1.
Introduction:
self-centered to other centered
Aristotle noted
long ago that the ability to spot the similar in the dissimilar, the familiar
in the strange, is the hallmark of poetic genius. In an increasingly global and
cross-cultural human mosaic, this kind of genius can be an indispensable
component in the process of building community among religiously diverse
traditions. For, what is strange or “other” stands as an implicit challenge to
the familiar, placing it in question. Yet, the unfamiliarity of the other can
only be recognized and encountered as such on the basis of what is already
experienced and known, interpreted through the lens of established or
taken-for-granted networks of meanings. There is a tension here: neither
reducing what is different to the similar and already known (in a kind of
cognitive imperialism), nor simply allowing the different to slip into an
obscure and impenetrable alterity (in a relativistic skepticism or agnosticism).
The kind of poetic genius Aristotle talked about embodies an imaginative and
constructive capacity that stretches out to stand in-between the familiar and
the foreign, recognizing otherness in the form of a similarity-in-difference.
The world has
grown to be a global village. And yet ethnic conflicts, religious
fundamentalism, religious pluralism, violence and terrorism continue to loom
large in the horizon resulting in feelings of insecurity and fragmentation. One
begins to wonder as to whether religion is really helping us to be other
centered or self centered. Enlightened human beings have succeeded to go beyond
their own religions, to find spirituality to nourish their mind, body and soul.
Some say that religion divide people and spirituality unites. Every religion
aims at giving meaning and purpose to life. Samvad, will certainly continue the
journey of exploring the focus of every religion, the “other” and helping us to
re-discover otherness in the form of similarity in difference. In this paper I would focus on the concept of
the “other” in Christianity.
2.
The
Creation story: God and others.
God created man
in his own image and likeness. “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over
the birds of the air, and the over every creeping thing that creeps on the
earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” And so God
created man in his own image, in the image of God he crated him; male and female
he created them.” (Gen 1:26-27) This is indicative of the divinity in man, the
crown of creation. We (the “other”) are called
to reflect the image and likeness of God. The other has been made
steward of the whole creation, there by placing him above the rest of creation.
He is called to share in the creative powers of the creator. At another place
in the Bible it is also written that, “then the Lord God formed man of dust
from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living being.” (Gen 2:7) This shows his finite nature that he has been
made of the dust from the ground and unto dust he shall return. The concept of
the other at the time of creation is a synthesis of his divinity and humanity;
his call to be mortal and divine; finite and infinite; eternal and transient.
This description of human nature is the result of the theological and
philosophical reflection on life as experienced in history and time.
3.
God’s
concern for the other: Prophecy and its fulfillment.
Centuries
before the birth of the Messiah Isaiah prophesied, “Therefore the Lord himself
will give you a sign: The virgin is with child and bears a son and calls his
mane Immanuel (God with us).” (Is.7:14) God’s concern for the other is seen in
the birth of Jesus. ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that
those who believe in him shall be saved. He came not to condemn the world but
to save the world.” (Jn 3:16) God so loved the world that consists of all
people belonging to all religions. His love was not restricted to a particular
group or people, but to ‘others” belonging to different regions, nations and
religions. God can never be limited by narrow thinking or feeling as we humans
often do. There is a story of a very old
man knocking at the door of the legendary Biblical figure, Abraham at the
middle of the night. Abraham got up and welcomed him and prepared food for him
as he was hungry. As he was about to eat Abraham told him to pray to Yahweh
(God) which the old man did not know. As he confessed his ignorance of God and
prayer, Abraham chased him out of the house in the middle of the night. After a
short while Abraham heard a knock at his door again and as he got up to open
the door, he heard Yahweh asking for the stranger who came there to take
shelter. Abraham with great pride said that he pushed him out of the house as
he did not know who his God was and how to pray. Hearing this God of Abraham
was very sad and asked him, “I have tolerated him for 75 years, could you not
tolerate him just for one night?”
Sensitivity to differences and still showing love and concern is the
core of any spirituality. God became a human being that we can become like him.
We become like him when we see God in others and love and serve him. God is in
others.
4.
Jesus:
a man for others
When we study
the Bible we find that Jesus is a man for others irrespective of cast, creed
and nationality. During his life time, he having being brought up as a Jew
broke down the narrow walls of meaningless rituals and redundant regulations.
He made the lame walk, lepers clean, deaf hear, the dumb speak and even dead
people were brought back to life. He preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the fatherhood of God and
brotherhood/sisterhood of human kind, a revolutionary concept at that time.
