SAMUEL
RAYAN
Samuel Rayan,
an Indian Jesuit theologian was born on 23 July 1920 at Kumbalam in Kollam
District, Kerala into a family of eight children. He was a graduate
in Malayalam literature (Kerala); in philosophy (Madurai); theology (Pune);
doctorate in theology (Rome). He worked as student chaplain. In 1939 Rayan
entered Jesuit order. He was ordained priest on March 24, 1955. He was a member
of the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches from
1968-1984; teaches systematic theology in the Jesuit Faculty of Theology in
Delhi; active in the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians;
co-editor of Jeevadhara. His writings were: Breath of Fire: The Holy Spirit:
Heart of the Christian Gospel and The
Holy Spirit: Heart of the Gospel and Christian Hope.
Being a radical humanist, Rayan
is convinced that the human person in community is the object of God's special
love. Rayan speaks for care of the earth, concern for life and commitment to
people. For Rayan the central mission of the Christian faith is its insertion
into the concrete and daily life of the people, especially of the most
marginalized and oppressed members of the social body. As Rayan says,
“Rice is for
sharing, bread must be broken and given. Every bowl, every belly shall have its
fill, to leave a single bowl unfilled is to rob history of its meaning; to grab
many a bowl for myself is to empty history of God.”
Rayan's God is a God of life
and hope. He draws on the richness of India's great religious traditions and
finds therein a deep respect for the human person and humanity, which is the
core of his theology. His humanism can thus be called an Indian humanism. This
humanism has at its heart a concern for social justice and the uplift of the
poor and marginalized, without which religion in India would be mere empty
rhetoric.[1]
Rayan says that, in a country
like India where we have discrimination of people based on their caste, we have
a friend of the outcaste, a person named Jesus, who set aside the entire system
of taboos based on the ideas of purity and pollution of races, contacts, and
occupations. He further says that if Jesus were here in India, we would have to
look for him in the huts of the dalits, in the colonies of outcasts outside the
village. Jesus comes as a new vine pouring itself into the old vine skins of
our stupid prejudices and heartless traditions in order to explode them and
make room for the new world that free and equal men and women can create. In
the Song of Mary narrated by Luke, sung by the working-class woman whose son
was oppressed and killed by the ruling class for the stand he took on behalf of
the outcast masses of the people, God is the one who dethrones the ruling class
and high castes and puts the dalits in charge of history. The myth of pure
ancestry too is unmasked in Jesus, who says that anyone who does God’s will is
his brother, sister and mother. [2]
The fact that Jesus is one of the
oppressed, and God in him is made an outcast, pleads with our hearts to be
converted from caste practices and be cleansed of caste mentality. Let our mind
and spirit reflect Jesus’, “who did not cling to his equality with God but
emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave.” Solidarity with the
downtrodden is an essential constituent of the Christian church. It is in
choosing to be identified that the coming kingdom is discerned, met and served.
It is in their life, suffering, and struggles sincerely shared that we meet
Jesus.[3]
[2] Rayan, Samuel. “Outside the
Gate, Sharing the Insult”, in Leave the
Temple: Indian Paths to Human Liberation, ed. Felix Wilfred (Trichy: Carmel
Publications, 1996), p 134-136.
[3] Ibid., 142-143.
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