By Santhosh Sebastian Cheruvally
Courtsey to www.cbcisite.com

Introduction

Blessed Alphonsa to be canonized on 12th October in Rome stands out for the deep rooting and maturation of Christian faith in India. Christianity in India traces back its origin to Apostle Thomas. The Christian faith received and nurtured in India through various ancient and modern stages witnesses to the world today in both in the catholic tri-ritual communion of Syro-Malabar church, Syro-Malankara Church and the Latin Church, otherwise popularly called rites and in the diverse orthodox and protestant churches. Alphonsa belonged to the Syro-Malabar church which like its catholic and non-catholic counterparts is known for its extraordinary socio-cultural proximity to Hinduism. Alphonsa herself had her best class companion in the person of a Hindu girl called Laxmikutty. Unlike the Semitic and western churches, the Church in India, especially of the Thomas Christian tradition holds a unique place for its inter-religious, multi-cultural and socio-political existential interactions and mutual affectations. For this reason, when the Universal Church would raise Alphonsa to the veneration at the altar and would officially declare as a person sharing in the communion of saints, she would also present before the world of today a shining example of how the mutual interaction of the apostolic vitality of a church intermingled with the local cultures would lead to the blooming of Christian dignity and sanctity both as an assurance and consolation not only for Christians but also for people of other faiths.

Having said thus, this article is an attempt towards bringing out the Christological import of Alphonsa. In this order I would try to focus on the aspect of her Christ relation and the actualization of Christ experience in her life. In fact in this attempt, the motive is not immediately a claim to any novelty but a desire to present theologically from the focus of the already specified interest. For instance Alphonsa is popularly known as a person who loved and invited loving suffering. She is called as the Little Flower (St. Therese of Child Jesus) of India. Both these claims must draw our attention to the fundamental reality and truth of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God and the unique savior of the whole creation. Her identity is however basically as a Franciscan Clarist nun. Her confined life within the four walls of the FCC Convent at Bharananganam was at the same time a saga of docility to God, to her fellow sisters, to her spiritual master, to her relatives and to the children around in the school. Although confined externally, it is this child like docility which helped others feel and discover the mystery of the grace of sanctity at work in her. In this context the funeral sermon preached by her spiritual father Romulus of happy memory is a classical example not only of spiritual direction and a worthy paradigm for the profession of the dignity of a spiritual master. It is the first official step in fact towards the breaking out of the hidden sanctity of Alphonsa. Fr. Romulus preached, ““with the most profound conviction in my heart and as one who has known this religious very intimately, I affirm that we are now participating in the last rites of a saintly person. If the world had realized her intrinsic worth, unprecedented crowds including hundreds of priests and bishops from all over India would have assembled here. They would have rushed and clamored for even a glimpse of this body and for some precious relic or token of this person. I assure you, that as far as human judgment can be relied on, this young nun was not much less saintly than the Little Flower of Lisieux.” I shall try to sketch a brief biographical note to present her background and then try to proceed further in accordance with the theme concerned.

From Annakutty to Alphonsa or from Family to Convent

Annakutty was the childhood name of Alphonsa. When roughly translated it would mean ‘little Ann’. It is a typically inculturated christening popular among the Christians of Kerala. Although the immediate attention is now focused on the name Alphonsa, introspection to the name Annakutty would reveal not only her childhood goodness, virtues and trials, but also an often unsung story and history of family values, faith practices and ecclesial foundations of the Christians in Kerala. Without any ground for exaggeration one can assess that Alphonsa’s real foundation was laid in her childhood as Annakutty owing to her Christian family upbringing. Annakutty was born on August 19, 1910. It was a premature birth as the birth took place in the 8th month of the pregnancy as a result of a diabolic shock her mother- Mary Muttathupadathu- received from the coiling of a rat snake around her neck in the sleep. Her mother died after three months of her birth and on the death bed she entrusted Annakutty to the care of her own sister Annamma Muricken in whom Annakutty both painfully and joyfully tried to overcome the inexplicable loss of her mother and motherly love. Annakutty’s father agreed unwillingly to the parting of the child. Her newly found ‘mother’ with the sole motive of an ideal upbringing towards making Annakutty capable as a future house wife educated her sternly. The family played a key role in her faith formation and love for Christ, especially through the prevalent practices of regular evening prayers, observance of weekly fastings and participation in the Eucharistic celebration. Fr. Romlus rightly emphasizes this role the family played in the life of Alphonsa towards the nurturing and deepening of her Christian faith. However the most important factor to be noticed is that Annakutty developed in the family faith practices a personal devotion and love for Christ. This is the fruit of the genuine faith formation and the first visible sign that faith was becoming faith experience in the childhood of Annakutty. In other words, Christ began to become a concrete personal relational reality for her. It is because of this relational realization of God’s love and Christ that Annakutty began to yearn for sanctity. That is to say, analytically speaking the desire for sanctity meant for Alphonsa a creative and concrete response to Christ.

