The Journey 261
Read: Luke 22:
Yesterday was Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the Jewish New Year. According to the tradition of Jews, this is the celebration of the anniversary of the creation of the world, a day when God takes stock or judgment of all His creation including human beings, and this judgment determines the course of the coming year. Translated from Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means “head of the year”- “Rosh” means Head while “Hashanah” means Year. This celebration is has both festivity and seriousness associated with it. One of the important observance of this holiday is the blowing of the horn in the synagogue. According to the Jewish tradition about 100 notes are sounded each day. The observance of Rosh Hashanah is also a time of spiritual renewal done through prayer and deep personal reflection. This is also a time when families and friends get together, seek each others forgiveness and take a decision to make the new year better than the last. It is these decisions and realizations that will be weighed and judged and will ultimately result whether one receives eternal life or damnation on the Day of Atonement also known as Yom Kippur. In order to reverse a life that may be damned, the religious tradition of the Jews, tells them to take a spiritual journey consisting of three key elements. The first action is eshuvah which means repentance in life , while the second is tfiloh and this means having a prayerful life, while the third is tzedakah which means giving charity. The rabbis help the people to undertake this spiritual journey so that the life of every Jew is renewed and they are not condemned on the day of judgment. When we read this we all may be astounded at the similarities that exist between certain understanding of our Christian faith and Jewish Faith and these similarities comes about because of the common thread that we find in Old Testament, that tends to unite and bring similarities in these two faiths. At a time when a movie made in the United Sates that denigrates a particular faith, is wreaking havoc in many Muslim dominated countries resulting into loss of lives and also a means of persecution of innocents Christians, I think it is in such a context that we need to bring about harmony in the world and among the people of the world focusing on how certain unifying thread in each of our faith helps us to strengthen our relationship and fellowship. In the Gospel of Luke 22, we find Jesus celebrating the Passover meal. Jesus and his disciples come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover as required by the Torah. He also assigns two disciples to make the Passover preparations. This means they would have ritually clean the leaven, buy the necessary provisions like the Passover lamb. But Jesus transforms this Passover meal as a messianic meal that needs to be celebrated till the coming of the Kingdom of God. Thus the Passover feast becomes the redemptive act of Jesus Christ, for the whole humanity, through the shedding his blood and breaking of his body. Here is Jesus Christ transforming and also giving a new meaning to an existing celebration. At a time when the world is torn by strife's and animosity between people of different races, culture, creed and religion, what Jesus Christ is teaching us is to consciously use our celebrations and events more as a mark of redemption and transformation in the context of relationship and fellowship. Let every celebrations that people involve be made meaningful, bring about not only bring about transformation and spiritual renewal in the ones who celebrate but also become a means of bridging the divide that is happening in today’s world, thus bringing about a new paradigm of unity between people of different faith.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla
Yesterday was Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the Jewish New Year. According to the tradition of Jews, this is the celebration of the anniversary of the creation of the world, a day when God takes stock or judgment of all His creation including human beings, and this judgment determines the course of the coming year. Translated from Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means “head of the year”- “Rosh” means Head while “Hashanah” means Year. This celebration is has both festivity and seriousness associated with it. One of the important observance of this holiday is the blowing of the horn in the synagogue. According to the Jewish tradition about 100 notes are sounded each day. The observance of Rosh Hashanah is also a time of spiritual renewal done through prayer and deep personal reflection. This is also a time when families and friends get together, seek each others forgiveness and take a decision to make the new year better than the last. It is these decisions and realizations that will be weighed and judged and will ultimately result whether one receives eternal life or damnation on the Day of Atonement also known as Yom Kippur. In order to reverse a life that may be damned, the religious tradition of the Jews, tells them to take a spiritual journey consisting of three key elements. The first action is eshuvah which means repentance in life , while the second is tfiloh and this means having a prayerful life, while the third is tzedakah which means giving charity. The rabbis help the people to undertake this spiritual journey so that the life of every Jew is renewed and they are not condemned on the day of judgment. When we read this we all may be astounded at the similarities that exist between certain understanding of our Christian faith and Jewish Faith and these similarities comes about because of the common thread that we find in Old Testament, that tends to unite and bring similarities in these two faiths. At a time when a movie made in the United Sates that denigrates a particular faith, is wreaking havoc in many Muslim dominated countries resulting into loss of lives and also a means of persecution of innocents Christians, I think it is in such a context that we need to bring about harmony in the world and among the people of the world focusing on how certain unifying thread in each of our faith helps us to strengthen our relationship and fellowship. In the Gospel of Luke 22, we find Jesus celebrating the Passover meal. Jesus and his disciples come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover as required by the Torah. He also assigns two disciples to make the Passover preparations. This means they would have ritually clean the leaven, buy the necessary provisions like the Passover lamb. But Jesus transforms this Passover meal as a messianic meal that needs to be celebrated till the coming of the Kingdom of God. Thus the Passover feast becomes the redemptive act of Jesus Christ, for the whole humanity, through the shedding his blood and breaking of his body. Here is Jesus Christ transforming and also giving a new meaning to an existing celebration. At a time when the world is torn by strife's and animosity between people of different races, culture, creed and religion, what Jesus Christ is teaching us is to consciously use our celebrations and events more as a mark of redemption and transformation in the context of relationship and fellowship. Let every celebrations that people involve be made meaningful, bring about not only bring about transformation and spiritual renewal in the ones who celebrate but also become a means of bridging the divide that is happening in today’s world, thus bringing about a new paradigm of unity between people of different faith.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla