Ponmala

‘When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” “Simon Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God” (Mt 16:13-16). Later, Peter would face his first crisis as the leader of Jesus’ disciples; he would be called to decide whose Messiah Jesus was, just of the Jews or of all mankind. Paul, who would single-handedly argue that Jesus was a universal Messiah, won the day.
The Jews were longing for a Messiah who would save them from the bondage of foreign rule, but Jesus had given them many hints that he was not a parochial redeemer; rather, that he had come to save them from the yoke of parochial thinking. He told them to think universal. He preached universal values and condemned the Jewish laws that violated them. Each of the parables Jesus narrated had a universal human value as the moral of the story; the one that conveyed it best was the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
The message of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is simple and straightforward: Good people are those who have a heart that feels for others. This is true equally for God and for men. The Jews considered themselves to be the chosen people of God. The priest, who walked away on seeing a half dead man lying on the street, and the Levite, who went over, looked at the man and then walked by, were people who considered themselves God’s most favoured ones, members of God’s inner circle. Jesus purposely contrasts them with a Samaritan, who belonged to a race that the Jews considered the despised of God. For the Jews, the Samaritans were untouchables.
The gospel highlights this point at another occasion when Jesus cures ten lepers. Nine of the ten were Jews. None of them returned to thank him. The lone leper who returned to thank him was a Samaritan. The other nine believed that the cure was their right as the favoured ones of God, and so the idea of thanking Jesus for it did not come across their mind. And then we have the episode of Jesus asking some water to drink from a Samaritan woman at a well. The request takes the woman by surprise. She says, “You are a Jew and I am Samaritan – so how can you ask me for a drink?” And she, an untouchable, becomes the first recipient from Jesus of the water that will give eternal life.
The central theme of the teachings of Jesus is that he had come for all men. God’s chosen people are those whom we regard as good human beings, not those who belong to a chosen race or a particular faith or to God’s inner circle. We need leaders who are more of spiritual guides who hold fast to the universal values that Jesus taught and whose concerns embrace the whole of humanity. We do not need community leaders who cater to a favourite section of society on whose strength they subsist. We Christians have no right to appropriate Jesus to ourselves, as say Muslims appropriate Mohammad or Eezhavas appropriate Sri Narayana Guru. He and his teachings belong to the entire humanity. When an archbishop says that his people would get anyone who pays them Rs 300/- per kilo of rubber elected, he is not speaking as a representative of Christ. He cannot be considered a disciple of Jesus. He is portraying Jesus as the parochial leader of a particular community, and thereby a possible threat to others. Dear archbishop, Jesus is telling you, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Mt 1(:14). Jesus is everyone’s, not just of Syrian Christian rubber cultivators.
A madly hungry Esau sold his rights as the first-born son to Jacob for some soup. Jesus was equally hungry after spending forty days and nights without food, but when the devil came to him and said, “If you are God’s son, order these stones to turn into bread,” Jesus answered, “Man cannot live by bread alone…” The archbishop referred to above, prefers Esau over Jesus as his model. That is some horrible news for every true Christian.
Who is more Jesus-like, the archbishop or Rahul Gandhi, who is being hunted down as anti-national because he spoke against the violation of the universal values of democracy, the same very universal values that Jesus preached? A ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people’ is no democracy as long as it does not uphold universal human values of freedom and brotherhood of all men. Parochialism is the biggest enemy of democracy. It takes on many forms – nationalism, communalism, tribalism, regionalism – all of which are inspired by narrow selfish interests.
Here is a good advice for prelates from the late Varkey Cardinal Vithayathil: “I have very carefully maintained a safe distance from party politics, and so there is no question of me siding with any particular party… It is not appreciated by the Holy See if bishops and priests have politics. Political affiliation will create problems for them in their pastoral service… I leave it to the educated people of India to exercise their voting rights according to their convictions.”