Jesus Christ ,The Divine Healer. Jehovah Raffa !!

v  Health is the wealth by God. In an energetic person have harmony on the physical, psychological, spiritual and social realm. When there is an disproportion, healing becomes necessary.

v  Modern medicine restricts itself only to the body, neglecting the subtle dimensions of the human personality. Holistic healing by Jesus always has triple focus- on the mind, the soul and the body. Forgive led formation

v  Human body is both the living sacrifice and the temple of God. Eco-friendly life style is uphold the art, beauty and rhythms of life.

‘Manushasnehi’ a Malayalam Magazine recently published an article related the hopeless condition of modern medicines and hopeful of God’s healing power. The author says that, “If you had a disease you definitely consult a doctor, because he /she needs to live, when you got the prescription you must buy the medicine because they need to live, once you got the medicine you should put it into the waste box because you also need to live”. One of the retired professors of Kottayam medical college, kerala says that “the patient must be well aware that all the medicines are directly or indirectly poison especially in allopathic system. The intake of medicines has result in the increase of diseases”. All medicines have side effects because there are not miracles. From a chemists' point of view, designing a good medicine is difficult because you need to design a drug that binds and activates/inactivates one single type of target in a cell without binding to and affecting any of the other millions of molecules in the body.

Many meds come with documentation in the package which shows the result of double blind studies. That documentation will give you a rough idea of what the chance is of getting a side effect. Each and every treatment modalities of modern medicines causes’ lot of side effects starting from the hair falling to skin allergy, kidney failure, imbalance of B.P and Chronic diseases like cancer. Also it seriously affects the economical conditions of the family due to the extinctive and expensive treatment. These physical and economical problems may leads to some psychosomatic imbalance in human nature. In other words modern medicines and diagnostics are harmful to living self and destroy the very beauty and rhythm of the human life.

Physical health is the overall condition of a living organism at a given time, the soundness of the body, freedom from disease or abnormality and the condition of optimal well-being. Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them because health is the real wealth. Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the creator. Healing itself was considered one of the grounds that creative spiritual powers were working through human being. God’s healing through Christ makes the person to grow both physically, psychologically and spiritually.

Holistic healing in free of coast:-          

Jesus’ healing was a holistic journey from brokenness to wholeness and fullness of life. But modern medicines can never give the holistic healing. Holistic health is a state in which an individual is integrated at all levels of being; body, mind, spirit and emotions. It is a state of well-being; not a mere absence of disease; but a dynamic ever expanding, self motivating experience towards achieving a purposeful and vibrant life style. The strongest message of the holistic health movement is that physicians are not responsible for the quality of a patient’s health. Holistic healing knowledge systems are associated with the positive building up of body immunity, while the allopathic tradition is more interventionist and attacks disease in isolation from its context, often with further medical repercussions in terms of side-effects.

Allopathic medicine restricts itself only to the body, neglecting the subtle dimensions of the human personality. These medicines with its scientific approach have become the dominant paradigm in the 20th century. It views the world as a mechanical device and leaves out the inter relationships between the mind, body, and spirit, the psychological biochemical aspects of the disease. In the holistic healing, the cause of any disease is understood in terms of the whole person and not in terms of a particular organ or tissue. The conventional practitioners of medicine have three reasons to ignore the mind-body healing methods:1)Pharmaceutical(mafia)and insurance industry controls and commercialise the healing. 2) high-tech gadget and computers focus on organ systems of body, like parts of a machine.3) the standards of law, science, and business ethics require the medical practitioners to conform to the prevailing system. There is an ample evidences reveals that the unholy- nexus of medical-blade-Lab-Pharmacy. Unfortunately, now a day’s majority of ‘Christian mission hospitals’ are corporate profit oriented business firms than service oriented.

