This document discusses the life and teachings of Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara. It summarizes that he was a Catholic priest in 19th century India who founded religious congregations and promoted social reform. He experienced mystical visions of Jesus Christ that he referred to as his "Appa experience". This experience motivated him to pursue social justice initiatives like promoting education to reduce the harms of the caste system. It also led him to found religious communities dedicated to prayer, service, and spreading Christic consciousness throughout society. Overall, the document examines how Chavara holistically integrated mystical and social commitments to transform both the Church and society in India.

1. “Holiness: On the Holy, the Holy One,
Sanctification and Saints”
SPIRASA
St. Augustine’s College, Johannesburg, 20-24 May 2015
1
HOLISTIC INTEGRATION OF
MYSTICAL ASPIRATIONS AND
SOCIAL COMMITMENT
Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara of
the Nineteenth Century India
Fr. Saju Chackalackal CMI

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Introduction
Christianity is better understood in the lives of its
great personalities than in its theories and dogmas.
Christian mystics are those who have been touched
by the divine spark of Jesus Christ facilitated within
a Christian community and remain largely within
the same experience through their earnest effort.
Christ consciousness in itself is fundamentally an
other-oriented one, as in Jesus Christ we encounter a
person who was ready to let himself go for the other
so that the other will have life in abundance.
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Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara
(1805-1871)
Canonized by Pope Francis on 23 November 2014
* A Catholic priest and the founder of two Carmelite
religious congregations in the Syro-Malabar Rite,
which has its origin in the preaching of the Gospel
by St. Thomas the Apostle (AD 52) in Kerala, India.
It is believed that his mystical experiences received
their credibility by his conscientious investment of
time and resources for eliminating unjust structures
and practices prevailing in the society of his time, on
the one side, and many other positive ecclesial and
social initiatives to set the Church and society in the
nineteenth century India on the right track.
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Mysticism as an All-Integrating Experience
The core of mystical experience seems to be the
emergence of an abiding consciousness of the Ultimate
within a person or a group of persons, leading towards
the holistic integration of everything, including even
those seemingly contrary or contradictory dimensions
of created existence or human-made conceptions and
realities.
From a Christian point of view, this abiding
consciousness of the Ultimate will be emerging from and
leading towards a Christic consciousness as a result of
which someone established in mysticism will primarily
be founded upon and functioning from the Word of
God.
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5. 55
Emergence of a Christic consciousness is said to
have its source in an intimate and abiding
presencing between the mystic and the
person of Jesus Christ, the dynamics of which
may be personally experienced but cannot be
fully comprehended as it goes beyond the
dialectic of rationality.
* Inner freedom
* Not merely shedding the ties with the world
but a more intense and intimate relationship
between the mystic and the rest of the world, a
relationship that will enhance every other by the
selfless and self-giving involvement on the part
of the mystic.

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When any reality or person is found to be
deprived of the wholeness that should
be accessible to all, especially if it is
resulting from an injustice perpetrated by
other persons or institutions, the
consciousness of the mystic would
empower him or her to take upon oneself
the challenging task of setting it right
by empowering the other, and to make
others partake in the wholeness.
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Thomas Merton: “It is only in assuming full
responsibility for our world, for our lives and for
ourselves that we can be said to live really for God.
The whole human reality … interpenetrates the
world of nature … and the world of history…”
A genuine mystic is said to be someone who is
established in the Ultimate Reality to such an extent
that he or she will be able to channelize the power of
the Ultimate for the good of the rest of the world.
They open up the avenues for social transformation
and involve fully in the agonies and ecstasies that
people encounter in their attempts to overcome the
constraining factors in their personal as well as
societal existence.
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They share the abiding Christic consciousness not
only through their own direct actions, but also
through the gradual initiation of others into the
same stream of holistic consciousness.
Initiating others takes place by the creditable life
example and spontaneous outpouring of the
transformed consciousness in the realms of religious
and social existence.
This has a greater amplitude, especially in aiming at
the transformation of the larger world, as, instead of
one person, a group of persons with transformed
Christic consciousness and unquestionable
commitment begin to involve in facilitating the
integral wellbeing of the whole world.
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Christ (Appa) Experience: The Mystical Core
of Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara
From the early stages of his vocation to the last
moment of his life, he held unto his motto, “the Lord
is my portion,” and let everything evolve with the
firm conviction that the Lord will set everything for
the good of his beloved.
His life of Christian holiness does not require any
extrinsic attestation than his own statement at the
deathbed; with a deep sense of humility and
unconditional reliance on God’s providence, he
admitted to his confreres who assembled around his
deathbed, that he never lost the baptismal
innocence.
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…Father Chavara spent long hours in
front of the Blessed Sacrament.