Even on forbidden days like Sabbath, he healed the sick for which he was
condemned. He went always and everywhere
beyond human considerations and worked to alleviate human suffering. He reached
out, touched and healed the suffering humanity. He taught and preached so that
others may have life in abundance. He
restored dignity to the woman caught in adultery and transformed her life. He
transformed the lives of many who were otherwise condemned by the society. He said very emphatically, “you ignore the
weightier matters of the law to cling on the human traditions.”
4.1 Jesus views on who is your neighbour: Good
Samaritan Lk 10:36-37
When Jesus was asked what the greatest moral
commandment was, he replied by quoting two commands from the Old Testament.
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second
is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself'" (Matthew 22:37-39). Many have understood this second
commandment as including a command to love ourselves. However, this is a
misreading of what it actually says. We are not commanded to love our neighbour
and ourselves, but as ourselves. In other words, the
statement naturally assumes that we have a certain desire for our own
wellbeing, and the command is to have an equal concern for the wellbeing of
others. Self-love is not a virtue that Scripture commends, but one of the facts
of our humanity that it recognises and tells us to use as a standard. So what
should this concern for our own wellbeing entail? And, as Samuel Johnson once
said, "He who overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he who
undervalues others will suppress them."
The parable of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:25-37) offers two particularly important
clarifications. Until that time, the concept of “neighbour” was understood as
referring essentially to one's countrymen and to foreigners who had settled in
the land of Israel; in other words, to the closely-knit community of a single
country or people. This limit is now abolished. Anyone who needs me, and whom I
can help, is my neighbour. The concept of “neighbour” is now universalized, yet
it remains concrete. Despite being extended to all mankind, it is not reduced
to a generic, abstract and undemanding expression of love, but calls for my own
practical commitment here and now. In the great parable of the Last Judgment
(cf. Mt 25:31-46), love becomes the criterion for the definitive
decision about a human life's worth or lack thereof. Jesus identifies himself
with the poor and needy. Lastly, we should especially associate with those in
need, with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those
in prison. “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it
to me” (Mt 25:40). Love of God and love of neighbour have become one: in
the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God.
Love of neighbour is thus shown to be possible in the way proclaimed by
the Bible, by Jesus. It consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I
love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only take place
on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which has become a
communion of will, even affecting my feelings. Then I learn to look on this
other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective
of Jesus Christ. His friend is my friend. Going beyond exterior appearances, I
perceive in others an interior desire for a sign of love, of concern. This I
can offer them not only through the organizations intended for such purposes,
accepting it perhaps as a political necessity. Seeing with the eyes of Christ,
I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them
the look of love which they crave. Here we see the necessary interplay between
love of God and love of neighbour which the First Letter of John speaks of with such
insistence. If I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot
see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in
him the image of God. But if in my life I fail completely to heed others,
solely out of a desire to be “devout” and to perform my “religious duties”, and
then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely “proper”,
but loveless. Only my readiness to encounter my neighbour and to show him love
makes me sensitive to God as well. Only if I serve my neighbour can my eyes be
opened to what God does for me and how much he loves me. The saints—consider
the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta—constantly renewed their capacity for
love of neighbour from their encounter with the Eucharistic Lord, and
conversely this encounter acquired its real- ism and depth in their service to
others. Love of God and love of neighbour are thus inseparable, they form a
single commandment. But both live from the love of God who has loved us first.
No longer is it a question, then, of a “commandment” imposed from without and
calling for the impossible, but rather of a freely-bestowed experience of love
from within, a love which by its very nature must then be shared with others.
Love grows through love. Love is “divine” because it comes from God and unites
us to God; through this unifying process it makes us a “we” which transcends
our divisions and makes us one, until in the end God is “all in all” (1 Cor 15:28)
4.2 Hostility-Breaking
Mission: Jesus compassion for the then outcasts.
Jewish world of
that time strictly followed “cast” system. People of the lower cast, were
ignored and were marginalized. Nothing good can be seen in such people except
impurity and sinfulness. In today’s world which is divided in terms of cast,
creed and nationality, Jesus focus on the human person, irrespective of caste,
creed and nationality is particularly pertinent for allows reviewing our
attitude and dealings with diverse culture, religion, social and economic
status.
