Love has no adjectives like Christian, Hindu or Muslim, said the head of the Malankara Orthodox Church (Indian Orthodox Church) while addressing leaders of different religions in the city.
“Love has no adjective like Christian love, Muslim love or Hindu love. No discrimination like that. Whatever love is manifested by any religion that is love, divine love. That love should be manifested....it should come to reality,” said His Holiness Baselios Marthoma Mathews III, Catholicos of the East & Malankara Metropolitan.
On Saturday evening, he was speaking at an inter-religious meet organised as part of the two-day diamond jubilee celebration of Calcutta St. Thomas Orthodox Cathedral in Taltala.
“There is one religion, that religion is the religion of love... If that love can be manifested then we are really divine people, neither Christian nor Hindu nor Muslim.. all our religions could come together and sit together and think together to find out how we can manifest divine love, not Christian love, not Muslim love...there is no love like Christian or Muslim or Hindu. Only love. Whatever it is, it is divine love, love from God. We all worship one God,” he said.
Later at a news conference, the Catholicos said that his message was that one has the freedom to believe in any religion.
“You have every freedom to believe in any religion. You have every freedom to propagate your religion. But you have no freedom to crumble anybody else in this world to become your own member of the religion,” he said.
Not being tolerant of others “is against your own religion”, he said.
“None of the religions, neither Muslims, nor Christians nor Hindus, never advocates” that. “All religions are there in Indian society for many years,” he said.
The Catholicos referred to the disparity between the rich and the poor in India and how the privileged exploit the marginalised and lack of education aids that exploitation.
He said that the Preamble to the Constitution talks about justice, peace, equality and fraternity, which are often not very apparent in today’s India.
The Church leader is not very optimistic about political parties.
“They (political parties) are not living for the nation. They are not working for the nation. They are working for their party. How to make the party bigger. How to make the party rule over India, one state or another state. That is all their interest. It is the duty of the religions.... It is written in all scriptures, whether Upanishads, Vedas, Quran or Bible. In all our scriptures fraternity is the basic aspect,” he said.
In his audience were Catholic and Jesuit priests, representatives of a Hindu temple and members of the Muslim community.
Calcutta St. Thomas Orthodox Church is celebrating its diamond jubilee.
Under the Kolkata diocese, they have 38 schools, one engineering college and three arts and science colleges.
Calcutta St. Thomas Orthodox Cathedral came into being in 1947 under the diocese of Kolkata and belongs to the Malankara Orthodox Church.
The Malankara Orthodox Church (Indian Orthodox Church) was established by the blessing of the Almighty through the Apostle St. Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus Christ in AD-52.
The Malankara Orthodox Church (Indian Orthodox Church) is headquartered in Kottayam in Kerala.
“The Malayali community had a proud fellowship. I still remember when I visited first in 1997, this Church had 350 families. Now, we are reduced to 85 families,” said His Grace Alexios Mar Eusebius, Diocesan Metropolitan-Kolkata.
