83 :: Saint Mary's Syro-Malabar Church

Tonight I attended Mass at Saint Mary's Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in Charlotte. As this journey has continued, I have decided that I would de-emphasize attending Catholic Mass, as I am not Catholic and therefore don't have the knowledge to "do" Mass. But when I discovered that there was a Catholic congregation in Charlotte made up of people from southern India, specifically the state of Kerala, I knew had to go. The service was almost exclusively in the language of Malayalam (mah-LEE-ah-lum), the language of Keralites. Since it was Thursday night, it was also sparsely attended.

Before I describe what it was like to experience this Mass, there is a good bit of ground to cover. The state of Kerala has an interesting history in the Body of Christ. Additionally, I have been to Kerala several times. It is a special place to me and it is very beautiful.

Much of the state of Kerala is made up of marshy waterways, officially named The Backwaters. You can take multi-day boat tours on The Backwaters and see lush jungle, elephants washing themselves, and small villages where people are living in deep integration with the land around them. The beaches are great in Kerala, as well. In addition, there are highlands in which tea and spices are grown. In short, it is a beautiful state. Throughout India, people call Kerala "God's Own Country."

Kerala is on the Southwest Coast of India and was known as the Malabar Coast for centuries. It is about 20% Christian, with adherents spread across various denominations, many of whom are in Eastern Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism. There are also Protestants, evangelicals, Pentecostals and all the Christian segments that one would find everywhere in the modern day. With that said, most of Kerala's Christians are aligned with the ancient lineages of our faith. It is the most Christian state in south India. Kerala also has the highest literacy rate in all of India.

When I was visiting Kerala in 2008, I walked around the city of Thiruvananthapuram on a Sunday morning, looking for a place to worship. I found an Assyrian Orthodox Church where I attended liturgy for hours. Men and women were standing on different sides of the church, all of them barefoot. The sermon was blaring over a series of loudspeakers, including out onto the crowded street where people of other religions were promenading around, forced to hear the gospel in their native language. All acts of worship in India can be described as a provocative reminder that a particular religion has a presence in the land - Hinduism, Jainism, Islam, Sikhism and, yes... Christianity. 

It was really great and a memory I hold very dearly.

Here is a chart that shows these alignments and evolutions of Christianity in Kerala. You'll notice that all of it has a great deal to do with a man named Thomas.

Thomas is one of the twelve apostles who is more colloquially known as Doubting Thomas. He was the apostle that met the resurrected Yeshua in the upper room and wouldn't believe what he was seeing until he stuck his fingers in Yeshua's hands and pierced side.

Here is how the Bible accounts for these events:

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Eight days later, His disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:24-29)

Thomas is the representation of our doubt, which all people who come to faith can expect to struggle with from time to time.

When Paul went West to spread the gospel in modern day Turkey, Greece and Italy, Thomas went East to India. He landed in Kerala approximately nineteen years after the events of the Cross, and planted seeds for the growth of the gospel which continue until today. He was martyred in Tamil Nadu, the state next to Kerala. His grave is in the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. I have been to Thomas' grave many times, it is a fascinating place. There are always people huddled around it in a way that strikes me as odd, since I was raised a Protestant. I have watched many people pray to Thomas' grave, as if it emanates some sort of spiritual power. 

Here are some pictures of that gravesite, as well as the diorama of his martyrdom that is on display at that same church in Chennai:

An Indian state that I have visited often, that is very dear to me.

An ancient strain of Christianity that settled on the Malabar Coast in the first century.

Doubting Thomas' evangelism and martyrdom in southern India.

With all of this as background, I was immediately intrigued when I found out that I could attend Mass at Charlotte's only Keralite Catholic Church 

Here are some pictures of the experience:

You can see that the women had their heads covered, a frequent facet of worship in India. The church also had all of the normal adornments of a Catholic church, with Yeshua and Mary occupying a spot of apparent equal prominence on the front sides. The Stations of the Cross, which are in every Catholic church, adorned the walls of the sanctuary. There was also a confessional in the back of the church. In many ways, it felt familiar, since I have attended multiple Mass services on this journey. Yet it was also clearly very Indian.

Again, I don't know what one does during a Mass, so I just sat in the back and watched all of it. I prayed multiple times for the people as I sat there.

A man walked up to me during the Mass and kindly passed me the prayer book that they were using, which had pages in both English and Malayalam.

With a couple of exceptions when the altar boy at the front of the church read the Bible in English, the entire Mass was in Malayalam. When I first encountered this language in 2006 while visiting Kerala, I was struck by how Malayalam sounds like an explosion of phonemes. It always hits my ear like a language that is extremely fast in how it is spoken. 

I don't understand Malayalam, but I have a unique ability with languages, so I listened closely and caught a couple things. First, Malayalam has the word "bhakti," which is a Hindi/Sanskrit word that means spiritual devotion. Additionally, they use the English language names of the books of the Bible.

Here are some videos of the mass in Malayalam:

Eventually, the altar boy rang the bells which signify the Holy spirit descending onto the eucharist, then the faithful lined up to take Holy Communion. I am not permitted to take communion in a Catholic church, so I watched.

Then it was over. The people were very warm to me and accommodated me with great graciousness.

For me, it was interesting experience to see Keralites worship in this very Southern and American city that is becoming more diverse in its representation of the Body of Christ. As we must always remember, we are all one in Christ.

Thanks to Saint Mary's Syro-Malabar Church for a fascinating evening.