( Much can be said on Shri Jose Paul, hailing from North Paravoor and now settled in Delhi. He has been associated with multitudes of Church activities and has been instrumental in organizing a lot of workshops in India and abroad. He has authored many motivating books. The present Church and the rite fights is pinching him heavily and makes him sad in his 80s - Admin)
On a fine morning, a most beautiful rose
flower bloomed. Along with the beauty of the flower, it had a wonderful
fragrance. One of my friends came to my house and he saw the flower. He
expressed his feelings of joy in Malayalam that the flower is beautiful and has
a great fragrance using the Malayalam words that the flower has “Bhangy and
Sourabyam” (beauty and fragrance). The same day another friend expressed the
same thoughts using Malayalam words that the flower has “Sounnariam and
Sugandham” (beauty and fragrance). When they met each other they spoke about
the beautiful flower they saw in my garden.
One spoke of the “Bhangy and Sourabyam” of the flower and the other
spoke of the “Sounnariam and Sugandham” of the flower. They could not reconcile
to the fact that they both saw the same flower.
After having some arguments
about the words they both used to describe the flower, they decided that they
both saw two different flowers.
This is what happened to the shepherds of
our Catholic Church. Catholic Church is the same one and only one. Jesus is the
same, the creed is the same. The sacraments are the same. The commandments are
the same. The faith is the same.
Jesus was crucified and died for the salvation
of the humanity. The legend says that St. Thomas the apostle converted some
people into Christianity. Later on the global Church converted some people into
Christianity. Is it a different Christianity? Is the essence of Christianity
the same? Is not its beauty and fragrance the same? What are we fighting for or dividing ourselves
for? Can’t we realise that these divisions are meaningless and fruitless. We
are all talking about the Same Christ and the same Saviour and longing for the
same salvation. In Eucharist, we are receiving the same Jesus. Believing in the
same church, we are talking different languages as in the case of the rose
flower above.
By using the different rituals in liturgy,
by using different languages, by saying mass standing or facing in different
directions, by changing the colour of the vestments on different days of the
week, standing, sitting or kneeling at different times in a church service,
using a curtain in front of the alter etc is not going to change the faith in
one and only Catholic Church. Rituals cannot change the essence of faith.
Ritual and rites are not part of the faith.
We find that these shepherds speak of one and only Catholic
Church, speak of the unity of the members of the Catholic Church, speak every
Sunday from the pulpits about the love of Jesus, exhorts the lay people to love one another as
Jesus loved us.
We are waiting for these shepherds to celebrate together some
Christian festivals like Christmas, Easter, the feast of the Eucharist and the
Christ the king feast, in any one of the church in any one rite with all the
shepherds of various rites participating as members of the same Catholic Church
with the lay members.
Jose Paul
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