Jesus Christ. He enthusiastically adapted the vision of Jesus Christ, and applied it in his own mission. He could say along with St. Paul: Imitate me as I imitate Christ![1]
This man is none other than Metropolitan Paulos Mar Gregorios (1922—1996) of blessed
Mar Gregorios realized that ours is a dying
civilization, and a new civilization has to eventually replace it. Every
religion and ideology on the face of the earth presents itself as the ideal
candidate for the new civilization, but Mar Gregorios wouldn't recommend any of
them as the ideal candidate to create a new civilization. He presents the
vision of Jesus Christ as seen through the lens of Gregory of Nyssa as a strong
foundation upon which a new civilization can be built.
Mar Gregorios had a realistic view of today’s
Christianity. "Official Christianity sounds ludicrously unintelligent and
seems utterly unappealing to the moral conscience of mankind, even to many who
have not yet given up their Christian faith."[2] This
is a very revealing statement about traditional Christianity, which merely
preserves its tradition and hands it over from generation to generation. The
new churches, mostly evangelical, have
revolted against the lack of vitality in the traditional Christianity, but they
have failed in providing an effective replacement. Without deep roots, the new
churches hold a very superficial vision of life. Other than saving people for
the other world, they do not provide a basis or inspiration for a meaningful
life in this world. The traditional Christianity is lifeless, and the
evangelical Christianity is powerless. As a result, humanity, like sheep
without shepherd, is looking for guidance elsewhere, and Christians are either
quitting their religion, or staying within it as nominal Christians.
Mar
Gregorios claims that the Christian church cannot have any other mission but
the mission of Jesus Christ. It needs to be a visible embodiment of Jesus
Christ. The role of the church is to make Jesus Christ present and visible in
the world. This assertion of Mar Gregorios leads us to two questions: What was
the vision and mission of Jesus Christ as Mar Gregorios understood it? Up to
what extent could he, a church leader, claim that his own vision and mission
were the same as that of Jesus Christ?
Addressing the staff of the World Council of
Churches in Geneva, Mar Gregorios asserted that he knew of only one person in
India who was fit to be called a Christian, and ironically this “Christian” was
a non-Christian[3]. He
was referring to Mahatma Gandhi. Mar Gregorios defined the term Christian as
someone who truly follows the footsteps of Christ and lives like Christ.
Although Gandhi was a non-Christian, he followed the footsteps of Christ and
lived a Christ-like life, which qualifies him to be called a Christian. Mar
Gregorios did not consider himself qualified to be called a Christian, but
today when we examine his life, we realize that he was also a Christian. He
truly followed the footsteps of Christ and lived a Christ-like life. Hopefully
the Christian world will find in Mar Gregorios a role model to follow, and it
will be encouraged to consider his vision
as an alternative to the present, decadent understanding of
Christianity.
The vision and mission of Jesus Christ can be
appreciated only in His historical context. As Bultmann says, Jesus lived in a
world of pain and suffering[4]. The
people were under foreign dominion, and they were oppressed in every possible
way. We read about Pilate mixing the blood of some Galileans with their
sacrifices.[5]
Jesus sent out his disciples with a warning that they might be arrested or
killed.[6] The
government authorities were always in fear of mass riots.[7]
There were spies among the people, which might be why Jesus talked to the
people in parables but in plain language to his disciples.[8]
In the absence of political freedom, the
land’s economy deteriorated steadily. The gap between the rich and the poor was
getting wider. We read in a parable of Jesus that there was a rich man who
lived in luxury, and at his gate lay a beggar, covered with sores and longing
to eat what fell from the rich man's table.[9] In
another parable we see a man who could not pay his dues liable to be sold into
slavery along with his wife and children to clear the debt.[10] In
another parable Jesus speaks about a judge who neither feared God nor cared
about men.[11] Due
to the political oppression and economic deterioration, the people were
suffering from starvation, sickness, and mental illness. We read about a pool
in Jerusalem where a lot of sick and disabled people used to lie waiting for
movement in the water to be healed.[12] We
also read about mentally ill people living in tombs.[13]
In such a miserable situation, the religious
leadership of the land had the responsibility to rise and lead the people like
a good shepherd. However, the religious leadership had gone blind; and as such
how could it lead the blind people? Although the religious leadership claimed
to show them the right way, they often proved to be wolves disguised as
shepherds. Rather than assisting the people, they imposed even more burdens
upon them. The people felt like sheep without a shepherd. In this miserable
condition, one prayer rose from the depths of their hearts: Hosanna, which
means, God, save us! That is all they could do in their helpless situation.
The relevance of Jesus' thought can be
evaluated better in the background of the thought-currents in Jesus' world.
