These are five beautiful words put together
to express the Christian unity and love. These words had a powerful meaning and
emotional bonding between all members of the catholic community irrespective of
whichever part of the world you are hailing from, whatever is your mother
tongue, whatever is the type of dress you are wearing. In the northern part of
our country, there are of course few native Catholics. Every Catholic Church in
the north has more Catholics from different parts of the country. Therefore, in
this cultural diversity, these words “Let us break bread together” were the
binding force keeping every catholic to work together as brothers and sisters
as organs of the mystical body of Christ.
After the appearance of the Joint Pastoral
Letter by the two Archbishops, which was read out as Sunday homily in all the
parishes of the Archdiocese of Delhi, these words have lost its meaning. Still,
during Sunday homilies, the priests irrespective of their Rites, repeat the same
words. “Let us break bread together”. But these words do not come from the
human or divine heart of the priest. These words appear to come from a comedian
or a Joker in a circus show repeating like a parrot what he has learned by
heart or like a robot voicing through a tape recorder with no human emotions.
These words appear hollow for the faithful. What they understand from these
heartless words is “Let us break each other”.
It will be a great service to the people if
the clergy stop giving Sunday homily. In a Sunday homily, the priests will have
to speak of the love of Christ, the unity of the Catholic Church, one faith and
they have to advice people to love each other and the mystical body of Christ. The
faithful understands the hollowness of their words. They see the actions of the
church and the clergy. These actions are openly just opposite of what they
preach.
Every priest, brothers and sisters of
different congregations in the Archdiocese of Delhi and also every human being
knows that the JPL is a criminal act against the laity of the church whether Latin
or Syrian. But, not a single member of
the clergy, or members of any congregations in Delhi Archdiocese area opened
their mouth openly against this act of injustice to the laity. It is a shame to
those who proclaim that they serve Christ. Where are they serving Christ? In
wearing a habit? Now that also is rare. From heaven if they go up? We
understand that serving Christ means to serve the fellow beings. But for these
people, the laity does not form the part of the fellow beings. And the JPL does
not affect their status, style or standard of life. How cruel can they all become
in the name of Poor Jesus?
The Archbishop of Delhi needs your support
and encouragement to withdraw the so called JPL unilaterally with finality. We
the lay people urge you to be with him by raising your voice against “Let us
break each other” and to act as “Let us break bread together”.
Jose Paul
Shri. Jose Paul is kicking at one of the most abused service portion in the Church, the homilies. Rather than saying something with home examples, most of the priests waste public time and energy elaborating Verses with stupid explanations. Between the last 10-12 years, Christianity in India has lost one third of its' members. It is a fact that in the existing two third, at least one third is not following Church codes. Whatever, the present laity is notably unhappy with the conditions within the Church.
ReplyDeletePetitions are flying to Rome, not to the Major Arch Bishop (people have learnt that it is of no use sending a petition to the Major Arch Bishop). Churches are being suspended in Kerala one by one (Ref. laymen protests at Kureepuzha (Kollam) and Olari (Trichur).
The most prestigious Engineering College in Kerala manged by kanjirappally Diocese, Amal Jyothi College of Eng.g is now closed indefinitely due to students strike over bad food in the hostel mess, compulsory retreat for students etc. The strange thing is that the laity has not effectively come forward to support the diocese administrators. They know that they also pay heavily for an admission there.
Jose Paul is right, 'we are breaking ourselves'.