Jesus was quite
aware of the age-old hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans. Even in his
own time the hostility continued (4:9b). The ongoing animosity between the Jews
and Samaritans was evident in the encounter of the disciples of Jesus and the
Samaritans of a certain village on his way to Jerusalem (Lk 9:51-56). In the midst of such a hostile atmosphere of
enmity, bigotry and antagonism, Jesus decides to go through the land of Samaria. His passing through Samaria
signifies his initiative of reaching out to the estranged and excluded, as he
does, in John, to the sick (5:1- 14:9:1-12), to the hungry (6:1-15), to the
struggling (6:16-21), to the sinful (8:1-11), to the meek and defenseless sheep
(10:1-18), to the bereaved (11:1-44), to the service of his disciples (13:1-11)1 His effort to reach out is
designed also to demolish the wall of hostility between the Jews and
Samaritans. Jesus does not encourage enmity and this comes out well in his
rebuke of John and James who wanted fire to come down and consume the
inhospitable Samaritans (Lk9: 55).2
Breaking down the wall of hostility and building the bridge of relationship
was part of the Samaritan mission of Jesus.
4.3 Anti-Untouchability
Mission
Untouchability
was imposed on the Samaritans as a socio-cultural stigma, which isolated them
as impure and unclean people. In this context of discrimination and inequality,
the words and actions of Jesus found in the narrative of Samaritan mission are
path breaking.
Since Samaria
was considered a profane territory, orthodox Jews who wished to go to Galilee
used the route by the side of the Jordan valley in order to avoid passing
through Samaria.3 That
Jesus not merely passed through Samaria, but stayed in a Samaritan village for
two days (4:40) who was that Jesus crosses the barrier of untouchability and
treats the land of Samaria as a land of people and of God.4 Leaving
the area of supreme holiness, the temple, Jerusalem and the land of the Jews
(from the Jewish perspective with which he is identified in vv.9.22) and
entering an alien, profane territory, Jesus crosses a social barrier of
uncleanness or untouchability.5
Moreover, the placement of this scene soon after the encounter of Jesus
with Nicodemus is meaningful. Jesus who met with the Pharisee Nicodemus, a
teacher of high rank and ruling elite and ceremoniously considered clean and
pure, is ready to dialogue with a Samaritan woman, considered ceremoniously
unclean, and is willing to stay for two days in her village, regarded ritually
impure.
In a
discriminatory context where the place and the things used by the Samaritans
were considered ceremoniously unclean, Jesus was ready to use them because he
treated Samaritans not as untouchables but basically as human persons and even
as children of God. By his action Jesus openly challenged and crossed the
boundary between “chosen people” and “rejected people.6 Jesus,
as his manner of acting indicates, is not concerned about the rules of
uncleanness. But as Savior of the world, he is concerned with all men and
women, regardless of social distinctions.7
Jesus is presented as “rabbi come from God” (3:2), who, unlike the conventional
Jewish teachers, relates to people beyond the barrier of ritual impurity and
thus declares the abrogation of such unjust practices.8 Commenting on the anti-untouchability mission of
Jesus, Withering Ben III says that Jesus has totally disapproved and rejected
what his traditional Jewish society considered unclean and impure.
Jesus in this
story not only rejects the notion that he shouldn’t associate with the
Samaritans, he also rejects the notion that he shouldn’t talk with a strange
woman in public, and further more rejects the idea that one shouldn’t associate
with notoriously immoral people. Besides that, Jesus’ act involves witnessing
to a person that many of his fellow Jews would have written off as both unclean
and theologically out of bounds, a hopeless case. Towards the Samaritans (9:51-55). In his Jewish society where
even the name of the Samaritans was derisive, where they were treated as
impure, Jesus has the courage and graciousness to set a Samaritan as an
exemplary model to respond to the needs of neighbors Lk 10:29-37) and to praise
openly a Samaritan leper for his sense of gratefulness to God (Lk 17:11-19).
It is still
more significant to see that Jesus decided to stop over at Synched, which had
been given an opprobrious meaning as a ‘city of Drunkards’
or ‘drunkenness’ in the already profane land of Samaria.
For Jesus, this place was not one of untouchability and opprobrium but a sacred
ground as the well and the field were connected to the revered Jacob tradition
(4:5). He even dared to ask for a drink of water from the Samaritan woman.
Drinking from the vessel used by the unclean Samaritan woman would render
Jesus, the Jew, ceremonially impure. But he was ready to do that and thus
defied the unjust tradition of uncleanness.
Jesus bridged
the social distance between the Jews and Samaritans by knocking down the social
barriers. Jesus’ action is nothing superficial: it is radical. “In v. 9 John is
concerned with showing not so much that Jesus was willing to break a ritual
prohibition imposed by the Pharisees, but that he destroyed the basis for any
hatred between Jew and Samaritan.9
Jesus strikes at the root of the problem. His action is not to be interpreted
as just crossing a socio-cultural barrier of ritual prohibition. It is directed
to the very treatment of marginalized.
