Ponmala

Life is believed to have appeared on earth as a single cell organism some 3.7 billion years ago. Through evolutionary progress, that single cell developed into multicellular organisms, and ultimately to us, Homo Sapiens, three hundred thousand years ago. With the appearance of intelligence in our precursor, Homo Erectus, as an evolutionary development, started the story of modern man. The concept of God emerged as the twin brother of intelligence; beings that are not endowed with intelligence do not entertain the idea of God. Intelligence conferred on man the sense of wonder and mystery, which nature aroused in him. Awed by the wonders of creation, he was led to the mysterious creator who would have brought them into existence. And so he started worshiping everything of nature that controlled him, but was beyond his control, as varied manifestations of the Creator.
Together with man, the idea of God also developed further along the unrelenting path of evolutionary progress: In the course of time, man arrived at the idea of one omnipotent God who created and controlled everything. Early man’s idea of God was very different from the idea of God that modern man maintains. His God was shrouded in mystery, was fear inspiring, was propitiated to ward of troubles and to attain favours. That God also liked to be worshiped with animal and human sacrifices. It was in such a time that Abraham heard God’s voice asking him to offer his son Isaac as sacrifice at Moriah. Both man and his idea of God continued to progress; so much so, if it were today that Abraham heard a voice asking him to sacrifice his son, he would not have taken it as God speaking, because people no more believe in a God who finds pleasure in human sacrifices. If he were to misjudge it as God’s voice and act upon it, he would be booked for murder and locked up in gaol.
It was Jesus who gave us the ultimate idea of God that will be valid forever. He presented to us a God who was a loving and caring father who was ever willing to forgive us for our faults, provided we repented over them. Jesus thus lifted the mystery that surrounded God. As God Incarnate offered himself as a sacrifice to God, ‘Behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom’ (Mat. 27:51), bringing God face to face with his people. What is more, by preaching revolutionary moral precepts and putting them into practice in his life, Jesus showed us how God would be like if he had become man. Who but God Incarnate could teach we should forgive our enemies seventy times seven and even love them? Who but God Incarnate would put that precept into practice, begging forgiveness for those who crucified him?
Just as Jesus lifted the mystery surrounding God two thousand years ago, within the last couple of centuries, human ingenuity has cleared the mystery surrounding God’s creation. At least ninety percent of the secrets of the universe have been laid bare. As a result, the awe inspiring mystery that surrounded both the creator and the creation has as good as disappeared. Does that mean we are no more left with anything that can arouse a sense of wonder? Not at all. Nothing can afford a greater sense of wonder than the encounter with the God whom Jesus revealed through his life and precepts and the study of the marvels about the universe that science has revealed. Contemplating on them and enriching our lives by imbibing them can be an endless source of wonder. Ignorance engenders mystery and fear, knowledge engenders wonder and love. Jesus taught us to love God, not to fear him.
Jesus knew only too well that people would fall back to their old habit of seeking wonder in the mystery surrounding God and the universe as a source of spiritual nourishment. For that reason, he warned against setting his drastically new teachings in the traditional mould of the Old Testament: ‘No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and use it to patch an old garment. For the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment. And no one puts new wine into old wine skins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins (Lk. 5: 36,37).
Jesus totally overhauled the idea of worship too, which was until then done solely by anointed priests to a far-removed God who hid behind the high clouds. At the last supper, Jesus pioneered a form of worship that made the people co-participants with the priest. It was for a reason that Jesus chose not to stand up with his back towards the disciples as he said, ‘This is my body… This is my blood.’ Instead of addressing a far-away God, he addressed the God who resided in his disciples. A couple of centuries later, what Jesus feared happened: his new wine was put in old wineskin; celebrants started facing the altar. It could be theologically argued that the Holy Mass is much more than the Last Supper, it also encompasses the sacrifice at Calvary. But, was not that sacrifice too enacted facing the people? Didn’t Jesus lie on the cross, facing the people who stood below him?
Vatican II realised that Mass facing the alter amounted to taking the people away from the New Testament to the Old Testament, away from the Last Supper and Calvary to the Jerusalem Temple. Live or fossilised remains of every important stage of evolutionary progress from single cell organisms to fish to birds to animals and Homo Erectus are now available. If a section of Christian worshipers prefer to remain as a remnant of the Old Testament, let them be; but they have no right to deny others the chance to be the children of the New Testament. Those who do so are denying Jesus.