The ethics of medical practitioners are often questioned, as there is a medical lobby working to exaggerate the physical ailments of the patients. Often the ailments are too exaggerated and severe medications are advised by the doctors. The doctors and the representatives of medical companies work hand in hand to maximise their earnings at the cost of the patients’ lives. It has to note that the share market boom has largely supported by the pharmaceutical companies whose share alone will not go down on any bear run. They are always the bull horns that maintain the share market hype. They are largely supported by the medical practitioners who advocate their medicines receiving several perks furnished by these companies. They are mutually benefitted and the common person who becomes the patient becomes the scapegoats.

There are several proofs that these medicines are manufactured in small scale industries in the villages of India where the production cost is so minimal and at the same time the quality is at stake. Now the production, manufacturing and marketing of medicines also become a profitable and compatible business. The side effects of the medicine makes the patients further more complicated patients and this lead to a complex system of diseases where the patient becomes a dependant customer of medicines. The ethics of the medical practitioners has to be questioned with suspicion. India has become a dumping ground for many banned drugs; the business of producing banned drugs is booming. Not many people know about these banned drugs and consume those causing side effects that can damage their bodies. This problem keeps on aggravating as some of the important dangerous drugs that are globally discarded are available in India.  Here comes the importance of holistic healing practices where the side effects are nothing and the complex system of medicine lobbying is completely zero. Here the patient himself or herself can be the healer and thereby accentuating the doom of medical lobbying. 

A urgency of Eco-friendly, God cantered life style

Every medicine has some side effects or risks associated with their use, although most people take medicines and claim that our science and technologies are the gifts of God. So we use our potentiality for our sake. We are tempted with modern life style so we wanted medicines for our curing. Holistic health is not an easy way to be healthy, it is a life style. It is a difficult path, sacrifice of some of our ingrained habits, addictions, phobias, and obsessions. We must avoid our blind western imitation of food, dress, cosmetic products and habits.

  As Christians we more talk about the ecological problem and we are more concern about community healing which is not found because of not having personal healing and just basing on medical healing. If we are aware of personal healing the rest will be healed. Medical mission and hospitals have converted Healing ministry to profit mission. Unfortunately today churches also became the promoters of these centres because they want us to tempt with modern food patterns, rapacity and life style.  

 Holistic healing is not a miracle. It is a ‘way of life pattern and culture’ and everyone can experience it. I believe that Jesus never did a miracle like magicians, but the gospel writers interpreted healing as a miracle.(Gospel of John use the word ‘Sign’ of Jesus). Everyone can heal one’s body those who seek the way of life. The healing becomes effective when there is a strong faith and a concern for fellow beings.  Even secular Holistic healing centres have also scientifically proved that one. But we think that we need medicine because we get tempted. James 1:13-15 he said that God himself tempts no one but one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it. Then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived, my beloved.

In nutshell, Healing is a gift of God. Healing is ‘the process of being restored to bodily wholeness, emotional well-being, mental functioning, and spiritual aliveness’. In a healthy person there is harmony on the physical, psychological, spiritual and social level. When there is an imbalance, healing becomes necessary. But allopathic medicine restricts itself only to the body, neglecting the subtle dimensions of the human personality.  Healing needs to focus on the mind, the soul and the body. It is holistic and is represented in the integral part of the gospel. Jesus heals the body, soul and spirit. Healing which is holistic should be the part of Christian mission. Church’s mission of healing calls for a holistic approach to the human person. The ultimate goal is to enable the person to assume responsible to one self, to heal oneself by modifying all type of harmful attitudes, values, and habits and prepare eco friendly, veg-oriented, simple life styles that taught by our Lord Jesus. God bless &help you to realize His way.  Amen. 

Prepared  by. Binu J. & ed. by Prasad V.Abraham. Valanjavattom.

Immense Food Harvest in the Desert. “Manna,” exclaiming for an Alternative Food System

Text: Exodus 16: 1-8; 13-27.

      In a biblical perspective, food can be viewed from a physical, social, moral and spiritual dimension. Or in other words, Food, faith and justice are inextricably bound together.

      Here Manna is an example for a ‘just food system’ that challenges the modern food structure which is only profit motives and inhuman.

