Not many may be aware that Fr Samuel Rayan, considered a giant of Asian Liberation Theology, had actually joined the then Goa Mission before the Kerala Jesuit Province came into its own. Fr Roland Coelho, SJ shares his experiences with Fr Rayan, while paying tribute to the departed Jesuit.
Samuel Rayan, Jesuit priest and scholar, passed away in Kozhikode, Kerala, on 2 January 2019 at the lovely old age of 98 after inspiring numerous young men and women to serve God and God’s people. Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, the President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference (FABC), paid homage to this “giant of Asian Liberation Theology” who cared for the earth and all human beings with a theology rooted in his commitment to Christ the Liberator.
Fr M K George, the Jesuit Provincial of Kerala, hailed Fr Rayan, his teacher, as an outstanding and pioneering theologian who provided a “human and earthly face” to Indian Christian theology from a third world perspective. Fr George added: “For some he was a kind, cheerful and charming person. For others he was a great lover of people. Some regarded him as a creative thinker and versatile writer. Others saw him as an artist who paints with words,”
His contributions are many: He advised the Commissions on Liturgy and Intellectual Formation of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), worked with the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC), taught at Papal Athaneum (Pune), Vidyajyothi College of Theology (Delhi), and other institutes of theology. Another great Asian theologian, Fr Kurien Kunnumpuram SJ, published a compilation of Fr Rayan’s articles in six volumes.
As professor emeritus, Fr Rayan was a delightful guru and friend to me and many of my companions who studied at Vidyajyothi College of Theology in Delhi. We often stood with him drinking coffee or tea and discussed everything under the sun. Fr Rayan had much patience listening to our naïve debates and would correct us in his own unique gentle and humorous manner.
Whenever he smelt sausages cooking in the Jesuit house in Delhi, Fr Rayan would remind us that he actually joined the then Goa Mission before the Kerala Jesuit Province came into its own. (We allowed him to taste the food prepared by the Goa Jesuits.) He was born in 1920 at Kumbalam in Kerala to Cruz and Agnes Rayan, and at the age of 19, walked into Christ Hall, Kozhikode, to begin his life as a Jesuit. He studied philosophy, theology, Indian religions, Malayalam and Sanskrit literature. After he was ordained priest in 1955 in Pune, he left for Rome, where, in the hallowed precincts of the Gregorian University, he got his doctorate in theology.
Most Reverend Filipe Neri Ferrao, the Archbishop of Goa and Daman, has challenged the Christian community to focus on the preferential option of God for the poor and suffering. This is what Fr Rayan did for over five decades. He taught and he wrote. He inspired and challenged us by his words, his deep insights and by his life. He made us to get out of the narrow confines of our thinking and attitudes, and to have a heart for the last, the lost, and the least. I think of him today as laughing with the merciful God whom he loved so much.
(The writer is the Provincial of the Jesuits in the Goa Province)