Within the immediate context of Jesus, in Palestine, the primary
thought-currents were that of the Pharisees, the most influential religious
leadership, and that of John, the Baptizer, whom Jesus treated as a guide and a
master. Rather than leading a community as a shepherd, the corrupted religious
leadership had become a wolf in shepherd's clothing. It became the guardian of
a set of outdated beliefs and rituals, which were forced on the people. Jesus
identified the primary mark of this religious leadership as dishonesty and
hypocrisy. John was a prophet in the line of the prophets like Hosea and Amos,
who raised their voice for social justice. John asked people to be good and do
good in their day-to-day life. Unlike the Pharisees, he didn't tell the people
anything about observing Sabbath. The Kingdom of God as John understood
consisted of only those people who do good deeds. This was totally different
from the goal of the Pharisees, which was the establishment of a Jewish empire.
Jesus entered the scene with a clearer vision
of God who cares for the world. God raises his Sun and pours his rain on all
people regardless of whether they return God's love or not. God takes care of
the birds in the sky and lilies in the field. God wants to keep the whole world
healthy and beautiful. Although God is a king to the world, God is a father to
humanity. Mankind needs to respond to God's unconditional love by loving God
wholeheartedly. Also people need to follow God's example and love each other
unconditionally. God is the source of authority. Once those with authority
realize this, they will exercise their authority with responsibility. God is
the real owner of all wealth, and whatever we have is entrusted to us as
stewards. Realizing this, we won't exploit one another. All relationships need
to be fully open and transparent without the slightest pretension. Thus, in
Jesus' view, the world is like a family with God as father to all people, and
people need to be like siblings to each other caring for each other. Jesus
placed this vision as the corner stone of a new civilization, which he named
the kingdom of God. The present way of
life had to be replaced by a radically new way of life. His ultimate goal was
the establishment of God’s Kingdom upon the earth, but what could be done in a
short period was its inauguration. He could initiate a movement, which,
although as insignificant as a mustard seed, would eventually grow to become a
mighty and powerful movement that would overthrow the Roman tyranny and
establish God’s Kingdom.
But first, an elaborate ground work needed to
be done. Most of the people of his nation had the model of a violent God and a
violent kingdom in their mind. Jesus had to break this destructive model first,
and establish the model of a nonviolent God. Thus he started his teaching
mission. He traveled around the nation teaching the people that God is
nonviolent and his Kingdom would be nonviolent too. Finally when it was time,
he made a trip to Jerusalem, the religio-political capital of his nation, where
he staged his non-violent revolt.
If Jesus had lived in the twentieth century
world, he would have slightly modified his vision and mission according to the
new context. Closely examining the life of a community, Jesus would have
diagnosed its illness, tracing its root causes as its defective views of life. He
would have struggled against the popular unhealthy views of life, and propose a
healthy view of life, which would vary from situation to situation just like a
doctor's diagnosis and prescription vary from patient to patient. Now we will
see how Mar Gregorios adapted the vision and mission of Jesus Christ in his own
context.
The Historical Context of Jesus and of Mar Gregorios
Jesus lived two thousand years ago in the
Middle East. He didn't have motor cars or airplanes as we have today. His
travel was on foot. He didn't have internet or telephone. He didn't have
computers or typewriters, or even paper or books. Scriptures and other
important documents were laboriously copied into scrolls by professional
scribes. Reading and writing were specialized skills only a few privileged ones
had. So the world of Jesus was limited to the walking distance around the city
of Jerusalem.
The world of Mar Gregorios consisted of the
entire Globe with all the human race in the twentieth century. During his
lifetime, the means of communication and transport were getting swifter, and
the world was gradually becoming a global village. Telephone was very common,
and internet was slowly coming to use. This enabled him to reach Moscow from
New Delhi much easier and faster than Jesus could reach Jerusalem from Galilee.
Thus he could visit The Soviet Union forty times as he claims in his
autobiography. Just as Jesus was concerned about the well-being of his world,
Mar Gregorios was concerned about the well-being of his world. Just like Jesus
did, Mar Gregorios diagnosed the illness of his world and prescribed his
treatment.
Along with faster means of communication and
transport, the twentieth century developed more efficient means to produce
food, clothing, and shelter, and more effective ways of healing. Life became
far more comfortable and easier than in the first century. However, the human
existential issues of the world hadn't changed much from that of Jesus' world.
It was also a world in pain. Evil ruled alike in both worlds, which was
primarily expressed in broken relationships-- between God and man, between man
and man, and between man and nature. The people of Jesus' world were made
slaves in their own soil by the super power— the Roman Empire. The people of
Mar Gregorios' world found themselves in a world in which the super powers were
fighting with one another like wild elephants at the cost of millions of human
lives. The ones that survived the wars had to suffer severe poverty all around
the globe.