Only in the
Fourth Gospel is Jesus called a Jew (4:9a). The Evangelist seems to have
purposely recorded this ethnic identity of Jesus here to emphasize the point
that Jesus as a Jew has crossed the discriminatory social barriers and is
showing the way to treat all as children of God by wiping out all unjust and
inhuman practices which treat others as untouchable.
4.4 Jesus attitude towards sinners Lk 15: Parable of the lost sheep, lost
coin and the prodigal son
Any one who is
holy will try to avoid the company of sinners. But Jesus openly declared that
he has come in search sinners and he has come to save them. Many tax collectors
and sinners were seeking the company of Jesus as he preached to them the
message of salvation and forgiveness of sins which was criticized and objected
by the religious teachers of his time, the scribes and the Pharisees. To make
them understand the compassion and unconditional love of God, he narrated three
parables at a stretch. In the parable of the lost sheep, the sheep was lost
because the sheep strayed away from the group by its own foolishness. In the
parable of the lost coin, the coin was lost because of the carelessness of the
person who possessed it. In the case of the prodigal son, he deliberately went
away from his father. In all the three cases, when it was found there was great
joy and celebration. The lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son was
never condemned. Jesus said, “I have not condemned the world but to redeem the world.” Time and again Jesus attitude towards sinners
was of compassion and forgiveness. He condemned the sin but not the sinner. The
world could become a better place if we could be more compassionate and less
judgmental. Again he said, “I have not come in search of the virtuous but
sinners. It is the sick that needs a physician and not the healthy.” He saw
possibilities of greatness in every person. He transformed Mathew the tax
collector; Simon the fisherman; Saul the persecutor of the church, the Samaritan
woman; the woman caught in adultery. He gave them a future. He condemned sin
but loved sinners and showed them the possibility of becoming a better person.
Every sinner has a future and every saint has a past.
5. Jesus’ Mission to Make All Children
of God
By sharing this
life with believers, the mission of Jesus is to make them all children of God:
“But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become
children of God (1:12).
The word used for children in John is tekna. John use huios, ‘son’, only for
Jesus. The theological notion of filiations is rendered by the expression tekna
thou “children of God.”10 John
preserves a terminological difference between Jesus as God’s Son and believers
as God’s children. It is also in John that our present state as God’s children
on this earth comes out most clearly.11
“See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children
of God; and that is what we are…Beloved, we are God’s children now” (1 Jn
3:1-2). It is significant to note that the Prologue, which is called the
epitome of the life and mission of Jesus in John, points out to the central
mission of Jesus, making people become children of God.12 When he taught people to pray, he told that God is
their heavenly father, a revolutionary concept at that time. He always
proclaimed the greatness of his father who makes the sun rise over the sinners
and saints. He constantly reminded others that they have a father in heaven and
so not to worry or be anxious. He told them to look at the birds of the air and
lilies of the field and how well they are looked after and clothed. And so why
to be anxious about tomorrow? All “others” are children of God and God loves
each one of them unconditionally
5.1 Jesus on kingdom of God Mt25:35-40
On the last day
we would be judged on how sensitive we have been to those in need. Our reward,
salvation, nirvana, in the final analysis would be not based on doctrines and
dogmas, but the practice of our faith. God is in the other. We need to see him
in the other especially in those in need. Jesus propounded very radical theory
on the practice of religion. Practice of religion has to result in responding
to human need. Together we need to reach out, touch and heal the broken world.
External rituals and practices will not qualify a person to inter the kingdom of God. He reminded his disciples that the
first would be last and last, first. Many would come the east and west, north
and south who had not been part of his followers and enter the kingdom of God. In his sermon on the mount he said,
“Happy are the poor in spirit, the kingdom
of God belongs to them.”
(Mt 5:3) For Jesus kingdom
of God did not consist in
some geographical area but in God’s reign in human hearts. His kingdom is a
kingdom of love, justice, truth and holiness, open to all those who are humble
and dependent on God.
5.2 Jesus teaching on forgiveness
Jesus made
forgiveness sine qua non for effectiveness in prayer. The other, whether right
or wrong, we need to forgive the other however difficult it may be. Jesus was
asked as to how many times one should forgive the other who wrongs me. Seven
times? Jesus said, “seventy times seven.” All the time and then only one can
become the children of the heavenly father. Before offering anything to God, we
must get reconciled first. Jesus who preached on forgiveness while dying on the
cross prayed, “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.” (Lk 23:34)
6. Jesus evolved a new spirituality: challenge
and response
Not the out
side but the inside disposition will be accepted by God. When we pray we should
not do it for the notice of others; instead we must shut the door and pray and
the father who sees what you do in secret will reward you. When you give alms
and when you fast do not do it for publicity. His emphasis is on the interior
person. The outward observance is not important. Looking at a poor widow
putting her offering in the church, he appreciated her generosity though the
amount was insignificant. Because she contributed the mite of the widow; not
the amount but the disposition counted for him. Not the rituals; but worship in
sprit and truth; Love not in word and speech but in deed and truth. He believed in an all inclusive approach and
not exclusive approach. It is our attitude and inner disposition that will
count in the ultimate analysis. God cannot be bought by candles, flowers, money
or by external rituals and traditions. While observing different people
offering money, he pointed out the meager amount put by a widow and said she
has contributed the most as she did that from her necessity while other from
their surplus.
