All My Life I Have Been Sacrificing For Christ

Light of Truth


Bro Mathew Verghese

Why are you interested in the Bible to the extent of spending a whole life span studying it?
Two things matter here. The first is that, as we read in the bible, the Word of God is God Himself. In John 1:1 you read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” So the thought that whenever we give the Word to somebody directly, we are giving God to them, is something that captivated me. My ambition and aspiration is to give this Word to the people. From my experience I found that there are so many peoples, tribes and nationalities among whom Christianity is not growing, for the simple reason that they don’t have the Word of God in their own language. The Word nourishes our spiritual lives. The Word is a clear manifestation of everything that is required for human life. It is my desire to see the Word reach as many people as possible, irrespective of languages, regions and nationalities, and I strive for it. That’s how I came into bible translation. Giving the Word means giving it in a simple way with charity. The bible has been translated into many languages in the past. As languages develop, nobody is bothered to polish translations or to modify them to suit the modern language.

How many translations have you done?
I have translated the bible into modern Malayalam, and also into modern Telugu under the title Vishudha Satya Veda Grandhamu, Parishudha Gran-dhamu. In English, I use the King James’s version to study and for fasting prayer. Fasting is something that is now almost extinct in the Churches.

Why do you think that fasting is going extinct?
We live in a very fast world, but fasting requires of us to spend a lot of time in the presence of God. It is not a mega show of two hours with billboards and loud-speakers. It takes minimum twenty four hours.

Why is fasting prayer important for you?
Fasting prayer is important because the basic trait of our relationship with God is holiness. We Christians pray every day, we go to churches, attend the Mass, but very rarely we sit before God and look back. We want our prayers to be heard by God, but we do not look into the merit of our prayers. We do not bother to examine our holiness. Ecclesiastical authorities have influences in society, but seldom have they looked into holiness. They are bothered about so many other worldly things, but very little have they bothered about the holiness which every child of God to have.

All that God requires of is just one thing – holiness. What is holiness for you?
Holiness is doing what is right before God. It is not simply not drinking or not smoking or not committing adultery. It is obeying God completely and preventing anything that violates the principles of God. Holiness is a very deep term, and fasting prayer allows us to examine the status of our holiness. I prefer an ecumenical fasting prayer ministry that belongs to any church that is called to holiness. To achieve that holiness, we should repent and look back. That will restore to us our relationship with God. Your relationship with God is not possible without holiness. Holiness is the foundation stone on which a relationship with God is built.

If you go to a synagogue, the Jewish house of prayer, you only hear one simple Hebrew word, shma, ‘Israel, Hear O’ Israel.’ How do you relate it to fasting prayer, prayer of listening to God?
Listening to God leads us to holiness. That is why they say ‘Hear O’ Israel.’ That is said to repeatedly exhort them to hear the Old Testament, which they never bothered to listen and obey. They never bothered to accept it. So, the voice of God is prompting them repeatedly to listen and obey. Obedience cannot come without listening. God strived to bring everyone to Him, but they would not heed Him many times. So they were punished severely and brutally at times.

Moses received the Commandments on Mount Sinai in a rare moment of revelation What does it indicate?
The Ten Commandments are like mustard seeds. The mustard seed is a complete revelation. Jesus says if you have faith like a mustard seed, you have it in its fullness. The Ten Commandments have the fullness in themselves. They contain the nucleus of what God wants. If you observe the Ten Commandments, then you simply get drawn to the presence of God.

The Ten Commandments tell you to be ethical. Is there anything else to it?
To be ethical is to be holy.

You told me earlier that you do not belong to any Church, why?
I am a member of the Indian Orthodox Church. But the fasting prayer ministry doesn’t belong to any Church, it’s an ecumenical fellowship. That is what I mean by saying I do not belong to any Church.

The Orthodox Church gives a lot of importance to liturgy. How far is the liturgy important for you?
The spirit of the liturgy is very important. The problem is that we repeat the prayers without knowing their meaning and without having any holiness. In the liturgy, everything has a meaning. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Church Fathers created the liturgy. The Holy Spirit can come only when you are holy, not when you make some noise. The action of the Holy Spirit has to be manifested in our lives. Work is more important than words.

