Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,

May the peace of Christ be with us all and may we all become the instruments of peace.

With much anguish and pain in my heart I write this open letter to you. I am not a religious leader or a scholar, nor do I have any authority. But I do have deep concern and love for my Christian brothers and sisters, the people of India and the world. As I read about the violence committed against Christians in various parts India—innocent people killed, churches burnt and destroyed, nuns raped, people made homeless and driven into the forest—my heart bleeds for them. I pray for all these people and their families, and I ask God to grant them consolation and peace.

My heart also goes out to the people who perpetrated this violence. No one who indulges in violence can have peace of mind. Violence breeds violence. I pray that God also grant them peace in their hearts. Let us forgive them with the heart of Jesus Christ, who asked God to forgive those who did violence to him. Let us also ask God to forgive us if we have offended others’ religious sentiments consciously or unconsciously.

These incidents should also make us to reflect on the will of God—on the will of Christ—for our times. I recently took park in a conference in Italy on the theme “Becoming the Good News of Christ.” I was asked to offer my thoughts on this subject. As I remembered the violence directed against Indian Christians, who are accused of performing marvelous and heroic humanitarian service only in order to convert the recipients to Christianity (whether there is any truth in this only God knows), I wondered what it means to become the good news of Christ today.

It is very painful to see people indulging in violence in the name of religion, for the essence of every religion is non-violence and peace. As someone trying to follow the path of Christ to God, I asked myself how it could possible happen that preaching the message of Christ would lead to violence. After all, Jesus Christ is peace, his message is peace, and he proclaimed peace. Jesus offered this peace to his time by breaking down the wall between the Jews and the Gentiles and by proclaiming one God and one humanity. Why has our preaching of Christ’s message provoked division and exclusion? These questions led me to reflect on the possibility of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ without engaging in the mission of conversion.

I have been a student of interreligious dialogue, particularly Hindu-Christian dialogue, and I realized that the essential teachings of the Upanishadic sages and the teachings of Christ are very similar, though there are some basic differences, such as Karma and reincarnation, which need to be discussed and understood at their deepest level. Like Jesus Christ, the Upanishadic sages were universal spirits transcending any particular labels. I have to acknowledge the fact that studying Hindu scriptures and philosophy helped me to understand Christ better.

Many Christians are ignorant of Hindu Wisdom and tend to misinterpret the symbolism of Hindu tradition. We cannot blame them for this, for they have been conditioned to think this way. I began to realize that our interpretation of Christ is very narrow and exclusive, and that this way of understanding the words of Christ does not do justice to his all-inclusive and universal message. I began to realize that Jesus Christ is not identical with Christianity and that different Christian churches are different interpretations of Jesus Christ and his message. Christianity is not a monolithic religion; even though all Christians accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, there are many divisions within the Christian fold.

My study of the Hindu scriptures led me to think that sharing the good news of Christ today is not about converting people from other religions but about having a genuine and sincere dialogue with them. Preaching the Gospel means recognizing the plan of God in every religion and learning from one another.

Christians need to reinterpret two key statements of Jesus: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me“ (John 14.6) and “Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation“ (Mk.16.15). These two statements have been understood in an exclusive way to mean that Jesus Christ is the only way to God and that Christians are supposed to convert people to Christ or Christianity. I personally came to the conclusion that this way of interpreting these two statements of Jesus does not do justice to the all-inclusive and universal message he proclaimed.

Christians have traditionally understood these two statements of Jesus in a restrictive rather than an inclusive sense. Of course it will be very difficult for Christians even to conceive of an interpretation different from that which has been in place for two thousand years, but we must do so if we want to do justice to Christ and become instruments of peace.

To interpret the words of Jesus in a way that is faithful to his message, I believe we need to employ the following criteria. Our interpretation must be

Universally valid
Unifying
Liberating
Making growth possible
Reasonable
Open to a new understanding that fulfills the above five criteria

The way we have interpreted these two statements of Jesus does not satisfy these criteria. It is not enough to believe that Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace; our belief should be such that it promotes peace within and without.

At that conference in Italy I presented the following points in response to the question of what it means to become the good news of Christ for our times.

To become the good news of Christ for our times means becoming like Christ, becoming the Kingdom of God. This, in turn, means discovering the universal presence of God and the unity of humanity with God. Jesus proclaimed his good news saying, “The Kingdom of God is at hand, repent” (Mark 1:15). By this he meant that God is everywhere and that everyone and everything is in God. To repent is to discover this truth.

To become the good news of Christ for our times means becoming instruments of peace. Jesus is peace and his message is peace. To become instruments of peace we need to be free from any ambition of expanding our boundaries and increasing our numbers. Rather, we must see everyone as already being in the Kingdom of God and help them to discover this truth. We need to renounce religious conversions. Where there is a mission to convert there is violence within, and this violence produces violence outside. With this inner violence we cannot become instruments of peace.

