MM Thomas - Life, Legacy and Theology

THEOLOGY OF MADATHILPARAMPIL MAMMEN THOMAS
in solidarity with victims of oppression…The crucifixion of Christ is an event in history
which reveals God identifying himself with the suffering people, the victims of oppression
and structures of evil…It is the event of the Cross and Resurrection that Christian faith
sees the transformation of human life beginning and moving towards the Kingdom of
God. The resurrection means that the forces of death and evil which find expression in
the oppression of humanity have been and will be finally overcome. 207
A significant insight into Thomas’s recognition of God’s solidarity with the victims
of society is found in a poetic meditation, written following the great famine of
Shertallay, 1941, entitled “Where is God?” The meditation is worth quoting at length:
There was heaviness in my heart,
A loneliness cut me through,
Have I put my trust in God in vain?
Have I placed my feet on slippery ground?
Vain was the faith in a caring God
Vain was the trust in a loving Father,
For God is with the wicked in their pleasures,
A slave of them of them that seek for themselves,
He prepares a table for them anywhere they want,
And spreads a carpet for them wherever they walk,
He makes them shine like holy men,
And gives the honoured places in His Church,
And in His Heaven, palaces decked with jewels;
But for these, they must fade and fall,
Like flowers in the forest,
With not a soul to watch, nor a tear to mark their end;
Form dust they came, and to dust they return,
And no God cares.
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