ക്രസ്തുമസ് വന്നാലും ഈസ്റ്റര് വന്നാലും ജോജിയച്ഛന്‍റെ ചെപ്പടിവിദൃ ക്ലാവര് തന്നേ!

By - Tom Varkey

This is in response to my friend who criticized me for being critical of Fr. Joji’s Easter sermon in which he manipulated biblical truths to suit his claver agenda. When our priests make statements from the pulpit that are almost totally contrary to Biblical truths that we have been taught by the Catholic Church over the years, as devout Catholics we have a duty to defend our faith.

On the very night that Fr. Joji stated that the foundation of our faith is the Resurrection, his counterpart priest in Coppell made a very similar one in Coppell. I was told that he stated that all what Jesus did in his life here on earth up and until Resurrection “should be bottled up and put away” because what really matters is only the resurrection. If this is right, it sounds even more scary than the statement Fr. Joji made. I am sure this is also carefully calculated to give more importance to the Mar Thoma Cross by increasing the importance of the Resurrection and to decrease the importance of the Crucifix by speaking disparagingly about the Crucifixion and death of Jesus.

It goes without saying that I feel compelled to speak up. It seems like age-old beliefs in the Catholic Church are being thrown out by the claver fanatics in the Syro-Malabar Church hierarchy to make them fit their emerging claver agenda. Remember how Baptism, Communion and Confirmation were all separate Sacraments and still are in the Latin Church, but have now been combined by the Syro-Malabar Church? Nobody spoke up and therefore it is becoming more and more common. Remember how Ash Wednesday has been changed to Ash Monday? Again changed by the claver fanatics to be different from the mainstream Catholic Church. Nobody spoke up and now it has settled itself to being Ash Monday. I do not like to see Good Friday being eliminated and only Easter being celebrated in the Syro-Malabar Church which is likely to happen if nobody speaks up when these claver fanatics change Biblical truths to suit their claver agenda. I am doing just that.

Analyzing it a little deeper, we have to realize that when Prophet Balaam went astray, it was a donkey that God used to put sense in the head of the runaway Prophet (Num. 22:28-31). In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that when Paul preached, the noble Bereans checked the scriptures to make sure that his preaching was in keeping with the Scriptures and that what he was preaching is accurate according to Scriptures. Thus if God used a donkey to bring a runaway Prophet back to his senses and the Bereans who were listening to Paul exercised their diligence to make sure that Paul’s preaching was in line with the Word of God, I don’t think it is inappropriate that I or anyone else who wants to make sure that our priests who preach from the pulpit check up on their statements. It becomes particularly important that we do this these days when preachers like Fr. Joji and the priest who gave the Easter message in Coppell have their minds stuck only on one thing – to implement their claver agenda at all costs. In 2 Pet. 3:17 Peter tells us to be aware of manipulators who manipulate the Word of God and be on guard. Based on what has happened to our Sacraments (3 of them combined into one) and the Ash Wednesday (being changed into Ash Monday) and what we heard in Coppell and Garland during the Easter messages of Fr. Joji and the priest in Coppell, we have every reason to be vigilant unless of course you don’t mind our Good Friday being done away with one of these days by these claver maniacs.

I am still trying to recover from the two Easter messages that were given in the two Dallas Syro-Malabar churches: Fr. Joji saying that the foundation of our faith is Resurrection and the priest who gave the sermon in Coppell saying that "ക്രിസ്തുവിന്‍റെ ഉദ്ധാനത്തിനു മുമ്പുള്ള മറ്റെല്ലാം ഉപ്പിട്ട് കുപ്പിയില്‍ വച്ചാല്‍ മതി". I see both these priests missing the boat on the Resurrection for the following reasons:

First of all in Gal. 6:14, Paul says to us that the only thing that we have to boast about Christ is His Cross which is the crucifix (not the Mar Thoma Cross by the way) because by this we are crucified to this world (and thus get connected with Christ). If we do not get crucified to this world and until we crucify ourselves to this world, we do not have any meaningful connection with Christ in the real sense of the term. That is why Paul again says in Phil. 3:10-11: "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." Paul wanted to be like Christ in His sufferings and His death because he believed that was the only way to attain his own resurection after his death.

If we in our lifetime do not conform to Christ in His death even though it may be in a much less degree than Christ, we have no hope to be part of his resurrection. In other words, Christ's crucifixion and death is the foundation of our faith which will make us worthy for our own resurrection. If we do not resurrect to be with Christ, Christ's own resurrection does not mean anything for us.

That is why also Paul says in 1 Cor. 2:2: "When I was with you, I was determined to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified." To know Christ is to know Him in His Crucifixion. If we pickle His crucifixion and put it away, we do not know Christ the way we should know him. And if we do not know Him, we will not go to heaven no matter how well we know about His Resurrection. Because we read in 2 Ths. 1:7-8: "And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.
"In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ". Jesus Christ is coming (in His second coming) to punish those who do not God (Him) and those who do not obey the Gospel. And we will be punished with the eternal fires of hell if we do not know him. There are several passages in the Bible to support this. In Mt. 7:22-23 Jesus says: "On that day, I will tell you, you evildoers, depart from me, I do not know you." Knowing about Resurrection alone will not help on that day to avoid the eternal fires of hell.

I did not mean to come down heavy on Fr. Joji or the other priest in Coppell who delivered the Easter messages. But as Paul says in his letter to Timothy, the church is and should be the pillar of truth. Therefore, when a priest errs so grossly on the foundation of our faith, I have to speak up and WILL speak up no matter how much people may hate me. This does not mean that I don't like Fr. Joji. When I met him in the hallway after the Easter service, I talked to him, and he was very sweet to me and talked very friendly to me. But I cannot compromise on the fundamentals of our faith especially when the claver fanatics minsinterpret it to suit their claver agenda.