A man from the distant land...

Who would want to take months on end to travel to an unknown place thousands of Kilometres away from one’s hometown? It is not just travelling to the new place full of people of various mixed races with different languages, different cultures, customs religions and values, but also about living there till the end of one’s life never returning to the place from where one set forth.

For some, it may sound as a bizarre idea and for the adventurists out there it might sound interesting. But mind you, I am not talking about a fully planned adventure trip here, where everything is insured and taken care of by someone.

I am talking about those missionaries from around the world who left their loved ones and their secure lives behind to explore the unknown with a diehard spirit. In particular I am talking about a person called Thomas who lived in the first century AD. He was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Thomas would have been an ordinary man with his “limited faith” and all. But Jesus could use this same doubting man to set about on a noble mission. His mission was to spread the Gospel. Don’t read it as any sort of religious conversion or the so-called evangelisation. That may not have been his task. After all he had lived with Jesus, unlike people like Paul. His job was simple - to spread the love that he had seen in Jesus. Love for each other, love for the marginalised, love for the suffering, love for the ecosystem... Jesus had shown them how to convert this love into action where it turns into care and mutual help. His mission may not have been to create a community of greedy people who do nothing but keep asking for more in the comforts and confines of their church buildings.

[St. Thomas Mount, Chennai. Photo: Juby John Eipe]

I believe that life should be as much action oriented as it should be prayer oriented. One should definitely find time to reflect on one’s actions and check whether the objective is the common good of all. One should find time to meditate and source the energy to do one’s duties during the day. One is never going to be part of the Heaven that was promised if all that one does is “keep praising” God in the church. The fellowship in the church should instead translate into actions of love, care and support to not just the members of the church but to the community outside the church.

Coming back to Thomas, he went around the state with his own mission where he spread that love of God until he was murdered while he was praying. There is nothing dramatic in that. I am though not too sure what the reason for killing him was. Like Jesus, he might have shaken the foundations of those hypocritical establishments, systems and groups, who thought he was becoming too dangerous a threat.

[Photo: Juby John Eipe]

This photo here was taken inside the church that was built over this simple man’s tomb. Even though the stained glass is a paradox in the context of any church, it just looks so beautiful. As simple as that!

And by the way, Jesus would have never wanted all those violence in his name, during the crusade, the holocaust, in Ireland and in the God's Own Country where different "Christian" groups fight among themselves. He just taught the message of unconditional love, peace and selfless service.