CHRISTIAN NEWS MAGAZINE FOR KERALA MALAYALEE CHRISTIANS FROM INDIA AROUND THE WORLD
JULY 2006 DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE
VOL:5 ISSUE:07

'DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE'
By DR. ISSAC MAR CLEMEES
[Diocesian Bishop of Thiruvalla ArchDiocese, Malankara Catholic Church]



H.G. Dr. ISSAC
MAR
CLEMMEES

Today’s world being perhaps alluded to be hoisted to the pinnacle of selfishness and egocentrism, the prayer tabernacles like Maramon Convention are essential to nourish and augment human conscience with increase of God against the evils of the present time. The contemporary human life is being constrained and suffocated with deliberations of self-centeredness and self-regards. Social life is being stiffened and squeezed with reflection of these malevolent human attitudes. All ecumenical outfits elicit and pose a great campaign against this divisive, self-motivated and unpleasant viewpoint of the society, organizations and churches with the back strength of the living Word of God and it volunteer for the mission of dedication to curtail the divisive evil of the society.

Each of us has many strategies and goals of our life. We do have many preparations and designs for the prosperities of our life. We formulate many, many great tactics with our human brain for our opulence of this earthly life to make it smooth, harmless and easy. However, our social life is getting more and more entangled in anxiety and distress in spite of all our human efforts.

In this context, it is very relevant to think of the question that a master philosopher and the great teacher of law propounded to Jesus. "And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" [St. Luke 10:25] Our inadequacy is revealed here and our lack of freedom is exposed here. This is a question, which position our self into an unpleasant situation. We are struggling hard to ease our life in this world, but where our concern is standing about the eternal life? Do this intricate question hang around our private life? 'What shall I do to inherit eternal life?'

The aim of ecumenical fellowship is to enhance our sharing nature in the society and to be the partakers of its growth and responsibilities. It compounds our joint responsibilities in the society. We need to work hand in hand to establish the will of God and lead to the Kingdom of God on this earth. Pray together united with one heart and soul and cultivate the desire of a shared and joint progression. The Christian faith solely solicits for a sharing and caring mentality. The origin of life itself is a process of sharing. In the Creation process it is clearly exposed that human life is blended with breath and soul of God. The beautiful depiction of the creation, in the Book of Genesis, witness to the Godly fraction in the formation of human life. This sharing-ness and Godly fraction in human life is more pertinent when we think of the future eternal life. We cannot progress to the fullness of life with out this sharing and partnership.

Nothing in this world is owned by anybody. Even the ownership of our life is belonging to God. That is the eternal truth. Only when we involve with the concept of Godly ownership, we can conceive the fullness of prosperity of our life. As the life in the world belongs to God, our great desire to merge the life within us to the everlasting life of God is the inheritance of eternal life or the meaning of word salvation. The answer given to the lawyer by our Lord Jesus Christ is deep in its meaning and highly enlightening us. At the end of the discourse Jesus told him, 'Do this and you will live'.

When we share the resources as desired by the owner, the owner will rejoice and it will cause for abundant prosperity. You should wash and bind up the wounds of your neighbor. He may be of different faith, of different denomination, of different religion, of different country or a heathen to you, no matter, you should serve him as you supposed to do as Jesus commanded to you. You should share everything to him. This is the way of salvation Jesus had taught us.

Ecumenical motivation is to percieve the goodness and resources of this world as a reserve for all and reveals the willingness to share everything to everybody. When the society and church are entangled in the selfishness, this type of a sharing is impossible. Not only the individuals or the society but also the praying community is turning to be tinged with a communal nature.

[Extract from Devotional Address delivered at Ecumenical Meeting, Maramon 2005
Original in Malayalam : Translated for LOL by Editor Dr. Rajan Mathew Philadelphia, USA]


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