To become the good news of Christ for our times means transforming our understanding of religious identities or boundaries, seeing them as functional rather than essential. We are not to identify with the means but are to focus on the end, namely, our unity with God. Instead of saying, “I am a Christian” I prefer to say, “I am journeying to God through the path of Christ.” For example, if I travel to London on Air India, I do not say, “I am Air India,” but “I am flying on Air India.” When the means becomes one’s identity, there is an essential boundary, and where there is an essential boundary (not a functional one, which is indeed necessary) there is potential for conflict and violence.

To become the good news of Christ for our times means becoming seekers of the Kingdom of God, rather than simply being believers in the Kingdom of God. This transition from being believers to seekers is very important today. Thinking of ourselves as believers is the source of conflict and violence. Jesus said, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and all things will be given unto you" (Matthew 6:33). Believing is only the starting point. We also need to have an inclusive vision of what it means to be a Christian. A Christian is not just one who believes in Christ, but anyone who is searching for Truth or God or the Kingdom of God.

To become the good news of Christ for our times means becoming who we already are. Our spiritual journey is to discover our deepest reality and not to become something. Jesus said, “You are the Light of the World“ (Mt. 5.14). We need to discover this truth for ourselves and help others to discover it.

To become the good news of Christ for our times means becoming the way, the truth and the life, just as Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. This way is not exclusive. Like a tree trunk that holds all the branches and the leaves, this way includes all ways, truths, and ways of life, while at the same time transcending them. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me“ (John 14:6). In order enter into God we need to transcend the conditioned truth that is present at the level of the branches and enter into the trunk, which is the unconditioned truth. The “way” is the movement from the conditioned truth to the unconditioned truth. This is the way Jesus followed, and it is is the only way for everyone.

To become the good news of Christ for our times means realizing that there is only one way to God, and that this one way is purifying our ego and surrendering to God in order to become an instrument of God. Every religion does this in its unique way, including Christianity. Jesus said, “If you lose your `self` (your conditioned self or ego) you gain your `self’ (your unconditioned or true self). If you hold or gain your ´self´ (conditioned self or ego), you will lose your ´self` (unconditioned self or true self)” (see Luke 9:23-24).

To become the good news of Christ for our times means recognizing that every religion is a gift from God to humanity, and that every scripture reveals the will of God, though each is conditioned according to the times in which it was revealed. We need to be open to understand the will of God for our times. The will of God is not static but dynamic.

To become the good news of Christ for our times means embracing within ourselves a radical love of God and a radical love of neighbor, recognizing Jesus Christ as the archetype of this radical love. “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) and “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters that you do unto me“ (Matthew 25:40) are two pillars of Jesus’ experience and message. The Eucharist is the symbol of this radical love.

To become the good news of Christ for our times means building harmony between our creation (cosmos), humanity (anthropos), and God (theos).

To become the good news of Christ for our times means proclaiming the good news of Christ to the whole creation and not just to human beings. Jesus said, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation“ (Mark 16:15). We need to proclaim to every human being that he/she is the manifestation of God, and to every creature that it, too, is the manifestation of God. We need to realize this essential truth for ourselves and proclaim it to others.

To become the good news of Christ for our times means making possible for everyone Jesus’ experience of being one with the Father (God): “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).

To become the good news of Christ for our times means identifying with the poor and suffering humanity and giving them the message of hope and liberation. Jesus identified with the message of Isaiah: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor; he has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed“ (Luke 4:18).

To become the good news of Christ for our times means becoming humble by acknowledging that we are all interconnected and that what we are now is a gift from others. We need to serve others in love and compassion. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples as an effective symbol of humility and service (John 13:14).

To become the good news of Christ for our times means affirming that God or Truth is greater than religions. Human beings at their deepest level are greater than religions. Religions are meant to be at the service of human beings, and not human beings at the service of religion. “The Sabbath is made for humanity and not humanity for the sake of the Sabbath,” said Jesus (Matthew 12:8). When Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” he was affirming this basic truth. Violence comes when people serve religions.

To become the good news of Christ for our times means transforming religions into nests where human beings are born, protected, nourished, and given security until their wings are grown, and then helping them move into the freedom of the Kingdom of God. This is what it means to fulfill religions or the Law. Jesus said, “I have not come to abolish the Law (religion) but to fulfill the Law (religion)” (Luke 5:17).

To become the good news of Christ for our times means living in the eternal present, which fulfills the past, is made manifest in the present, and opens to the future. Time does not move to eternity but manifests eternity even now. It becomes the instrument of eternity. “The time is fulfilled (has come to an end), the Kingdom of God (eternity) is at hand (here),“ said Jesus (Mark 1.15).

To become the good news of Christ for our times means seeing God in the community since God is community, God is relationship, God is Trinity, God is the unity of life. It means experiencing Jesus in the breaking of the bread. By loving relationships with our brothers and sisters we purify ourselves and grow into love, unity, and peace, which is God.

I strongly feel that proclaiming the good news of Christ does not imply the mission to convert. Proclaiming the good news is proclaiming the grace of God already present in everyone and inviting them to discover this truth. As long as we think that we have the mission to convert we have the seeds of violence within us and cannot become instruments of peace. If we want to become instruments of peace then we need to renounce the mission to convert.

United with St. Francis of Assisi, I would say: O Lord, make us instruments of peace.