Bishop's Message - April 2025

Dearly beloved in Christ,

As we begin another month, with its promises and challenges, we may have to move with Christ to fill up His ministry in our diocese.

Life is a journey. Life is short. In our more reflective moments, we remember these truths. If life is a journey, should we not think about the fuel to fill our vehicles to reach the destination in this journey? The prayer is the fuel that gives life to us. Then the next question is  what is our eternal destination? That is to remain in the eternal body of Christ-the Church.

Almost two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth and founded the body of Christ, the Church through His Apostles and disciples, for continuing His ministry and to ensure the fruit of Christ’s redemptive acts to the whole created order including human beings.  In the years which followed, the Apostles spread the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Church far; they founded many churches, all united in faith, worship, and the partaking of the Mysteries of the Church.

The Church recognized the fact that it as a faith community could not exist meaningfully without reference to that larger community outside of it. They have also seen that the nurturing of the community as a ministry of the church. One of the most striking elements in the life of the Church is, its member’s sense of fellowship. They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teachings and fellowship (Acts 2; 42). This sense of fellowship expressed itself in the Jerusalem community in a distinctive way. They apparently characterized by many poor people, especially widows. They shared their possessions. None considered their property to be their own but to be used for the good of all. (Acts 2:45-47). So they have given much importance to the faith in their practice or doing good works as a manifestation of their faith. But they all stood under the spiritual authority of the apostles. They always upheld the following “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds...... Can such faith save him?.... In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:14-17).

However, today an astonishing number of religious groups claim to be the successors of the early Church. A yardstick for truth is needed by which to compare what the Church originally believed and practiced with what these groups proclaim. In the midst of the claims and counter clams let’s look in to the predicament of the people inside and outside of the church today?

There is an increasing marginalisation of the biblical faith from the mainstream of contemporary life. Most people including those who are inside the church see Christian life as a matter of adhering to routines and regulations, which are unrelated to the art of living. To them, spirituality has little to do with the challenges and possibilities of one’s predicament. The scope of Christian living is reduced to seeking favours from God, who is a non-partisan.

To the majority of the people, life is to live according the pressures and pulls of human nature and secular culture. However, the proof of the vitality of a spiritual tradition is the extent to which it empowers the most vulnerable section of a society or community. It is this insight that underlies Jesus’ announcement that he came to “to preach good news to the poor…to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to released the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (St Luke 4:16-17)

Metaphorically, vulnerability is the essence of poverty. Today, contrary to popular assumptions, the modern human is the most vulnerable one. The more privileged they are, the more vulnerable they tend to be; for they live in emotional, relational and spiritual deprivation. The worst part of this poverty is lack of awareness concerning it and the neglect it suffers.

Several factors responsible to this such as unprecedented affluence, ever-expanding boundaries of individual freedom, the collapse of moral norms under cultural pressures, perilous neglect of the logic of life, depletion of the sources for guidance and counseling, emergence of a culture of consumerism and indulgence, and so on.

Besides all these, there is something about the spirit of this age that is hostile to Christian living. The race in consumerist-materialism robs this generation of the leisure to be. Human beings, is too busy earning their livelihoods and the multiplication of its tools and toys, to enjoy the gift of life. Spiritually, this age is infected with the virus of alienation that seems to have plunged our generation in to an emotional peril.

There is an urgent need to address this situation. We need deliverance from it. Salvation is the divine gift through which we are delivered from sin and death, united to Christ, and brought into His eternal kingdom.  It demands our faith in Jesus Christ. We cannot save ourselves by our own good works. It is an ongoing, life-long process. In this process contemplative life would help us to get in to the real track of life, which bring us to the real destination. So our journey towards God should be a central concern of the Church and society. Here corporate worship and personal prayer should stem from the life situations of the people and the church should be in tune with the day today life of the people.  

In order to achieve this basically we must develop the discipline of prayer through fasting and self-control. Our life is a journey towards our ultimate destination. It is a process of Christian progress on the road to perfection in Christ, by cleansing the passions and the winning of the virtues, a process which takes place in a certain order. human does not become free and good like Jesus Christ until he learns to control his own inner drives and passions. According to the Eastern spirituality, restraint of hunger and thirst, of anger and jealousy, of sexual passions, of the desire for bodily excitement and for sensual stimulation , and of all inner turbulences which makes us to do things against our own free will is a necessary preparation for prayer.

 A prayer is like breathing. Without breathing we cannot live. When we breathe, air enters our lungs, cleanses the blood in our veins by relieving it of the Carbon Dioxide, and supplying it with Oxygen. If we do not breathe for a few minute s, we die.

Besides, we must note the fact that the prayer is communication with God. In this communication process the first focus is God. The second focus is our  neighbour and others in the mystical body of Christ – the Church and our position is only in the third place. Only in the third place should we ask things for ourselves. This is the way that the Lord has taught us. In the Lord’s Prayer all the first petitions are focussed on God-His name, His Kingdom, and His will. This is the way our prayer should also be.

There are two types of prayers- corporate prayer and personal prayer. In both prayers we are not alone. Not even alone with God. In a Corporate prayer in the Church we pray with all members of the mystical body of Christ.

Since prayer as an act of the whole personality, an act of the body, mind and spirit. The whole body, mind and spirit can participate in prayer through posture, speech and actions. Prayer life helps us to go forward from the cleansing of one passion, to the cleansing of another and the same to the acquiring of the different virtues. Thus a certain level of perfection is reached and culminates in love. Perfection is unlimited. Therefore perfection is the goal as well as it is an unending process.

The new way of life will enable us to live according directions form above instead of the pressures and pulls of human nature and secular culture.

May I therefore urge you to ensure our practice of family prayer, participation in the ministry of the church by offering your talents, resources and time voluntarily and communion participation.

My prayers and blessings are with you

Your’s in Christ’s Service

Rt. Rev. PD. Dr. Joseph Mar Ivanios Episcopa