By Matters India Reporter
Varanasi, April 16, 2022: A group of 40 Hindu men and women on April 15, Good Friday enacted the Passion of Christ in the northern Indian city of Varanasi, the heartland of Hinduism.
“Varanasi presented a soothing picture of religious harmony, peace and love amid a gloomy scenario of communal polarization,” says Father Anand Mathew, the brain behind the program who directs Vishwa Jyoti Communications in Varanasi.
An estimated 12,000 people watched the play staged at Matri Dham Ashram, the renowned spirituality center where thousands of people from various faith communities gather in large number.
“The most unique aspect of this passion play was that it was performed as part of the Good Friday liturgy, substituting the traditional passion reading,” Father Mathew, a member of the Indian Missionary Society, told Matters India April 16.
Mukesh Jhanjharwala, who played Jesus Christ, has been performing that role since 2002. He is a practicing Hindu by faith, but has devotion to Christ and respect for the Christian community, Father Mathew explained.
The roles of chief priests Annas and Caiphas were performed by Sandeep Kumar and Ranjeet Kumar. Pramod Patel, another Hindu who performed as Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, was seen sobbing, behind the curtain, after condemning Jesus to crucifixion, Father Mathew said.
The 135-minute play began with Judas conspiring with the chief priests for the arrest of Jesus. Other scenes included Jesus’s entry into the garden of Gethsemane with his three beloved disciples, his prayer and arrest.
In another scene, Jesus was dragged into Sanhedrin where the religious leaders debated for and against Jesus. He is then examined by Pilate under the pressure of the religious leaders and the crowd of Jewish people.
The play also included the Stations of the Cross, during which the devotees repeated prayers.
Scenes also included the seven words uttered from the Cross by Jesus, his death on the Cross, the lowering of the body and placing it in the tomb.
“The scenes moved the audience to tears and sobs,” Father Mathew said.
The priest said the play’s script is a synthesis of the passion narration in the four gospels, with lyrics sung with melody and melancholy.
Pooja Patel and Manisha Pal who performed in the enactment, testified that they walked with Jesus carrying their sufferings and pain on his back, and that consoled and empowered them to accept suffering as part of their journey to salvation.
Ravikant said Good Friday is an occasion to renew his commitment to love others as Jesus lived his sacrificial love on the Cross.
This enactment was preceded by exhortation by Indian Missionary Society Father Anildev, who narrated the meaning of suffering with his own life testimony.
The play was followed by veneration of the cross held at various spots, because of the large number of devotees. The ceremonies, which began at 10 am ended at 4:30 p.m.
Congratulations! Happy to know the great work of inter-religious unity and collaboration. This is very important in a society that is very much divided in the name of religion. Greetings from Uganda, East Africa!!
Isaac has made a passionate appeal that Catholic Church need to exist for the well being of parishioners. We need to take our folks along.
The synergy that exists in every parish can bring together well off parishioners along with the priestly establishment to ensure no Catholic lives in poverty in each parish.
As for resurrection, I have a complaint against Jesus. Why didn’t he appear to his tormentors, high priest, Pilot and to all those who had shouted crucify him. Those who saw him were all his hangers ons.
Today’s Christians would then have been spared of the agony to prove his resurrection by.having to resort to things like Shroud of Turin. I plan to ask him this when I spring out from my grave.
The other day after a long time, I visited a priest friend of mine. He is young, vibrant and always thinks out-of-the-box especially for the uplift and dignity of disadvantaged Christian students. Obviously he ruffled a few feathers (as Christ did to the High Priests), got stifled a la Abhimanyu of Mahabharata and paid the price. During our interaction, he made some telling revelations. He said many priests of today do not care to study much. Their knowledge even of spiritual matters is shallow/half-baked except on the latest gadgets! He said many priests would flounder on two questions: (1) What were the last seven utterances of Jesus from His Cross? (2) Why do we have 14 Stations of the Cross?
The sayings of Jesus on the cross are seven expressions biblically attributed to Jesus during his crucifixion. Traditionally, the brief sayings have been called “words”. In the following table, the seven sayings are arranged from each of the four canonical gospels. They were:
1. Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. (Luke 23:34)
2. Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43)
3. Woman, behold thy son! and Behold thy mother! (John 19:26–27)
4. Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?
(My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?) (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34)
5. I thirst. 19:28
6. It is finished. (John 19:30)
7. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. (John 23:46)
We might equate “I thirst” with Christ’s call to us to end “hunger and malnutrition” starting in each parish in our Archdiocese and in all the dioceses of our country. It could be a unified move by all the parishes in each 174+ Catholic Diocese, and much more. “I thirst” also means “thirst for justice and righteousness,” and not to stifle those who speak out against injustice in the country including our church institutions – instances of injustice which result in the loss of students, teachers, and young priests & nuns (including being pushed-into-the-well phenomenon of Kerala).
Carrying the Cross does not always mean heavy burden and perennial sorrow. It symbolises the constant struggle of ordinary persons to improve their life situations; it means a continuing effort to hone our skills and stretching ourselves to discover our immense potential. By the way, my priest friend suggested all priests (and nuns too?) must spend at least one year outside their comfort zones to gain first-hand experience of the daily grind of Laity life. This will make priests who behave like corporate honchos and don’t meet members of the laity without prior appointment, understand how hard it is to earn even Rs 100/- with the sweat of one’s brow. My priest friend has experienced this first-hand.
He also said many priests are eager to get plum posts (Parish Priest, School Principal) and on getting one, they give top priority to worldly affairs (land & buildings, fixed deposits, etc.) relegating spirituality and “daily emptying of oneself” before going to bed to the back burner. He opined that priests and nuns need to be trained in various skills to earn a living in the fiercely competitive world, when they dare to come out of their walled zone into the milieu of real world.
From the significance of Crucifixion in our daily lives, let’s shift our attention to His Resurrection. Resurrection is Jesus’s victory over death and evil once and for all. Resurrection is the centre-point of Christianity. Without this, there would be no Christianity. Resurrection also means using the Church’s resources for Human Resource Development and make a vibrant church, a Community of Communities; to actively encourage the Laity to go in for Professional Courses; to ensure our Christian students get admission to high-priced-self-financed college/university courses (after all what are our Minority Institutes for if not for our own students? The current ratio of Christian students in our own institutions is appalling – not even 10 Christian students out of 100!); to pay employees fair & humane salary in church institutions and not to deprive them of PF, Medicals/ESI and paid leave; to ensure no Christian is driven to dying-destitute state; to make a constant endeavour to uplift the dignity of poor/not well-to-do students and implement Mother-and-Child Health in each parish; and much more! Resurrection is eternal hope with infinite possibilities.
This is very much required under the present situation where head is ruling the heart
Congratulations to Anand and his team at Vishwa Jyoti are always searching for creative ways s to spread communal harmony…
May your efforts bear fruit..