Such broken relationships perpetuate
injustice and poverty. When some people amass more than what they need, most of
the people wouldn’t have enough to survive. Unjust structures cause
illnesses—physical and mental. A lot of people are born disabled physically as
well as mentally, and many more become disabled in one way or other. With the
breakdown of man-man relationship, we are unwilling to see the humanity as a
family or as one organism. Instead of cooperating, we annihilate each other. We
build walls of nationality, race, caste, color, and gender. World military
expenditure was skyrocketing in the world of Mar Gregorios. With the breakdown
of man–nature relationship, humanity as a whole was facing extermination by
global warming, pollution, lack of resources etc. making humanity an endangered
species.
However the greatest threat to human
existence in Mar Gregorios' world is a sense of meaninglessness. Existence
appeared meaningless to the humanity in the world of Mar Gregorios because it
seemed to have no purpose. This is so because the humanity relied on a
world-view that makes its existence meaningless and purposeless. God was dead, and the world was limited to what we perceive, and human beings became nothing
but another species of animal kingdom that crawls on the face of the
earth.
In such a miserable situation, we normally
expect that the religious and ideological leadership would take some initiative
to help the humanity to get out of the miserable condition. But unfortunately,
they were not in a position to lead the way because they themselves had gone
blind. The poor sheep, discovering the wolves hiding within the disguise of
their shepherds, were fleeing for life. Ritualistic rules were treated with
much more importance than the ethical rules. Dogmas were blindly trusted
instead of openly seeking solutions to the problems of humanity.
Death is natural to a civilization, and the
humanity can continue to exist only if it gives birth to a new civilization as
the older one dies. In Jesus' world, the old Israel had to give birth to a new
Israel, which Jesus called the Kingdom of God. In the twentieth century world,
there was a feeling that the then civilization would soon give place to a new
one. Mar Gregorios was never tired of affirming that the contemporary civilization
was breathing its last, and a new one was on its way. He called it the New
Humanity. He was very well aware of the possibility of the contemporary
civilization to meet with a catastrophic end like a global warfare similar to
what happened in Jesus' world— the destruction of the temple.
The View of Life of Jesus and of Mar Gregorios
If Jesus lived in the modern world of Mar
Gregorios, he would immediately realize that our civilization is like a
building on sand. It can easily be swept away by a hurricane such as a
world-wide war or a deadly virus. He would also realize that we can choose
either a wide highway of short-sightedness seeking comforts and wealth that
ultimately leads to destruction, or a narrow path of far-sightedness and
responsibility that leads to a healthy existence. He would encourage us to
build a new civilization on a strong foundation -- a strong view of life
instead of the present shaky one. No religion or ideology in the modern world
would escape the sharp criticism of Jesus for acting as hired servants or even
as wolves in shepherd's clothing. Jesus would ask them to move the focus to the
ethical rules rather than on ritualistic rules. He would assert that religion
is for man; not man for religion. He would also criticize the religions and
ideologies for being dogmatic. They blindly hold on to their beliefs instead of
being open to the existential problems. Paulos Mar Gregorios asserted
repeatedly that ours is a dying civilization, and that a new civilization soon
needs to replace this one. He also implied that mankind has the choice of the
highway of irresponsibility or the narrow path of responsibility. No religion
or ideology could escape the sharp criticism of Mar Gregorios.
Jesus would expose the dishonesty of those
people who claim to be in custody of the truth, claiming that God alone knows
the ultimate truth. He would make a firm stand against fundamentalism in all
its forms. He would tell people that the world is much larger and greater than
what we can perceive with our senses, and it is far more than what we can
conceptualize. Without blindly trusting our senses and our power of thinking,
we need to open up our minds willing to receive knowledge wherever it comes
from. We need to be open to the wealth of wisdom we have inherited from our
ancestors. He would use metaphorical language and would gently correct the
people who interpret his words as well as the scriptures literally just as he
corrected his disciples when they took his words literally. Mar Gregorios
engaged in a crusade against fundamentalism all his life. He couldn't put up
with the claim of having the custody of truth.
Living today, Jesus would reject both
other-worldliness and this-worldliness. Jesus would probably tell us that
nothing remains invisible to God though a part of the world remains invisible
to our senses. Jesus would not deny science or its discoveries, but he wouldn't
allow science to limit our world to what we can perceive with our senses. Jesus
would admit that science can help us live our life more easily and comfortably,
but it cannot tell us why we live. Humanity has always functioned with a poetic
worldview. In the past few centuries, we developed a scientific worldview,
which we thought can replace the poetic worldview. That was a mistake. Living
today, Jesus might create a new poetic worldview that complements the modern
scientific worldview. Mar Gregorios was against other-worldliness and
this-worldliness. He believed in the oneness of all that exists. God's
existence was primary for Mar Gregorios. Although he cooperated with Marxists
and Buddhists, his faith in God remained unchanged.