You spoke about holiness and ethics in the same vein. Bible is a memorial of events in history. How is history revealing itself in the mind of God or holiness of God?
I would still say that without history we cannot progress at all. It is through history that we learn God’s actions. The bible itself is the history of the People of God. It is that history which invites us to go forward without repeating past mistakes. World history teaches us many things, like the actions of people who were autocrats. It tells us how people like Hitler and Mussolini had finally fallen. So history is a clear reminder of the progress of human life. And the bible is in no way different. It gives the grammar of spiritual life. It leads you to the Lord.

The Bible is peopled with prophets. They always comes to disturb ordinary humans, they always come to correct us. How important was the prophetic dimension to historical events and the Bible?
God always corrects His people through his prophets. Prophets are the only people who are chosen by God directly. Priests can be chosen, bishops can be chosen, cardinals can be chosen; but they are all chosen by the people, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The prophets on the other hand are not chosen by the people. A group of people can never chose a prophet. Prophets are separated from the wombs of their mothers; they are people who are directly destined by God to guide the people. The actual mission of prophets is correction. They are never popular. They are crucified, because they stand for truth uncompromisingly. They will stand for God, irrespective of others’ reactions.

You find prophets in the Old Testaments, but after Christ you do not find many prophets either among the Jews or elsewhere. Have prophets simply vanished from the world?
No, prophets were there even after Christ. Paul was a prophet, Barnabas was a prophet, and the daughters of Philip were prophetesses. The office of prophecy continues though not in the same dimension as in the Old Testament. Prophets are people who are set apart from the rest by God for correcting His people.

How do you think a prophet is called?
The prophet is called and chosen directly by God. They are given a mission to correct the people of God, irrespective of their positions. Even if you are ordained by the church as a priest but are doing something wrong, then the prophet should have the courage to tell you that you are wrong. A priest can be a prophet; there is nothing wrong in it.

Can even the laity be prophets!
Definitely. Prophecy is a God-given office; it is a gift from God; it is a choice made by God. So anybody can be a prophet. The main thing is that they should not bend down under the sins of the world. They should stand for the truth and for God. When somebody is going wrong, you don’t bother about the consequence; you point your finger at him or her and say s/he is wrong. You may be thrown out, but that won’t bother you. As the Holy Spirit is guiding us now, prophecy will always be there as long as prophets are there.

You spent a lot of time and money for creating a bible museum. How important for you is the museum?
It is very important for me; it is my life’s greatest ambition, because the Word of God is being neglected. The importance of the Word has been diminishing in all the Churches. So the museum is meant to arrest that trend by educating the people of God. They can come and see what the Word of God is, how rich it is, how they should relate to it in their life. It creates interest in the Kingdom of God.

You have created some sort of memorial of the passion incidents. What do you aim to achieve by it?
We see God through the life of Jesus Christ. It helps to see and feel the passion of Christ easily.

How do you look at Jesus?
Jesus is the supreme reality for me. We can never compare it with anything else in this world. It is so deep and so vast.

Do you think the incarnation of Christ as the only divine incarnation? There are people who say, there are different ways into the life of Christ or to the divine, as the Hindu says ‘ekamsathviprabahuthavadenthi’. How do you look at it?
I don’t accept it at all. I see Jesus as the only divine incarnation. He is the Son of the Almighty God. God is my personal experience; the Holy Spirit guides me to that experience. He is the Son of God; we cannot separate Him from the Father, because they are one. It’s my personal experience. I have not studied any theology or philosophy. I am speaking of the personal experience I have had through forty-days fasting prayers, where I commune with God and I commune with the Spirit.

You have committed whole of your life to the Word of God and to Christ. Are you happy about it?
I am so happy about it, so happy that I can do nothing else. At least one person knows the Lord more deeply and more personally. A translation of the bible done for tribals who don’t know anything about God, who don’t have a language, who don’t have a script, is something I cherish a lot. How can they know about God otherwise? Our churches actually can do so much. I train tribals. Next week I am going to one tribe called Chakly in Telugu. I am translating the gospel of Mark for them. It helps me to remain happy. All my life and everything in my life, I have been sacrificing for Christ. It gives me lot of happiness.

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