Meditation, for him, was not merely
an exercise to be fulfilled as part of
the routine, but the prime time of the
day, as it was time for intimate
conversation with the Lord.
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“Meditation is a conversation with God. As
you would with a friend, you sit close to God,
moved by love, intimately communicating
with Him. Meditation then is speaking with
your beloved spouse Jesus Christ, sitting
very close to Him… You converse with God
as you would with a friend. It is a common
experience for two friends to speak non-stop
with one another till they part. They are
never short of matter to talk about. That
means, where there is love, there is always
something to talk about. ... Even sitting in
silence very close to your friend is a matter of
satisfaction!”
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As he grew in the personal relationship with
Jesus, his quest to encounter Jesus in person
grew more intense.
With an ardent desire to see Jesus from the
moment of his birth to death, based on the
biblical narratives, Father Chavara wrote:
“Radiance of the merciful Prince of God
My heart longs to behold!
Highest God born of the Virgin Mary
My heart longs to behold!
Emmanuel, God being united with us
My heart longs to behold!”
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“Kanakenam…” (meaning, longing
to behold), as this long poem has
been traditionally entitled,
crystallizes an intense desire that
Father Chavara had to have a
look, a feel, and the abiding
presence of Jesus.
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Father Chavara developed a filial
relationship with Jesus and addressed Him
as “ente appa” (my beloved father).
Unlike many spiritually realized persons, for
whom relationship with Jesus is experienced
as one between the bride and the
bridegroom, Father Chavara - deeply
inspired by the parable of the Loving Father
(or ‘Prodigal Son’) - identified himself as the
son who had returned back to the all-
embracing arms of the father who is Jesus
himself. His appa-experience, therefore, is
seen as the culmination of an intimate filial
relationship that he was bestowed with
during his life.
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A closer look at his life and spiritual writings,
especially his celebrated spiritual work
Atmanuthapam (Compunction of Heart) in
which he beautifully narrates his ardent
desire to have the vision and the touch of
Jesus offers us an understanding that his
appa-experience originated from and
culminated in the meta-consciousness of a
mystic, originating from and firmly founded
in the divine consciousness of Jesus Christ.
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Mission of the Church: Avenues to
Share the Christic Consciousness
Perception of the ills prevailing in the society
in contrast to the all-embracing Christ
consciousness enabled Father Chavara to
challenge the status quo of the society,
especially in setting right the unjust social
stratification (especially the caste system).
Instead of initiating a head-on collision with
the system, his inspired mind adopted
positive actions, such as education of
individuals and empowerment of
communities.
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SPIRITUAL RENEWAL WITHIN THE
CHURCH
Pulpit and press
PULPIT
Sunday homilies
Annual retreats in parishes
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PRESS
As he had no finances to import a press from
Europe and was also denied access to the
already existing presses, with the benefit of
one visit to one of these two presses, Father
Chavara made a prototype of the press in
plantain pith by his own hands and the
wooden press was fabricated by a carpenter
under his supervision.
Initially, books printed in this press dealt with Christian
prayers, spirituality, and liturgical texts; however, in course of
time, from the same press came out a number of works
(including a daily newspaper, Deepika) which have contributed
significantly to the cultural as well as religious enhancement of
the people around the religious community.
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Fight against the social evils such as caste
system, poverty, etc., through educational
endeavours
Sanskrit school
A call to integrate Church (palli) and School
(pallikutam)
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Establishment of Seminary (1833)
Looking at the seminary formation imparted
by Father Chavara and other members of the
first CMI religious community, we could
easily understand that this was one of the
most effective means to impart a
transformative consciousness in the Church
and the larger society, as each candidate who
came out of the seminary was expected to be
playing a unique role in instilling Christic
consciousness among the faithful whom they
would reach out through their ministry.
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Liturgical renewal of the Syro-Malabar
Church
* Liturgy to facilitate moments of intense Christ
experience
Hence, to bring about order in the liturgical
celebrations within the Syro-Malabar Church, he
took pains to locate the Syriac sources of liturgical
celebrations, including liturgy of the hours, and to
compile them in an order conducive to the liturgical
seasons. Moreover, his closer proximity with the
practices of the Latin tradition inspired him to adapt
some of its liturgical and spiritual practices such as
forty hours adoration, way of the cross, recitation of
rosary and other Marian devotions, etc.
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Concerted Efforts to Disseminate
the Transformed Vision
Foundation of Religious Communities
Twofold essential purposes of founding communities of religious life:
(1) to facilitate an intense and unconditional following of the person
of Jesus within the context of common living and (2) to be
unconditionally available to serve the people of God.
1. Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI)
“It is necessary that in this territory there are persons who are
continuously engaged in prayer and good works for the
greater glory of God and the edification of the Church.”
2. Congregation of Mother of Carmel (CMC)
“Besides striving for their own spiritual realization, the
members of the Congregation have to teach other girls, and
train them in some handicrafts.”