Jesus would tell us that man stands in
between good and evil with the freedom to choose either. Mar Gregorios could
not join Augustine to affirm that man is basically evil, nor could he join
Pelagius to affirm that man is basically good. He asserted that man stands in
between good and evil with the freedom to choose either.
A defective understanding of God-man
relationship that God loves and blesses only the good people led to a defective
understanding of man-man relationship that the poor and the sick were inferior
to the others. Jesus would tell us that all people on the face of the earth
belong to the same category. God alone is righteous, and all people are
unrighteous. However, God loves all people alike unconditionally. Such a view
will help us to see all people in the world alike without any discrimination.
Mammon, being the god of our world,
people are primarily classified into classes based on the wealth they own.
Jesus would advise us to dethrone mammon, and to stop classifying people based
on the amount of money in their possession. Jesus would strive to bring the
poor, the sick, and the disabled to the mainstream society. These relationships
were of supreme concerns for Mar Gregorios. He devoted his life to mend these
broken relationships.
The Mission of Jesus and of Mar Gregorios
If Jesus lived among us today, he might
compare our civilization to a building built on sand. He would point out why it
does not have the strength to withstand a global catastrophe. Instead of
warning against the views of scribes and Pharisees, he would warn against the
views of secularists and fundamentalists. He would also point out how a new
civilization can be built up with a strong foundation of rock.
If Jesus Proclaimed the Kingdom of God, Mar
Gregorios proclaimed a new civilization well-grounded in God. Jesus’ kingdom of
God belonged to those who were born again; Mar Gregorios’ new civilization
belonged to the new humanity. Jesus explained clearly how the existing kingdom
was standing on a foundation of sand; Mar Gregorios explained clearly the
weakness of the foundation of the present western civilization. Jesus explained
the characteristics of the foundation of rock on which the kingdom of God was
built; Mar Gregorios explained the characteristics of the strong foundation of
the new civilization.
Jesus spent forty days in the
desert in solitude. Mar Gregorios always had a passion to be in a monastic
setting, but he couldn't realize his dream as he hoped for. After coming back
from Geneva, and after taking over the principalship of the Theological
seminary in Kottayam, India, he expressed this desire in a letter he wrote to
his friends in 1969.[14]
Traveling around his world (Palestine), and
teaching people about the Kingdom of God was the primary task of Jesus;
traveling around his world (the globe) and teaching about the new civilization
was the primary task of Mar Gregorios. In a letter to his friends in 1975 after
he was consecrated as a bishop, he lists the places he was planning to visit
that year[15].
Just as Jesus was known as a friend of the
sinners and tax-collectors, Mar Gregorios was known as a friend of the
communists and other so-called Godless people. Jesus had to face trials and
temptations from evil forces, and finally they managed to crucify him; Mar
Gregorios, being a peace activist who always stood with the oppressed, risked
martyrdom. His close friends lived in such fear. People often encouraged and even
forced Jesus to become their king; Mar Gregorios was encouraged and even forced
by Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, to marry his niece, and become a
member of his royal family.
Based on such close comparison between Jesus
and Mar Gregorios, one may even be tempted to claim that Mar Gregorios was a
second coming of Jesus. However, one thing can be certainly said: If Jesus had
lived in our world, he would have said and done almost the same kind of things
Mar Gregorios said and did.
Conclusion
The Christian church is supposed to be a
visible representation of the invisible Christ. The church has to do in a
certain context exactly what Christ would do in that context. Knowing this well
enough, Paulos Mar Gregorios, could practice it in his own life. He spoke like
Christ and lived like Christ in his context. The similarity even tempts one to
claim that Mar Gregorios was a second coming of Christ. Actually this claim
should be made about every Christian, about every local church, and about the Christian
church as a whole.
[1] I Corinthians 11:1
[2] Freedom and Authority P. 1.
[3] The Meaning and Nature of Diakonia 1988. P. 26
[4] Bultmann, Rudolf. (1934). Jesus and the Word. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. As retrieved on July 27, 2014.
[5] Luke.13:1
[6] Matthew.10: 17-30
[7] Matthew.26: 5
[8] Matthew.13: 9-13
[9] Luke.16: 19
[10] Matthew.18: 23 -34
[11] Luke.18: 2
[12] John 5: 2
[13] Mark. 5:2
[14] Letters/letter-69-friends.htm