      Mahatma Gandhi says, God created everything for fulfil human need not for human Greed.

      Unhealthy accumulation of wealth, earth & food by minority may lead vast majority to become poor. We need an indigenous food culture & agricultural system for self-sufficiency  

Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese agricultural scientist and a farmer who invented the natural way of farming says, “I believe that a revolution can begin from this one strand of straw. When seen at a glance, this rice straw may appear light and insignificant. No one can believe that it could start a revolution. But for me, this revolution is very real.” He envisions this farming method as an alternative to the modern agricultural practices that destroys earth and dehumanizes farmers. His farming method lies on deep ecology and deep spirituality that he doesn’t use any fertilizers, herbicides or not even plough the land. With this alternative method, he harvested about 1,300 pounds of rice from a quarter acre of his land which is one of the greatest harvests in the whole country.

The text before us also shows a great harvest in the desert. The main purpose of this tradition is to show that the people arrived at the land of cannan was entirely due to the power and care of YHWH. Later, as we seen in psalms, this tradition was inculcated into the worship of the Jewish community. 

The rabbinic Midrash finds this manna story as an endless source for homiletical reflection. The manna stories were also frequently used by early church fathers as a homiletical vehicle for a great variety of themes.  Later on, Ibn Ezra tried to identify biblical manna with our common food. According to modern scholars and scientists, manna, the heavenly bread may be the sap of some trees or an excretion from some insects in the deserts. Whatever may be this substance, the food that God given to the Israelites was considered as a gracious & divine sustenance in the wilderness. 

I.       Manna as a food that reaffirms the cosmic relationship:-

Every food that is being prepared had to undergo three phases. Firstly, the nature should bestow enough resources for the preparation of the food. Since it is processes that take place in the nature, it is dependent on many factors like time, seasons, climate and so on. In the second stage, the resources should be converted into a food which is edible for human beings. As this stage is entirely in the hands of human beings, the sharing of food must be happened here. Finally after a period of time, the food must be decomposed into its basic components. This character of the perishing enables the food to be shared with other living beings including micro organisms. In short the food cycle must include the involvement of the nature, human beings and other living organisms.

In this context, manna as a food plays an important role in maintaining the balance between nature, human and other fellow creatures. Manna is a raw material that is conditioned by the nature in such a way that it had overcome all the attempts to disturb the normal process of food production. V.27 says some persons went to gather food on the Sabbath day, which is intended to be a day of rest for the earth. Their actions reveal the human attempts of interfering into nature’s production process and breaking the relationship. Similarly V.17 says, that some people tried to gather more food and some less. The grammatical construction of the verb ‘gathered less’ in the original text signifies that the accumulation of the food by some people had caused some others to get less. This shows the early attempts by unjust power structures to disturb interpersonal relationships by the accumulation of food. Similarly, the effort for storing the food for the next day, in V. 20 shows human desire to override the perishability of the food. Manna was only available for human consumption for only a certain period of time fixed by the nature. After that it was decomposed and was available to be used by other living beings. This decomposing nature of manna had overturned all the intentions to accumulate food and hoarding it. The Moreover it has also become a provision intended for food for the other non- living beings inside the camp. In other words through manna, God’s vision to establish a cosmic relation of food with nature, fellow human beings and other living beings is accomplished.

Today’s context also explicates many attempts to disturb this cosmic relation of food. Farming, which has now become an agribusiness, forces the nature to surrender its ‘resources’, which are then manipulated to fulfil human greedy purpose. The efforts of Genetic Modification to combine the genes of animals and plants that will not normally mix in nature show intense human efforts to disturb this balance. The reports recently published by the central university of Punjab noted that there is excessive use of chemical fertilisers there and is steadily increasing even in the ground water which is assumed to be very safe. The groaning of the creation mentioned in Romans Ch. 8 can also be compared to these injustices done to the nature itself.

