Christian Mission in the Multi-Religious Context

 

Christian Mission in the Multi-Religious Context

Fr Dr M. D. Thomas

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The word ‘mission’ has derived from the Christian tradition, definitely so. But, the word has travelled across civilizations, cultures and traditions. The word makes full sense in families, communities and nations, too. The word charges people up for a ‘special task’ in faiths, parties, campaigns and movements, as well. Obviously, the word stands for the ‘boosting spirit’ as a ‘call from above’, even a ‘call within a call’. Today, the universal word ‘mission’ stands for ‘commitment, quality, spirit, action’, and the like.

‘Vision’ precedes mission, always so. Mission proceeds from vision, too. In other words, there cannot be a mission without a vision. Further, vision starts with an idea. Idea has the power to change the world. Idea contains immense particles of ideals, principles and values. Idea is like a ‘spring’ and vision is like the ‘flow’ from the spring. Vision makes the mission happen. In fact, mission cannot be performed. Mission takes place by itself. Vision makes mission complete. Where there is vision, mission has to follow, too. 

Jesus Christ was and is the complete combination of vision and mission. He was the most revolutionary person the world has ever seen, in all dimensions and degrees. He was a singular incarnation of thought, word and deed. He was a perfect blend of divine and human proportions. No one ever has influenced the world so much as he has done. No wonder, he has the credit of having divided the human history into two halves, before Christ (BC) and after Christ (AD). He will continue to remain at the centre of humanity.  

Jesus conceived God as ‘Father’. He experienced him as ‘his’ Father and that of the whole humanity, of the entire creation, too. He presented to the world a ‘loving’ Father, who does not discriminate even between the righteous and the unrighteous, but ‘sends sunshine and rains upon both alike’. All human beings are sons and daughters of the same Father and are brothers and sisters, one to another. It is as if Jesus opened a ‘large umbrella’ of ‘family’ under which all the humans and the creation could gather.

The Second World Catholic Council of Vatican had a great realization. ‘Nostra Aetate’ is that luminous document, which took the Church ‘back to the roots’ of the vision and mission of Jesus. As per the new understanding, ‘if we Christians discriminate human beings in the name of faith, religion, gender, age, ethnicity, language, food habits, dress patterns, nationality, culture, social mores, and the like, we have no right to call God our Father’. Discrimination would render Christians faithless and unworthy of Jesus.   

The sublime insight of ‘Nostra Aetate’ (in our time) created a new awakening that Catholics have to engage with persons of other Christian communities and Christians have to get connected to people of all persuasions of faith, ideology and culture. This was a deep sight into the ‘all-inclusive values’ of Jesus. This consciousness paved the way for the ‘new wave of interfaith relations’ in the whole world. Pioneering a ‘culture of inter’ was the thrust of this mission, which was rooted in the vision of Jesus.

This was a ‘family culture’ launched for the world by Jesus. God as the ‘Father of all’ would mean human beings as ‘sons and daughters’ to him and ‘brothers and sisters’ to each other. The entire life and message of Jesus was oriented to establishing such a family. This is exactly what is clearly articulated in Maha Upanishad ‘vasudhaivkutumbakam’ (the earth/world is like a large/extended family). The inevitable condition attached to it is ‘udaarcharitanaam’ (wise, open and generous), like members of the same family. 

A few pronouncements of the Popes are highly motivating. Pope John XXIII stated, ‘we have to look at what unites people rather than what divides them’. ‘Man must meet man, nation meet nation, as brothers and sisters, as children of God’, added Pope Paul VI. Pope John Paul II exhorted, ‘by dialogue we let God be present in our midst, for as we open ourselves in dialogue to one another, we open ourselves to God’. ‘Religion should be what God intended it to be, a source of goodness, harmony and peace’, he added.

 

Pope Francis had a historical meeting in Abu Dhabi, on 04 February 2019, with Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayyib, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar,and the meeting was oriented to ‘world peace and living together’. Their2019 declaration on ‘human fraternity for world peace’ resulted in United Nations declaring 04 February as ‘International Day of Human Fraternity’. In these trying times, their ‘united voice to promote interfaith dialogue, mutual respect and understanding across the faith spectrum’isawfully laudable and remarkable.

 

The Encyclical ‘Fratelli Tuttti’, Fraternity and Social Friendship, by Pope Francis, is a milestone in the interfaith history of the world. The term ‘fratelli tutti’ comes from the ‘admonition’ of Saint Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) to his Franciscan brothers and sisters to ‘follow a way of life marked by the flavour of the Gospel’. ‘Fraternity and social friendship’ is the most down-to-earth way of performing ‘multi-religious dialogue and relations’ among people of all communities, a mission of the gospel par excellence.

Now, it doesn’t require a mention that Christian mission took off in the world amidst other religions. Christian mission grew up in the multi-religious context, too. The world society has multifarious religious traditions and Christians have to live and work in the context of religious and other diversities, eternally so. This is the genius of the Christian mission, too. Therefore, it is mandatory for every Christian to learn to acquire the maturity to meaningfully co-exist and live with people of all faiths, ideologies and cultures.

We know too well that, in our educational institutions, most of our teachers, students, friends and helpers hail from different backgrounds of faith. Our doctors, nurses, patients, neighbours, shop keepers, etc. belong to several religious and cultural traditions. Those who love and serve us and those who meet our needs from birth to death are of various religious and other affiliations. And it should become spontaneous for every one of us to reach out to every human being, irrespective of their religious and other belonging. 

What’s more, if we go deeper into the mysteries of life, air, water, earth, sky, mountain, valley, heat, cold, and the like, have no religion. Body, mind, heart and spirit are above religion, too.  Further, love, hate, service, friendship, freedom, equality, dignity, etc. defy religious categories. Values, though they hail from different pedestals, are universal in character and so they transcend boundaries. Most of all, God cannot be divided by religious lines. Hence, one has to imbibe the spirit of natural, human and divine sensibilities. 

For that reason, the Christian mission has to imbibe an ‘all-inclusive’ attitude to human beings and traditions of faith. ‘Sharing in’ the values of the other has to be complemented by ‘sharing with’ others the best of the values we have. The ‘culture of interfaith/multi-faith relations’ would demand entering into the ‘between’ or ‘among’ of human beings in the spirit of fraternity and social friendship. Mission is an ‘interactive’ reality and it has to be ‘mission among the people’. ‘Dovetailing’ with each other is the style of Christian mission that has to be lived in the multi-religious context, in line with the mind of Jesus, especially for the days and years to come.

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The author is Director of Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, social ethics, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past nearly 45 years. He pursues the above mission through lectures, articles, messages, books, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like. He could be contacted at ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’.