Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - During the month of June, especially dedicated to the Devotion of the Sacred Heart, we, together with the Holy Father and all our Brothers and Sisters committed to the Apostleship of Prayer, focus our missionary prayer on the precise intention that the Christians of India who belong to various traditions. may be drawn to offer together a testimony of full unity and communion in the one spirit which guides them. Where two or three disciples of Jesus unite in prayer, with one mind and heart, Jesus is in their midst and prays with them to the Father that all may be one as Jesus and the Father are one (cfr. John 17).
This June we particularly pray for the Christians of India. They are some 23.4 million, but in a total population of over a billion, they amount only to a little over 2.3 . So they need to think of themselves as leaven in the dough and salt of the earth. They belong to various traditions. Some trace their faith back to the preaching of St. Thomas the Apostle whose tomb is venerated at Mylapore near Chennai (Madras). Others are related to the Portugal sponsored Catholic missionary movement starting in the sixteenth century from Goa which preserves the body of St. Francis Xavier. A great variety of protestant Christian denominations have followed the Anglicans one after the other, into India ever since the seventeenth century. The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw the miracle of the Catholic Mission among the indigenous people in the central eastern tribal belt, thanks to the fire lit by the Servant of God Father Constant Lievens, s.j., whose sacred remains are venerated in the Cathedral at Ranchi, Jharkhand, and whose motto was “fire must burn.”
Obviously the Christians of India belong to various traditions. The differences between them are considerable and these certainly affect their witnessing. Yet they all believe in their hearts and profess with their lips that Jesus is Lord and Saviour. It is he who unites them, some fully like the three different Catholic traditions (Latin, Malankar, Malabar) some in various degrees partially like the several Sister Churches and the many Ecclesial Communities. And his Spirit is at work among them all.
We know that “God our Saviour wills every one to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as ransom for all.” (1 Tim. 2:4-6) Jesus was well aware of the eager love of God and of his plan of salvation. He also saw the important role the disciples would play in order to bring the divine plan to a successful conclusion. He realised that any lack of unity and of communion among them would be counter-productive. But the presence of such unity and communion would show how much they love one another. And this testimony would convince thoughtful observers that it was indeed the Father who had sent Jesus. Only unity and communion in love will convince the world.
All this explains why we need to pray for the Christians of India who belong to so many various traditions so that they may gradually become more and more one. Only then will they offer together a testimony of full unity and communion. Without that testimony India will fail to recognise in Jesus the addressee and the answer to its inspired, deeply rooted and intensely felt prayer: “From unreality lead me to realty, from darkness lead me to light, from death lead me to immortality.” With that testimony India will reach its height of perfection and abundance of life.
This missionary intention for June may be seen as an Indian follow up of the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia which Pope John Paul II signed in New Delhi on 6 November1999 and personally handed over to representatives from all over Asia for implementation. Its Chapter 5 (number 24-31) is entirely concerned with Communion and Dialogue. Its Chapter VI (numbers. 32-41) deals with the service of human promotion. Both are to accompany the proclamation, and to facilitate the acceptance, of the gift of Jesus to India, to China, to all peoples of the continent. By joining the Holy Father in this missionary prayer intention we effectively contribute to the success of Jesus’ mission of love and service in India.
The Christians of India, precisely because of the great variety of their traditions, are in a privileged position to show that “at the heart of the mystery of the Church is the bond of communion which unites Christ the Bridegroom to all the baptised.... United to the Son in the Spirit’s bond of love, Christians are united to the Father, and from this communion flows the communion which Christians share with one another through Christ in the Holy Spirit.” (EA no. 24) Evidence of this is bound to bring enlightenment to many; surely this is something worth praying for. We invite all Christians “to join in a process of prayer and consultation in order to explore the possibilities of new ecumenical structures and associations to promote Christian unity.” (EA no 30) Archbishop Telesphore Toppo. (Fides Service 26/5/2003 EM lines 64 Words: 943)
