- Vincent Kundukulam
Recently I heard some priests and nuns working in the norther part of India saying: “We run mainly schools and colleges. And the majority of our beneficiaries are Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. Here, we don’t directly preach gospel. At times, we ask ourselves: Are we doing missionary work? What could be the ways in which we can witness gospel among them? To what extent and in what way we can associate with them in accomplishing our mission?
The following note is a bunch of thoughts that erupt in me as response to the above-mentioned questions. At the outset, I think that Christians constituting a tiny minority in India and that our co-workers belong dominantly to other faiths it is quite reasonable to consider the latter not merely as employers but as responsible partners of our mission. There are passages in the Bible to show that sharing of ministry with other believers in building up God’s reign is not at all unchristian.
During the public ministry, Jesus allowed many to join his fellowship, but they all did not have the same type of belongingness to him. At the close circle, Jesus had the twelve disciples. We have the list of the twelve disciples whom he appointed as apostles in Mk 3, 13-19. These twelve had a particular type of mission – to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message and to have authority to cast out demons. Apart from the twelve, Jesus had another set of seventy disciples who were occasionally sent to preach the gospel. Luke has included the advice Jesus gave to them in the chapter 10, 1-12. Their return is described in the same chapter, and there, we don’t find him asking them to remain with him like the twelve. It means, even among those who closely followed Jesus, the adherence was not of the same proportion.
Take the case of strange exorcist mentioned in Mk 9, 38-41. Exorcism was a widespread practice in the Hellenistic period. The names like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well as the name of Jewish archangels were used by even non-Jewish exorcists for this purpose. Jesus’ disciples saw a certain exorcist using Jesus’ name to expel demons. They wanted that either he stops using the name of Jesus or that he follows Jesus. The reply of Jesus is very significant: “Whoever is not against us is for us”. It suggests that Jesus did not wish that everybody, who functions even on his behalf, adhere to his community like the twelve or the seventy disciples. This is again another type of belongingness we see among the followers of Jesus. His promise of reward expressed in v. 41 certifies that his love and protection will be also extended to this third category of people, irrespective of caste and creed, provided they lead a righteous life.
Similar attitude can be also seen in the Pauline letters. In Romans 14, Paul speaks about those who have ‘feeble faith’ and ‘strong faith’. He wants that the community receives both equally: “Welcome those who are weak in faith but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions … who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own Lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand” (Rm 14, 1-4). This is a case, where Paul teaches the Christians at Rome to deal with compassion those insiders, who have difficulty to follow the so-called external signs of belonging to the community. The studies show that there were Christians in Roman Church who wanted to keep the distinctiveness of the elected people in the daily life style i.e. in diet and festivals. The differences in such external expressions created strains in their relationships and it generated serious discussions leading to the problems of faith. What Paul intends here is to say that such weakness in practicing faith is of a less serious nature, and it can be accepted within the spectrum of Christian liberty. The lesson we draw from this instance is that Church should be able to sustain a diversity of opinion and lifestyle as an integral aspect of its common life.
The Second Vatican Council followed the same line of thought. As regards those who like to follow Christ but finds difficulty to receive baptism, Redemptoris missio says the following: ‘Even though the social and cultural contexts do not permit these believers to enter into the Church, the grace of Christ is made accessible to them in a mysterious way through the Church’ (RM 10). In 2002, the document Dominus Iesus confirmed it: “For those who are not formally and visibly members of the Church, salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church, but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation (DI 20).
In brief, all humans are on a pilgrimage towards God. Due to the differences of their origin and life-context, they all cannot belong to Christ and to the Church in the same way. Consequently, it is unchristian to think that all those who render service at God’s Kingdom must belong to the same faith. The important thing is to become the disciple of Christ and to lead a righteous life.
- Kundu1962@gmail.com
