The Essence of Christianity - Part 3
by P. Abraham Paul
Continued from previous edition: The Essence of Christianity - Part 3
The Final Judgment
We believe that when we are raised from death, we will be judged according to our deeds. First, to get a fair judgment, the Judge should know us either directly or through a mediator. Either way we should be known to the Judge. St. Mathew 7:23. ‘I never knew you.’ The most fearful words we would tremble to hear.
How can He know you? Or how can we know Him? We have to know Him before hand. We have to know Him here itself, in our earthly life. How? He knows only those who do His likings. What are his likings? St. Mathew 7:21 "Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who met only what my father in Heaven wants them to do."
Coming back again to the Lords saying; “It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.” It was the practice to offer sacrificial substitutes to absolve ones sins; big animals for big sins small animal or birds for smaller sins. All these changed with the coming of Jesus.
See what he said about the hypocrisies of the elites and the priestly classes of his time: “Your temples are empty and wasted as other than show of Priestly pride,
Political manipulations and falsified Prophesies, you do nothing good”.
And more of this you could see in the entire Chapter 23 in the book of St. Mathew.
“It is kindness that He want, not animal sacrifices.” What is kindness and which are the kind deeds? Look at what the good King said at the time of judgment: St: Mathew 25: 35-36 “I was hungry, you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was a stranger and you received me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick you took care of me, I was in prison you visited me.”
But then, kind deeds of where? Where can I find Him to know him and do these kind deeds? St. Mathew 25: 40. What you did for the least of your brethren, you did for Him.
Who is the least of our brethren? Where do we find them? He is every where; you just have to look for him. If you know any one of those people who is in need of you, then you saw him. May be a needy friend, may be someone who is very ill and no means of care and so on. Also it is said that “Charity begins at home.” May be there is one of your not-so-lucky dear ones or relatives, in some kind of difficulty and need some help. Just look around. You will find Him. May be through your church or a charitable institution that helps the needy is another way to find and reach him.
Eternal life: Living with God
What shall I do to earn eternal life and life with God? What are the things in our control to acquire eternal life? “It is kindness that He want, not animal sacrifices.”
We saw that Compassion, Kindness, and Love are the necessary ingredients for us to become His friend for a ‘Final Judgment’ in our favor. Then is “loving our neighbors as ourselves” enough to earn our Life in Heaven? Definitely not; it is only one part. The other part is equally important and indispensable to attain eternal life.
St. John 6: 56-58 and Mathew 26: 26-29 “This is my body and blood. Take part in this now and afterwards for the forgiveness of your sins.” So the other part is that we should instill His spirit in us. How? By consuming His Body and Blood as far as we live, for the forgiveness of our sins. But to make ourselves eligible to take part in his Body and Blood, we have to find Him here and become His friend with our love, compassion and kind deeds in this life.
It means that to get over the ‘Final Judgment’ and thereby to attain eternal life, our physical and spiritual actions in our earthly life shall go hand in hand as a continuous process and not one following other.
Heavenly Kingdom
Let us see his teachings as given in the Gospels, about the Heavenly kingdom and how we can acquire it. Kingdom of God is mentioned 80 times in the Gospels, few are quoted below.
St. Mathew 19: 17-21. You follow the commandments and then go and sell all you have, give it to the poor and then follow me. St. Mathew 20: 1-16 Heaven is like the one who hired workers at different times of the day but pays them the same wages. The parable of five wise girls in St. Mathew 25: 1-13, Parable of the wedding feast in St. Mathew 22: 2-14: and many more in St. Mathew Chapter 13: 3-52.
Through our discussions so far, we have seen that compassion, kindness, love and seeking God’s forgiveness are the necessary ingredients of the essence of Christianity and how these commandments of Christ correlates the situation in earthly life, death and situation after death.
Christ has made it very simple for us. He summed up the whole law in one commandment telling us in very simple terms: Love each other, have compassion on those who are in need of us. It is not for them. It is for our own benefit. It is for us, for knowing Him here by becoming His friend in our earthly life, to make our life useful and meaningful according to God’s wish and to pave our way to reach eternal life.
We may say - Okay, I am compassionate and I have the feeling of kindness about the needy. But I myself am always in want. What I can spare is only little and insignificant. Christ taught us that Kindness has no measure. The quantity is not important. See His teachings in following parables.
Luke 21: 3-4 The widow’s offering. “He said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God; but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had” So quantity is not important. Give from what you have. He never ever wanted us to bear any heavy burden beyond our means.
St. Mark 4: 30-32. Where unto shall we liken the Kingdom of God? He said “It is like this; A man takes a mustard seed, the smallest seed in the world, and plants it in the ground. After a while it grows up and becomes the biggest of all plants. It puts out such large branches that the birds come and makes nests in its shade.”
The small seed had finally turned out to be useful to many. Given all the materials and resources, can any of us in our lifetime, make a tree like the one God make out of a small seed. Why, even the smallest of God’s creations, is beyond our ability to make. Look at an ant, small as it is, can all of us joined together make one like that. And remember always what He said; “See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor, was never dressed like one of these.”
So the quantity is not that matters. Quantity is the work of God. We are trifle things. Our efforts cannot equal His. Greatness comes only from Him. What God want with us, is to do small things of good deeds according to our mite. Rest will be taken care of by Him.
St. Mark 4: 26-29 “Kingdom of God is like this. A man scatters seed in his field. The man sleeps in the night and up and about during the day. All the while the seed is sprouting and growing, yet the man does not know how it happens. When the corn is ripe the man starts cutting it with sickle because the harvest time has come.”
