Death, The Leveller
An Indian Christian theologian, Stanley J. Samartha, tells us in a book that I was reading last week that he was once present at the funeral of a Hindu friend of his who had married a Christian. Noting how his Hindu and Christian relatives went their separate ways after the last rites, Samartha writes :
'How strange it is that Hindus and Christians come together only in death, and live apart from one another when they are alive! And what about this Hindu person? Did he live as a Hindu who died as a Christian or did he live as a Christian who died as a Hindu? Who knows?'
I include this in an essay that I am writing on the topic of 'Karma and The Notion of 'Cosmic Justice'' with the following comment :
'To Samartha's poignant question, we may respond with that much-abused phrase 'God only knows'. And we may then add, 'And we may hope that God shall draw him up to the same fulness of salvation that we pray that God shall grant his wife''.
An Indian Christian theologian, Stanley J. Samartha, tells us in a book that I was reading last week that he was once present at the funeral of a Hindu friend of his who had married a Christian. Noting how his Hindu and Christian relatives went their separate ways after the last rites, Samartha writes :
'How strange it is that Hindus and Christians come together only in death, and live apart from one another when they are alive! And what about this Hindu person? Did he live as a Hindu who died as a Christian or did he live as a Christian who died as a Hindu? Who knows?'
I include this in an essay that I am writing on the topic of 'Karma and The Notion of 'Cosmic Justice'' with the following comment :
'To Samartha's poignant question, we may respond with that much-abused phrase 'God only knows'. And we may then add, 'And we may hope that God shall draw him up to the same fulness of salvation that we pray that God shall grant his wife''.
posted by The Transparent Ironist @ 6:42 pm
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