This surprising height of spiritual understanding held by Alphonsa in her childhood teaches the most profound lesson on Christian life and spirituality that sanctity is not a mere object to yearn for but a subjective realization as the outcome of a personal experience of Christ in the Church and in the sacraments. A striking narration related to her first confession as a little child throws enough light on this fact. She notes, “I loved God more ardently. I took great care to avoid all faults. I had nothing special to mention in my First Confession. I zealously aspired to become a saint. I felt that desire while I was reading the biography of St. Therese of Lisieux.” The decisive Christian family upbringing of Annakutty later on paved way to the fructification her life as a professed Clarist nun at Bharananganam. An important point to be remembered here is that because of the unique minority demographic make up of the Christian community in India, and because of the apostolically rich traditional background of the Church in Kerala, Alphonsa’s mention will always have to be done in reference to the ecclesial reality of the Catholic Church in India which Is the tri-ritual communion and the Christian reality in India which is astoundingly ecumenical because of the presence of all the major tributaries of non-catholic traditions. This is why K. C. Chacko himself has added an entire chapter length prologue on the Catholics of Kerala in the fifth edition in 1983. The emphatic note of late Bishop Thomas Pothacamury of Bangalore affirms this point. He observes, “Hundreds of thousands of Catholics in Malabar and other parts of South India have faith in Sister Alphonsa and invoke her aid, for they are convinced that she is a person of uncommon holiness…What a power would she not wield over the minds and hearts of the Catholics of our country where her cause to be taken up. At a turning point in its history, when the Church has to face so many difficulties and trials, struggles and dangers different in character and different in scope from those which assailed her in the past, may we not hope that through her intercession the Church will overcome all obstacles and grow in strength and vigour? It is fitting that such a beautiful soul should have sprung up in the earliest and most prosperous home of Christianity in our country.”

The Christological Centrality

Alphonsa is usually noted for the acceptance and love of suffering and pain. She would even ask for it! What does this humanly ‘non-sensical’ and ‘theologically’ rich dimension found in Alphonsa reveal to us? The answer to this riddle is found in the Christological centrality of her life and spirituality. That is to say, her conventionally accepted love for suffering and growth in the path of sanctity through such suffering and pain opens up the personally relational Christ experience and the redemptive value of it as understood by her. This is what in fact makes her worthy of the honour of the altar universally.

In this light, it is fitting to cite the words of Martindale SJ: “We must however insist that the history of Sister Alphonsa will remain unintelligible unless we take into account the whole Catholic doctrine of the person and work of Our Lord. That this girl appreciated to the full the supreme importance of prayer should surprise no Christian; but there may be those who are disconcerted by her intense wish to suffer. We must insist that there was nothing morbid in this, and that no Catholic attaches any value to suffering as such, but only, as we said within the full doctrine of our Lord’s redemptive work.” Thus for the catholic Christian doctrine suffering gains a new sense and value only in the light of the passion of Christ and its spiritual acceptance would mean a positive inclusion of God and others with a constant self-emptying of the victim concerned. Suffering thus understood, accepted and offered is a rare spiritual height for the Christian soul than a passive fatalistic resignation to one’s problems or pain. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “…the sufferings to be endured can mean that “in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church…Suffering….becomes a participation in the saving work of Jesus.” A letter written by Alphonsa, certainly with an explicit theological awareness, but showing a rare personal Christological dimension reveals the redemptive dimension of the suffering of Christ as well as her own adherence to it giving an immense value of discipleship. She writes: “Since only grief and suffering have fallen to the lot of my Spouse, I too lovingly embrace them, and my soul is at peace, though my body continues to be tormented. For the last seven years I have ceased to be my own, being given over entirely to my Divine Spouse. You know all that; and now let the Lord do as He will with me. It is not a cure I am anxious for, but only that His Holy Will be fulfilled in me.”

