Question: Jaison Joseph

It is my sincere feeling that the message of Christ or ‘Jesus the person’ is not properly communicated to the Indian ethos. What is the way out?

Answer: Saji Mathew Kanayankal CST

It is true that we the Christians in India have failed to communicate Jesus the person or His gospel message to our country in a substantial way. As all of us are aware, India is an ancient land with its particular socio-cultural and religious settings. It keeps a lot of traditional values, concepts and principles, which differs from place to place, society to society and community to community. The cultural frame of the South is entirely different from the North and it is totally different in North-East or West. The presence of different religious traditions mixed with varieties of indigenous and tribal cultures and local wisdom makes the Indian system very complicated and mystified. The way of gospel presented by the European missionaries into the different cultures in India were criticised for their short-sightedness and narrow mind set. They were only the givers. They did not have an understanding of the background of the receiver. Except a few, most of them failed to open to the deeper cultural realities of this great tradition. Even after the independence, the Church in India could not go much in this regard. In order to go deep into the soil of India what we need is a real transformation in our attitudes, life style and approaches which would enable us to go in tune with the socio-cultural context of our land. In order to find a way out, it would be good to open to the wisdom hidden in the latest Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, Querida Amazonia. At the same time, in an era of fanaticism and sectarianism any kind of sharing gospel would be a very difficult task.

In this exhortation Pope Francis invites the entire faithful to open to the cultural roots of the people. The word ‘culture’ derives from a Latin term ‘colere’ which means tend to the earth and grow, or cultivation and nurture. It can be defined as the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, expressions of faith, social habits, music, arts etc. It includes also the behaviour patterns, interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding of the people. In short, it is culture that gives identity to a particular group of people. Within each culture there would be a unique vision of God, human being and cosmos that would be articulated through particular signs and symbols with its own meanings and ways of expression. Since the cultural identity remains well rooted in the interior self of an individual, it is not easy to separate one from his/her cultural frame. Moreover, culture is also the instrument through which one encounters God the creator, for God communicated to us through creation. This communication could be understood only through one’s own particular situation and way of life. This way of life is articulated in the very specific cultural frame.

People in any area possess its own cultural identity which differs from other but be unique to them, that expresses its richness. While speaking about the people of Amazon, Pope Francis tells that the cultural roots provide them with an identity and a sense of dignity and they swell the ranks of the outcast (QA, 30). More than an ethnic identity, the culture of a community or group is ‘bearers of precious personal, family and collective memories’ (QA, 35). Hence, it is simply our duty to respect and protect the culture of each individual groups or community. In sharing the gospel message, primarily we have to respect the ‘cultural values’ of the different individual communities in India.

Regaining the cultural value of an Indian way of Christian life becomes an essential in this context. Though some thirty-five years back there were very fruitful discussions and some kind of practical applications of an Indian way of Christian living, now it is almost evaded. It is a high time to rethink about the possibilities of an Indian style of Christian life. It would be simply accepting the multifaceted socio-cultural reality of India. Since the socio-cultural reality is different, we have to think of articulating the message of Jesus in different ways in Indian society as per each community or groups. When we speak about these possibilities there is a kind of preposterous fear among us. But it should be remembered that the very nature of creation itself is both identity and otherness. We can see diversities, differences and multiple way of being from the very inception of humanity on earth. Each human being is different from another yet they form together one community or one society. God took the form of a human being in a particular culture and lived very close to the culture, and through that He made us to understand that we can communicate with Him through our culture. So, apart from an authentic cultural frame, we cannot communicate the mystery of gospel effectively and meaningfully. By opening ourselves to the cultural reality, it will be easy for us to communicate the message of gospel in a fruitful way. In this journey, what is required from us is a ‘courageous openness to the novelty of the Spirit, who is always able to create something new with the inexhaustible riches of Jesus Christ’ (QA, 69). As Pope Francis underlines, “if we believe that the Holy Spirit can work amid differences, then we will try to let ourselves be enriched by that insight, while embracing it from the core of our own convictions and our own identity” (QA, 106).

