Vincent Kundukulam
Identity is an ever-fascinating subject as it is related to the very existence of man’s life. There will not be any person who has not, at some moments of life, asked the questions like, who am I? what should I become? How should I construct myself? This is equally right about groups, communities, and nations. Although satisfying answers are not found, people engage in the processes of building up their self-hood.
Christians, as a group of people following Christ, have been reflecting on their identity. In what consists of the distinctiveness of Christians from other religious believers? This question became acute when Christianity spread from Jerusalem to neighbouring states. Is Christian faith transportable to nations having the non-Hebraic cultures? Can it be articulated and professed in the same manner in different continents? Can it be authentically lived ignoring the indigenous cultures? In course of time, there developed the view that identity need not be lived in the same way in all contexts. It shall undergo changes, however, the essence without getting changed. Encounter with new spaces and new times demands changes as regards to how faith is to be lived visibly, although no compromise can be done regarding the core of Christian values. Then the question is how to separate the core form the accidental? It is not an easy task since the essentials are always covered in and under the form of non-essentials. We can only point out certain examples to follow from the life of Christ and that of Church.
One of the guiding principles to keep a healthy balance between permanence and mutation is a vision of life that emerges from the belief that God is a communion of three persons. Man traces his origin back to the Triune God in whom three persons co-exist, each one with their own unique features. While each person in Trinity has specific roles in the mystery of redemption, all the three together assume their responsibilities in mutual love and charity. Trinity thus teaches us that people belonging to different cultural traditions can live their faith in a way proper to the given contexts without losing the gist of gospel.
Another inspiring model to live unity in diversity is the very fact of incarnation. God became fully man without losing His divine essence. Religiously and culturally, Jesus was a Jew, but these features did not obstruct him from sharing the ‘human commonalities’ with others. He had limitations of any contingent being, but he got never subdued to sin. Jesu kept the godliness while being fully humane.
St. Peter, the prime head of the Church, has also set in a good example to live the Christian identity while being open to other cultures. Peters’ problem was whether he can receive Cornelius, a Roman officer in Palestine into Christian faith without demanding circumcision. Put another way, the question was, ‘can a Gentile become a disciple of Christ without adopting the Hebrew way of life?’ He resolved the issue in the light of the revelation received from God through a dream. Till that time Peter eat the meat of only those creatures mentioned in the Mosaic Law. But with the advice ‘what God has made clean you have no right to call profane’, he understood that all the creatures on earth are clean as they are created and blessed by Yahweh. Later Peter declared in the house of Cornelius as follows: You yourself know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean … I truly understand that God shows no partiality, in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him’ (Act 10, 28. 34-35). Cornelius received baptism and lived like a Christian within the context of Roman culture.
Christian vocation is a call to live like the triune God, the incarnated Jesus and St. Peter. Living faith in and through the symbols, codes, and beliefs systems of the given cultures without jeopardizing the gospel values does not endanger the identity of Christianity. The essence of being Christian is to keep intact the gospel-perspective in life. More than the orthodoxy of doctrine what constitutes the identity is adhesion of individual or community to the life of Trinity and Christ. This implies that even people who do not belong officially to the Church can also be members of God’s Kingdom provided they lead a life based on gospels.
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