Thus behind the suffering Alphonsa cheerfully accepts and undergoes, there is the truth of a living and loving encounter with Jesus Christ. She denies herself. She dies to herself. She forgoes everything imaginable of a personal belonging. In all this kenosis she gains everything in Christ. Christ takes hold of her in the true Pauline sense. She becomes a being in Christ so that all her sufferings and pain are not thought to be apart from Christ but in Christ and with Christ. More than the lonely void of the sense of loss and utter helplessness in the midst of sickness and misunderstanding, Alphonsa appears as being filled with Christ intimately and immensely. Bishop Pothacamury’s observations shed light on this Christ- foundationality and centrality of Alphonsa. According to him, “The keynote of her life was death to self and life to Christ and in Christ….Without renunciation and detachment from earthly things, there is no spiritual life. Christ was the centre of Sister Alphonsa’s life and character and not self. She dethroned herself to enthrone Christ, and made Him, with unerring vision, the focus of her life.”

In fact the words of the Pope John Paul II of venerable memory during the beatification ceremony at Kottayam reveal to us the depth of the Christological treasures hidden in the suffering of Alphonsa. The Holy Father observed: “From early in her life, Sister Alphonsa experienced great suffering. With the passing of the years, the heavenly Father gave her an ever fuller share in the Passion of his beloved Son. We recall how she experienced not only physical pain of great intensity, but also the spiritual suffering of being misunderstood and misjudged by others…. She came to love suffering because she loved the suffering Christ. She learned to love the Cross through her love of the crucified Lord.” The central message that comes from the life of Alphonsa is thus only a living experience of Christ can lead us to a loving appreciation of his suffering for us and a meaningful acceptance and offering of our sufferings to the Lord in love. Because the suffering accepted with the crucified Lord is saving and redeeming.

Alphonsa with this authentic Christian sense of the suffering from her experience of the crucified Lord finds in the painful moments of her life the sweetness of the love of the Lord, the sweetness of the Love of His heart as though like a love-laden girl in the presence of her beloved! Mystically yet poetically like a perfect cascade of love, she pours out her heart of her relationship and experience of the Lord, the experience of a soul who is in graced to be madly in love with the source of the most divine Love of the heart of the Lord. Hence she says, “I am absolutely incapable of describing it in words. I fall into some kind of trance on the nights following the convulsion. I cannot describe the visions I see during the trance. It appears to me that Our Divine Lord comes to me, caresses me and pours out upon me all the affectionate sweetness of His Sacred Heart. The whole room seems to be flooded with the splendour of God. I do not know any more details. The happiness of the moment is unbounded and limitless.”

The personal prayer of Alphonsa is for this matter is a Christological outflow of her intimacy with Christ which is fulfilled in the conscious choice of the Lord as the centre and priority of her life thereby making her consider everything else secondary the first of which is the most daring self-denial and self-negation, the leap from and leaving off of the egocentric eros clinging to oneself and the worldly things. Her prayer reads, “Lord Jesus, hide me in the wound of your sacred heart. Free me from my desire to be loved and esteemed. Guard me from my evil attempts to win fame and honour. Make me humble till I become a small spark in the flame of love in your Sacred Heart. Grant me the grace to forget myself and all worldly things. Jesus, sweet beyond words, convert all worldly consolations into bitterness for me. O my Jesus, Sun of Justice, enlighten my intellect and mind with your sacred rays. Purify my heart, consume me with burning love for you, and make me one with you.”

Conclusion

The story and history of Alphonsa will remind the Christian of the central mystery of his Christian faith that of the redemptive suffering and death of the Lord, or the redemptive love of the Lord revealed in his suffering and death. That her veneration as a saint will be always in remembrance of the crucified Lord is the theological richness of this saint for the universal Church and for the Church in India, a land traditionally known for its search and hunger for the Divine in and around us. Alphonsa will remain both a reminder and a challenge to the twenty-first century which has tremendous possibilities of human advancement and consistent vacuum for Jesus Christ’s way of the Cross and Love. As for the Christian, so for the consecrated religious following diverse charisms and facing the crisis of vocation and vocational growth in faithfulness, an assimilation of the life and message of Alphonsa would fundamentally assert that the essence in following Christ is one’s own configuration to him and that is possible only when one has a relational experience of Christ in one’s heart and in the sacraments. The goal of sanctity both in the baptismal commitment as well as in the profession of the vows becomes then an ongoing subjective response in terms of the Love and Holiness experienced in and from Christ, the ultimate sign of that saving infinite Love is nothing but Cross and in the Cross the meaninglessness of the suffering gives way to meaningful accommodation of God and the neighbour in one’s life.