The modern science and technology coupled with capitalism, is now trying to extend the perishability of food by complex techniques for the benefit of human beings. The latest technology for food preservation includes gamma radiation to the foods so that it can be stored for long periods of time with out deterioration. The attempt to extend the perishabilty of food in form of food packaging, processing and preserving will cause a decline in the nutritive value of food as well as an increase in its cost.

Therefore when the nature and its resources are plundered by profit motivated interests, the manna story demands the need of an alternative food culture which reaffirms the cosmic relationship. We as a faith community are called to address and respond to this issue and to give a hope to the groaning of the creation. In addition to this cosmic relationship of manna, we can also able to find out that through Manna as a food that upholds the concerns of the community.

II. Manna as a food that uphold the concerns of the egalitarian civilization

The food that we eat is closely related to the culture of a community, they are the products of the reflections discoveries and technologies and of a community. In this passage manna can be considered as a food to the community. The name ‘manna’ itself is given by the Israelite community. The meaning of manna means ‘what is it?’ which signifies its undomesticated character. No selfish or profit motivated interests are allowed to rule over this food system. As the manna is not an end product or a ready-made food, the whole community is invited by YHWH to partake in the food gathering process. The sabbatical regulation concerning the food was given to protect the weak in the community. The fair supply of manna denoted a food security in the community level. Here a comparison of the food economy in this passage to the food economy in the Egypt at the time of Joseph, mentioned in Genesis 47 is worthwhile. Here in this passage, the supply of manna is expressed as the ‘rain of bread’ which means the universal and fair supply of food, whereas the Egyptian food system in Joseph’s time is highly exploitative. The people there are forced to sell their land, livestock, seeds, and finally themselves in order to purchase food.  In short, the overall character of manna is community oriented. It had spoiled the thoughts of at least some people who tried to commodify and privatize this food. Similarly the undomesticated character of manna signifies that the food system should not be manipulated by human interests. This ancient food system can be contrasted with the western agricultural practices that dominate over the seed, food and its processing techniques. The privatization of seeds, foods through patents and Intellectual Property Rights(IPR) and the use of food as a political weapon for bargaining among nations are clear examples of this privatising and commoditising the food. The Seed Act of our country has already resulted in stopping farmers from seed saving, seed exchange and seed reproduction. Our country needs indigenous agricultural technologies make not create a dominating attitude on food. This is similar to God’s vision of creation to be owned by all. Jesus also used food and the parables of feast as tools for build an inclusive community. The Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught also reflects this same concern for the community. Eucharist, the feast of the church, has a community affirming character. It is a great banquet in which the faith community receives the food and drink and get nourished. It is also a promise of the eschatological fullness and inclusive human community. The breaking of bread in the Eucharist is a purposive act that symbolises the sharing of bread. It is also an act that realizes the human labour as a creative and contemplative movement with the earth to bring the earth to its fullness. The story of manna challenges us to restore food to its rightful and necessary place in the community through common labour as well as celebrations.

Finally, let us look why this manna, the alternative food culture narrative is so important for a royal community like us? The context of this passage reveals that Manna is a symbol for God’s presence and providence in the desert. It can be considered as God’s call or an invitation for those who seek new engagements in an unknown land.

Alternative foods are the rights of a community who believe that another world is possible. Being addicted to the modern food culture, which is basically built up around the logic of exploitation, we have to identify that the alternative agricultural practices are the symbol of God’s providence in our new alternative engagements. Manna for Masanbu Fukuoka may be the natural farming, for India it may be the zero-budget farming and so on.

As members of the church and responsible citizen, we are called to see the food concern as a faith issue. Church as a faith community must able to join hands with the people’s movements who address this issue in our society. It must able to resist the oppressions and take risks in the search for a new society. If so manna, the alternative food will appear revealing God’s providence in these life engagements where we are called to. May the Holy Spirit give us the boldness to recognize and chose alternative food culture. Amen

Prepared by Sudeep A O & ed. By. Prasad .V Abraham. Valanjavattom.