The methods we use to share the message of Christ or gospel also is very important. When He took the form of a human being, Jesus has chosen a particular place, in all its historical and cultural context. He accepted it fully, lived it in His life, accommodated with it and above all shared Himself in its social and cultural frame. Without this intercultural sharing, his message of incarnation would not be realistically shared to the community in which He lived and to the humanity. It was also true with regarding the preaching of the gospel to different cultures, people and land. When, Christianity which was born in a Jewish context interacted in the Hellenistic world, a pagan culture, it has adapted many things from it. By adaptation, sharing and encounter the gospel message could be communicated to the local people in their own living context more substantially. As the Pontifical Biblical Commission observes, the Word of God transcends the cultures in which it has found expression and has the capability of being spread in other cultures, in such a way as to be able to reach all human beings in the cultural context in which they live. If we have such a conviction, we need not be timid to open to the cultural richness and heritage of our nation. Here we need not ‘deny the autonomy of culture. Rather we have to express our ‘greatest respect for it,’ since culture “is not only an object of redemption and elevation but can also play a role of mediation and cooperation” (QA, 67). In the words of Pope Francis; “intercultural relations where diversity does not mean threat, and does not justify hierarchies of power of some over others, but dialogue between different cultural visions, of celebration, of interrelationship and of revival of hope” (QA 48).

In Christian life, this communication of gospel becomes more tangible and authentic through the celebration of the sacraments, especially through the celebration of the liturgy. It is the primary way of experiencing the grace that comes from God. As a significant step in the spiritual journey, the participation in the sacraments is an opportunity for the individual to encounter the saving action of God and the salvation promised to all who believe in Jesus Christ. Through sacramental celebration, the figure, life, mysteries and words and deeds of Jesus are brought back to our life and their values are transmitted into our personal existence through signs, symbols and rituals. The most important question we confront at this juncture is the effectiveness of the rituals and signs that we use in the sacraments and their suitability to the cultural ethos of our country. Though the Second Vatican council insisted to adapt liturgy according to the context and more ‘suitably to the needs of our own time’, with the purpose to ‘promote union among all who believe in Christ’ (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 1) we could not actualise this dream in India due to various reasons. In our celebrations of liturgy as well as the construction of the church buildings or the ‘way of Christian living’ we see the influence of the Roman and Greek culture or other foreign impacts. In general, the Church in India is being accused of the westernisation. Therefore, for many Indians, Jesus and His gospel becomes an alien, an out sider!

In fact, “the sacraments reveal and communicate the God who is close and who comes with mercy to heal and strengthen His children. Consequently, they should be accessible especially for the poor” (QA, 84). This dimension of accessibility and openness should be effective in the celebrations of all sacraments, especially in liturgy, because it is in liturgy, we concretely participate in the paschal mystery of Christ. As Pope Francis tells; “In the Eucharist, God, ‘in the culmination of the mystery of the incarnation, chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter.’ The Eucharist ‘joins heaven and earth; it embraces and penetrates all creation.’… In this sense, ‘encountering God does not mean fleeing from this world or turning our back on nature.’ It means that we can take up into the liturgy many elements proper to the experience of indigenous peoples in their contact with nature, and respect native forms of expression in song, dance, rituals, gestures and symbols” (QA, 82). He also observes that though the Second Vatican Council called for this effort to inculturate the liturgy, we still have far to go along these lines even after fifty years! (QA, 82).

All the more, the authenticity of the communication of the gospel depends on the authenticity of the person who communicates it. The first followers of Jesus, the apostles, who shared the different experiences of Jesus in the earthly life led ‘an authentic’ Christian life. The personal ‘encounter’ of the apostolic fathers and their followers with Jesus facilitated their acts and deeds. It is true that all of them, who were ‘filled with Holy Spirit,’ were courageous enough to give witness to the truth lived and preached by Jesus in midst of difficult circumstances. The community formed in the first centuries were also following the true spirit of gospel. When we look on today, as an individual as well as a community, we lack this authenticity and personal commitment. In order to be the true witnesses of Jesus what we need is to regain the real spirit of gospel in our personal life as well as in the life of the Church as a community. The ‘kerygma’ is neither mere proclamation nor the preaching of gospel, rather it should be an expression of the genuine sharing of a person from his/her authentic encounter with Jesus the person. More than an institutional proselytization, it should be true sharing of the person of Christ who lives within an individual as well as in the community.