What is behind Saintliness?

Prof. Dr. M. P. Mathai

A summary of the speech made at St.Gregorios Orthodox Church in Houston TX on Nov 11, 2006

 I am happy to be here in St. Gregorios church with you all today when you are celebrating Parumala Thirumeni’s Perunnal. I take this opportunity to pay my prayerful tributes to the hallowed memory of this great saint of Malankara. I believe that this perunnal offers us a precious opportunity to think about what really made Parumala Thirumeni a saint. I believe you will agree with me that Parumala Thirumeni’s saintliness was rooted in a spiritual power that he attained through a life of intense prayer.  

This would lead us to the question of what is prayer, and how we should pray to attain spiritual accomplishments. For Christians, the supreme example of prayer is the one that Jesus taught his disciples, the Lord’s Prayer. Although we Christians repeat this prayer almost ad infinitum, I don’t think we ever try to understand the real meaning and deep significance of this prayer of prayers. I believe that the Lord’s Prayer provides a kind of Meta paradigm of prayer, having a deep structure, and a careful deconstruction of its deep structure would enable us to develop the right attitude towards prayer and construct a life of prayer.  

It may be said that every prayer is a petition. In the Christian tradition petitioning is a vital part of prayer. But the question arises: What shall we petition for? And is there a priority for this endless list of “give us”? Here again we have to turn to the Lord’s Prayer for guidance. 

What I consider to be the most important insight in the Lord’s Prayer is that it is a prayer for US and not for ME i.e., for humanity and not for the individual. The subject is plural and not singular. Note that nothing is sought for the individual person. Turn inside and ask: whom do we pray for? 

The first thing we ask for in Lord’s Prayer is: Thy kingdom come! Actually this should be the be-all and end-all of our prayer. It is our earnest wish and prayer that a new heaven and a new earth be created here in our midst. This should be the first thing that we ask for. It is really a petition for the COMMON GOOD. Jesus was making it unequivocally clear that common good should precede individual good. It is important to remember here what Jesus said elsewhere: Seek you first the kingdom of God and every thing else will be added unto it.  

The second thing sought for is: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The new era or millennium that we long for and try to build in our midst shall be totally in tune with God’s will and plan. Any thing that is not in conformity with God’s grand design has, at best, only a very short life and will collapse like a pack of cards. We have seen empires and socialist republics crumbling down as they ignored the unifying principle of dharma that should form the very foundation of a world order. When we have a sincere and earnest wish for God’s will prevailing in our lives and in the world, and as we try to achieve the same, life gets transformed. People usually want their own will to be done not only in their own lives but in the lives of the communities as well. Saints were those who surrendered their own will totally to the will of the Almighty, by emptying themselves completely and reducing themselves to mere cyphers.  

Humans, of course, have their physical existence and, therefore, have material needs. And there is a genuine need for material goods and services. But how much do we really need and how much shall we ask for? If we are men and women of faith i.e., if we have a living faith in God’s dispensation, we shall ask for only our daily bread: “Give us this day our daily bread.” If we really believe that God knows what we really need and is capable of taking care of the welfare of His creations, this is all we need to ask for. Let us do an earnest soul-searching and examine the nature of our petitions/demands before God, and assess whether they are in tune with the spirit of what Jesus has taught us. 

The next blessing we ask for is God’s forgiveness for our trespasses. Weak as human nature is, it is only natural that we trespass the divine injunctions and transgress His laws. We commit violations. So we need and, therefore, seek forgiveness. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”, we pray.  Before asking God to forgive us, we must have forgiven our fellow-beings. Forgiving those against whom we have anger, those who have offended us, is a sine qua non – an essential pre-condition --   for gaining eligibility to seek God’s forgiveness. It is implied that if we are not willing to forgive our fellow-beings, we cannot expect God to forgive us. This constitutes the first and foremost of Christian ethical principle. 

The world today, more than any other period in human history, is full of tempting things and forces. We are pushed and pulled from all around. I need not have to elaborate on that as you are experiencing them much more than any others. So the prayer ‘lead us not into temptation’ and ‘deliver us from (the worst of tempters, namely) evil’ assumes a special contextual significance in the contemporary world situation. Unless we acquire the strength (achieved through prayer) to extricate ourselves from these temptations we will be condemned to a life of rudderless ship in a stormy ocean, an ocean of sensuous enjoyment and vulgar ostentation.   

Devotion is an intense feeling of attachment to God. It is a kind of God-intoxication, for many. Love is its basis. Jesus had pointed out that love of God and love of fellow human beings constitutes the quintessence of the laws. Devotion or bhakti, therefore, is an expression of our love of God and our fellow-beings. Devotion is not only vertical, it is also horizontal-- it has to be so. Real devotion is such, and it is a mark of saintliness. Parumala Thirumeni was such a God-oriented and God-saturated person. People’s devotion to Parumala Thirumeni also seems to scale new heights. However, in today’s world we see around us a lot of fake and shallow devotion which is not an expression of a true love of God or one’s fellow human beings. In the age of global economic- marketisation, bhakti is also getting commoditized. Sometimes, devotion is even vulgarized and people use it as a means for gaining selfish ends.  

I believe we need to make occasions like this to critically examine our traditions and practices. This I believe would only strengthen our faith tradition. It is important to remember that Jesus was not a conformist. Not only did he think critically, but also encouraged people to do so. His was a faith praxis. That was why and how a new testament could be created. It is our responsibility in the present times to carry forward this vital mission of our lord Jesus both within our community and in the larger world without.

Summary written by Prof. Dr. M. P. Mathai