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The greatness of an innovator (including a mystic)
does not lie only in himself being personally
innovative, but also in his ability to continue the
strategy of innovation in and through those who
succeed him; the successors need to be not only
innovative but they should also be capable of
continuing the founding legacies to their full stature.
The fact that these two religious communities [(1)
CMI, (2) CMC and CTC; at present, the total
number of members crossing 12,000] founded by
Father Chavara continue to contribute significantly
in the transformation of the society through their
multifarious involvement in the lives of the people
vouch for the lasting effectiveness of the religious
movement that Father Chavara had initiated and
established.
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Seminary for the Formation of Devoted and
Integral Pastors
“An uneducated priest was not only inefficient
to do anything worthwhile in his pastoral work,
but may be even detrimental to the salvation of
souls.” (Leopold Beccaro, based on the life of Chavara)
Although all the ideals were not fully realized in the
lives of many pastors who came out of the seminary
conducted by Father Chavara, the faithful of the
Church perceived the conspicuous difference as they
were better equipped to deal with the needs of the
people by way of their involvement in matters
spiritual as well as material, both being essential for
the integral welfare of humanity.
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People Participation in Transformative Projects
Every project that he started had a decisive role to be
fulfilled by the ordinary people. Most of the institutions,
be in the secular or religious sphere, started by Father
Chavara relied on the financial and political support of
the people in the locality.
House of Charity
“Now my intense desire and earnest request to you is to begin such
a confraternity… Keep a charity box with the label “Happy Death
Charity Box,” unashamedly beg of others and raise a fund
yourselves; build a modest bungalow-like house of bamboo and
other cheap materials, with just two rooms on either side of the
veranda near your small chapel. You may call it a charity home,
and shelter there orphans or the aged or sick or beggars who have
no one to take care of them...”
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Inclusive Approach
The spiritual experiences that Father Chavara
acquired enabled him to grow beyond the narrow
boundaries of his family and community and to avail
his services to everyone. Indeed, his Jesus experience
(appa experience) transformed his perspective to
make room for everyone and to include even those
who were otherwise segregated against by the rest of
the society. Thus, it is worth noting that Father
Chavara had developed a universal outlook be it in
matters of Christian religious observances within the
Church or social uplift in the civil society. In every
sphere, therefore, his open attitude enabled him to
keep the spectrum of his mission as wide as possible.
Uplift of women; Uplift of the Outcastes
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Strategies for Self-Respect and Self-Reliance
The most effective of the steps for social transformation
that Father Chavara initiated could be seen in his
insistent involvement in education. As education enables
people to move up on the social ladder, by way better
economic independence and social respectability, their
reintegration in the mainstream society takes place.
sense of equality and equity
Being the one closer to the heart of Jesus, and having
known the mind of the Lord, especially through his
insightful learning of the message of the Gospel,
Father Chavara, as the elder brother responsible for
the younger ones, spent his life to set a new social
fabric in which all could be children of the same
father, and brothers and sisters in the same family.
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Conclusion
Being a mystic who got established in the consciousness of Jesus
Christ, Father Chavara had an intense aspiration to create a new
world order grounded on the oneness of reality (originating from
his personal experience of Jesus as his beloved father) and unity of
humanity (as brothers and sisters or children of the same father).
His realization that the society was already divided along various
evil designs and structures instilled in him the ingenuity and
courage to commit himself for the social uplift of the people
beyond the narrow boundaries of caste and creed.
As Christ consciousness is a unitive consciousness, it impelled him
to bring about a synergistic approach in attaining spiritual and
social transformation of the whole society.
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Subscribing to the all-inclusive and integrating approach,
mystics like Father Chavara tend to open up their life’s
horizon, extending the experience of divine presence as well
as communion with the Divine, to every realm of creation.
Not only do they harness the divine power to challenge and
overthrow the limiting structures and debilitating practices
perpetuated in the name of God and traditions, but also
employ their creative powers to design novel outlooks and
holistic practices to transform the lives of the contemporaries
and future generations. As higher plateaus of divine
experience stretch us out into infinity and clearer vision for a
better humanity become accessible in the emerging and
established consciousness of the mystics, they spontaneously
give shape to more just and humane structures and practices
so that the same vision and conviction, sustained in the
Christic consciousness, could be shared by everyone else,
leading to the ongoing establishment of the Kingdom of God
amidst the whole creation.
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30. “Holiness: On the Holy, the Holy One,
Sanctification and Saints”
SPIRASA
St. Augustine’s College, Johannesburg, 20-24 May 2015
30
Thank You!
HOLISTIC INTEGRATION OF
MYSTICAL ASPIRATIONS
AND SOCIAL COMMITMENT
Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara
of the Nineteenth Century India