7.
Conclusion:
Bridging and bonding as we see God in the “other”.
Much of the world
problems could be overcome if we begin to see God in others and serve him. Temples, Churches,
Gurudwaras and Mosques are only means to reach God. Then, a new awareness of
the divine and human would emerge. The holier a person, the more sensitive
he/she would be to human needs. God does not need our worship in holy places as
much as he needs our service of him in others. Worship is service of others.
Because God is in the other. We would make this a better place if we treat the
other with love and respect as God does with each one of us irrespective of
religion, cast, creed and nationality. There is a story of a man who looked for
God on the mountain top and in the depth of the sea and failed to find him. At
last God appeared to him and said that he hid himself in human hearts, because
that is the last place man will search for him. If we can find God in the
other, we would deal with differently. And, as Samuel Johnson once said, "He who overvalues himself will
undervalue others, and he who undervalues others will suppress them." The
need of the hour is twofold: love and respect. If we could learn to love and
respect others in the midst of differences, we would create synergy that can
transform relationships and the world at large. New horizons of understanding,
peace and prosperity will emerge.
Notes and References:
1. The Synoptic have recorded many instances of this initiative of
Jesus. For example, Mt 8:14-17+Mk 1:29-34+Ll 4:38-41: Mt 8:28-34=Mk 5:1-20=Lk
8:26-39; Mt 12:9-14=Mk 3:16=Lk 6:6-11; Mt 14:13-21=Mk 6:30-44=Lk 9:10-17; Mt
14:22-33=Mk 6:45-52; Lk 7:11-17; 13:10-17; 19:1-10.
2. The respect and solidarity of Jesus with the Samaritans is quite
evident in John.
3. L. Morris, The Gopel according to John. NICNT, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1971, p. 226.
4. Samaria
and Samaritans have been favorably presented in John. Though the direct
involvement and connection of Jesus with the Samaritans has been just one event
in John, it is relatively a long narrative and a very significant one as a
model to the future mission of his disciples to the marginalized and to people
other than Jews. In addition to his Samaritan mission is John 4, Jesus is also
said to have retreated at a later time to a locale identified as Ephraim in Jn
9:54.
5. W. Munro, “The Pharisee and the Samaritan in John: Polar or
Parallel?” CBQ 57 (1995) P. 714.
6. G. R. O’day, The
Gospel of John. The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. IX. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995, p.571. O’day
suggests that Jn 4:4-42 can be helpfully read alongside the parable of the Good
Samaritan (Lk 10:29-37).
Luke presents the despised Samaritan as the neighbour, the agent of mercy in
the parable (Lk 10:37a). It is the Samaritan who touches the injured man’s
wounds and nurses him (Lk 10:34),
an open violation of the restriction against contact between Jews and
Samaritans (Jn4: 9c). Jan 4:4-42 also poses a similar challenge but in a more
radical form, because it is not a character in a parable who upsets social
conventions but Jesus himself. He treats the Samaritan woman –and later the
Samaritan villagers-as a full human being, worthy recipient of the grace of
God, not as the despised enemy to fear contamination from.
7. P. F. Ellis, The Genius of John: A Composition-Critical
Commentary on the Fourth Gospel. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1985,
pp.69-70.
8. Munro, op.cit., p. 714.
9. R. F. Collins, “The Representative Figures of the Fourth Gospel –
I,” The Downside Review, 94 (1976) p. 38.
10. F. J. Moloney, The Gospel of John. Sacra Pagina 4, Collegeville:
The Liturgical Press 1988, p. 44.
11. “R. E. Brown, The Gospel according to John, I-XII. New York: Doubleday,
1966, p. 11.
12. Culpepper through the chiastic structure
found in the Prologue (1:1-18) insists that
the pivot of the Prologue is the conferring of the status “children of
God”, which explains the mission of Jesus. See R.A. CULPEPPER, The Gospel and
Letters of John. Nashville:
Abington Press, 1998, p. 116.
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