Luke 13:20-21 “What shall I compare the Kingdom of God. It is like this; A woman takes a very little quantity of yeast and mixes with 40 liters of flour and the entire dough rises.” Do in whatever little way we could; making it into great things is God’s work. God converts our small good deeds to much big things for the benefit of our heavenly life. We need not toil or worry further for that. Is it not fairly simple?
Luke 17: 20-21. The Kingdom of Heaven is here. “The Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say, look here it is or there it is, because the Kingdom of God is within you.” This is the most significant and revolutionary teaching of Christ about the Kingdom of God.
If we believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is here and within us, then it is valid during the phase of our life here. It means that we need to earn and own the Kingdom of Heaven here itself in our worldly life and thus pave way for our eternal life. How? By knowing Him here itself and become His friend by doing His likings in our earthly life. Whenever we do the little that we can, it will be multiplied many fold and given back to us and for our coming generations. If we do not ignore, overlook and go wasted the many chances that come across in our life for sharing what we can afford with the needy, we will get big yields for it later.
Is this very difficult to understand? When we lead our life with compassion, kindness and caring and sharing with the needy, we will be filled with self contention giving joy and happiness to our spirit. If we do not, with all the vanities we have and acquire, there will be only despair, sadness and emptiness about the future.
But then, do we take these simple and very practical teachings of Christ seriously, even though He made it so simple for us? If we are not, why it is so? It may not that most of us don’t believe in Christ and His teachings. Then why? Is it because we are not fully convinced of the meaning of life and the matters related to life after death? What about our life after our Job, and our old age situation. All of us do take care of it, by keeping aside something while we have? If we are doing this just for the few years of that later part of life we assume we would have, and then is it not worthy to safe guard for our eternal life, which could be done, may be with much less than the contribution to any superannuation fund and other instruments we adopt. Just think!!.
What will happen otherwise? Answer is simple. Existence in vanity is undeserving. Mark 11:13-14 “And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, happily he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.” That fig tree stood there in vain, thickly covered with leaves, out of place at wrong season. True that it was not the season for fruits. But then the tree had no reason to show off. Without producing fruits, its existence with thickly covered leaves was in vain and un-deserving. With this action of His, Jesus taught us that if our life is not useful to others, we do not deserve all the good things God provided us and to live elegantly in vanity. If we do not have compassion, our life is meaningless and we have no right to exist.
Let us not live in vanity like that undeserving tree. Let us strive to be fruitful and make ourselves deserving to live. Let us beseech the Lord to make us understand the Essence of Christianity and lead our life with compassion, kindness, love, and always seeking forgiveness for our sins, as taught to us by our master.
Safe guard our next generation: Some may say “It is my life, I have struggled to make it, let what may happen to it, why should anyone bother.” Please remember that effect of sin and the sadness and harm caused by it will not stop with us. It is proven that the bad effects are mapped onto our genes and passed in the DNA on to the next generations. Forget the liturgy and the teachings for a moment, but we have to believe this.
To sum up and conclude: According to me “The Essence of Christianity” means:-
1) Do not loose heart and do not live in despair thinking of our sins. Nobody is perfect. Seek forgiveness of our sins by true confession and take part regularly in Holy Communion.
2) The happening of Jesus Christ is the best thing ever occurred in this world. Believe in his teachings. Do not get carried away by disparate interpretations and many critical views about the validity of the ancient scriptures, the essence of orthodox faith confirming the life, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Christ, the doctrine of Trinity and the divinity of the Holy Mother. Learn and follow scriptures and religious teachings not only through its literal words but also by its effects and implications.
Teachings of Christ are continuous, permanent and relevant in every thing that matters in life. These were relevant 2000 year ago, it is valid now and it will be even more relevant in future to come. Jesus crossed every boundary of tribe, prejudice, gender, and religion shall be honored by all those who as his disciples.
3) Every true Christian believes that Jesus is our Lord and believes that he has mediated God in a powerful and unique way to human history.
Every true Christian believes that their particular life has been dramatically and decisively impacted not only by the life of Jesus, but also by his death and indeed by the aftermath of the happenings of Easter experience that Christians truly know and believe as resurrection.
Every true Christian believes that in Christ they discover a basis for meaning, for ethics, for prayer, for worship, and even for hope of life beyond the boundaries of their mortality. Christ has made everyone to understand God and the effects of God and the true meaning of the values of Life, Death and Life after Death.
A true Christian is the one who believe in Christ and have faith in his teachings, whichever be his worldly religion.
4) Christ has made things simple, easy and practical for us. The essence of His teachings are:-
a) We have a living God. He is always with us.
b) The Kingdom of Heaven is here because the Kingdom of God is within us.
c) Build our Heaven and pave way for eternal life here, in our worldly life.
d) To be favored in God’s final judgment, we should be known to Him. We need to know Him and become His friend here itself, in our earthly life.
e) God knows only those who do His likings. The way to do His liking and become His friend is by helping the least of our brethren.
f) We find the least our brethren everywhere; just we have to look for. If we know one of those people who are in need of us, then we saw him.
g) Give out to those in need what little we have according to our means. Rest will be taken care of by Him.
h) Quantity is not important. Our abilities are insignificant, Greatness is His.
i) Seek forgiveness of our sins and revive the Godly spirit in us making ourselves eligible to consume His Body and Blood and continue doing so.
“It is kindness that God want, not sacrifices.” Amen.
source: http://www.socdigest.org/articles/02jul07.html
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