By Fr. Domnic Emmanuel
Ablutions and bodily bath are absolutely necessary before one begins one’s prayers or worship, be it for the pujari (priest) or the devout faithful.
These rituals are so necessary that people are seen taking a dip in the river, even when it is almost freezing cold, as an act of making oneself worthy of participating in the worship as well as a symbolic act of cleansing oneself of one’s sins.
“Cleanliness is next to Godliness,” as an important lesson of living life and worshipping, and has been upheld by all religions.
The season of Advent that the Christian community observes for almost 25 days leading up to Christmas is an opportunity provided by the Church for the people to explore the outer surroundings as well as inner self to see if there is indeed a connect between the two.
Like at the time of Diwali, or Id, or other religious festivals, people invariably clean, whitewash and decorate their houses, Christians, too, do that as a buildup for the festive season.
Religious leaders, however, tell us that such external cleaning up of places is the easier part of the preparation for lofty celebrations of festivals.
The more difficult and certainly much more meaningful task is to have our inner selves cleansed by going to the extent of decorating our hearts and minds with spiritual whitewash and dainty divine flowers.
The Bible tells us that before Jesus could come on to the scene to start preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom, “John the Baptist began to baptise in the desert; he preached baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”. Quoting from the Book of Isaiah, he would exhort the crowds, “Let the people hear the voice in the desert.
Prepare the way of the Lord, level his paths. This preparing and levelling of paths, carried out with the sole purpose of welcoming the Lord Jesus is, in turn, achieved by repentance. For, it is by repenting and asking for forgiveness of sins, can one purge oneself to march towards inner purity.”
John then continues telling all those who came to listen to him and be baptised by him, “After me comes one (Jesus) who is more powerful than I am. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise with the Holy Spirit”.
Water is thus used as an external symbol for baptism, which is also necessary, but the inner cleansing is attained by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
“You are like white-washed sepulchers, which are clean from outside but are full of worms and filth inside,” is how Jesus in his preaching castigated those who paid too much attention to external cleanliness but neglected the inner purity and virtues.
Article credit: Deccan Chronicle
Father Dominic Emmanuel, a founder-member of Parliament of Religion, can be contacted at [email protected]