Christian Perspectives

Reflection:

Epiphany and the Educator

The Lesson of the Star:

Camillus FERNANDO

The Epiphany..... Day of the kings.... Day of manifestation.... Feast of the star. It is extraordinary how stars have always had such a fascination for men!

The Star - it is the golden point in the sky which makes one raise its head without wearying its eyes. The star - it is the ideal beauty whose peaceful light shines in the night. The star - it is always the sign on high which enables the traveller down below to keep to the right path or to find it when lost. For that reason doubtless God wished that a star should have a part to play in the history of mankind in its journey to the Saviour.

Study a little more closely the role of this mysterious star which, rising in the Orient, gives to the Magi the signal to be on their way, which proceeds them, guiding them across the desert to Jerusalem where the priests, guardians of the Scriptures, reside, which disappears just long enough to oblige the Magi to ask advice of the priests of the Law, which silently resumes its place in the vanguard until the Magi arrive finally where the Infant Jesus is, which then remains fixed above the cave, in an attitude of adoration, of prayer, of love. This role of the star is not unlike your own.

The star gave the Magi the signal to begin their journey to the Saviour. Many depend upon you for the right path to the Saviour. That is your role: not only to amuse them, to keep them united, but to show them the right path to him. It is to exercise such an influence on them, an attraction so strong that nothing can withhold them, nothing can stop them in their march to the star. And then, to know how to disappear in Jerusalem, that is the delicate point. It is so gratifying, when one is a leader, to feel that one is followed.

Why the detour through Jerusalem? Would it not have been simpler to go directly to Bethlehem? These are unfathomable mysteries of Providence. God wishes that the priests be consulted, and the star, in order to lead the caravan to God, must first lead the Magi to the priests of the Law. That is, you know, one of the phase of your role as teachers: the priests has received the mission to teach, the mission to sanctify. There are some graces, some light which reach men only through the priest.

Always respect the plan of God. Do not reverse roles. You are the auxiliaries of the clergy; the priest is not your auxiliary. Doubtless the priest owes it to himself to give you as a large a share as possible in this collaboration in the apostolate. Know, however, how to efface yourself when necessary, in order to bring souls to him, when they have more need of him than of you. Above all never criticize your priests, neither exteriorly - that is understood-nor even-interiorly. Respect their priesthood.

Act in conformity with their directives. The star could have said: "Since they know the way so well, let them go themselves to Bethlehem", No, the little star resumed its place immediately, scrupulously, following the route indicated by the Doctors of the Law. So it proceeded to Bethlehem and stopped finally over the stable where.

In white swaddling clothes, newly made,
The Virgin lulled to sleep her Child, Jesus

There we can contemplate the Magi placing at the feet of Mary, gold, frankincense, and myth. That is one of the most glorious rewards of your mission: you also, in so far as you are for your pupils truly the star of God, will see them give more and more to Him who is your adored Master, the incense of their fervent prayers, the myrrh of their generous sacrifices, the gold of their pure hearts.

The generous gifts bestowed upon Jesus by the three kings would prefigure the supremely generous gift the Lord would give to us, the gift of new and everlasting life, paid for into His very blood upon the cross.

"By its peerless beauty guided
See the eastern kings appear;
Bowing low, their gifts they offer
Gifts of incence, gold and myrrh.

Sacred gifts of mystic meaning
Incense doth the God disclose
Gold the king of kings proclaimeth
Myrrh a future tomb foreshows"

Pope celebrates Epiphany mass under tightened security

Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday celebrated mass in St Peter's Basilica under tightened security two weeks after a woman knocked him to the floor at the start of Christmas Eve mass. Despite a wider security cordon, the 82-year-old pontiff approached the barriers several times as he progressed up the central aisle to greet pilgrims, greeting babies and blessing some adults.

Under the new security measures, the barriers have been moved back about one metre (three feet) on each side of the aisle to allow more time and space for bodyguards to react if someone again tried to approach the pope.

Benedict was not hurt in the December 24 assault by a woman said to have mental health problems, and has since carried out a heavy Christmas schedule with apparent serenity.

Wednesday's mass marked Epiphany, the end of the Roman Catholic Church's Christmas season, celebrating the visit of the Three Kings, or Magi, to the infant Jesus.

Also Wednesday, the pope prayed the Angelus according to tradition from a window of his Vatican apartment overlooking St Peter's Square, crowded with thousands of pilgrims and tourists in bright sunshine.

The pope had around his shoulders a red velvet short cape with white ermine trim that he often wears during the Christmas period despite protests from animal rights groups. AFP

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody - A legend in his own life-time

W.T.A. Leslie FERNANDO

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody OMI, the well-known Catholic priest, musician, poet, lyricist, author, journalist and patriot passed away on January 15, 1998 and his death anniversary falls on January 15, 2010. A household name in our country and legend in his own life-time he lived long till the ripe old age-96.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was born on June 3, 1902 at Dankotuwa on the outskirts of Maha Oya. He had his early education at Madampe Sinhala School and secondary education at St. Joseph's College, Colombo. In 1920 he entered St. Bernard's Seminary and was ordained a priest on December 20, 1927. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody had an eventful career replete with ups and downs. He was a priest ahead of the times and all his defeats later turned out to be victories. No other Catholic priest in Sri Lanka has touched the hearts and lives of the people in Sri Lanka like Fr. Marcelline Jayakody.

There was always the love for national culture in his veins. At the beginning of the 20th Century slavishly imitating the West was the order of the day. At the same time there was a national resurgence led by the patriots like Anagarika Dharmapala, Walisinghe Harischandra, Piyadasa Sirisena and John de Silva. The higher strata in society who believed in the Western way of life was severely criticised by the well-known novelist Piyadasa Sirisena. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody read the novels of Piyadasa Sirisena with interest and drew inspiration from his works.

As a young priest Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was criticised in the Church circles for offering some Lotus flowers at the wedding Mass at the sanctuary of one of his relatives. Since then such water has flowed under the bridges in Sri Lanka. Now the national culture is given its due place in the Catholic Church and Fr. Marcelline Jayakody is considered as an exponent of indigenous culture. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody served as an assistant parish priest in parishes like Kotahena, Pamunugama, Kochchikade (Negombo) and Kandana. He was the Parish priest at Payagala, Duwa, Katana and Maggona. While serving as the parish priest, he gave the altar a national aura bedecking it with Gokkola and Ralipalam. When Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was the parish priest of Duwa, the Duwa Passion Play was performed with images of sacred personages based on the centuries old Nine Sermons of the Dukprapthi Prasangaya written by Fr. Jacome Gonsalvez. At that time no one dared to use human actors in Passion plays in churches. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody boldly broke with the tradition.

He used human actors for all the scenes except for Christ and Mary. He revised and recasted the play while maintaining the traditional outlook. He also composed all the hymns in addition to traditional 'Pasan.'

Since then the fame of the Duwa Passion Play spread far and wide. The colourful Duwa Passion Play enacted with over 250 actors all drawn from the village hamlet-Duwa was considered as the greatest Passion show in Asia at the time. It was considered second in the world only to the famous Passion Play at Oberamagauo in Western Germany performed once in ten years.

In 1940's and 1950's specially around Independence there was a national awakening in Sri Lanka. This national consciousness had its effect on the Catholic Church as well. Accordingly Fr. Marcelline Jayakody too began to compose hymns with a national fervour. The outstanding hymns of Fr. Marcelline Jayakody like Ronata Vadina Bingu Obay, Nelum Pipeela Pethi Visireela and Sunvanda Jale Pipi Kumudiniye with their superb lyrics, sweet music and the local setting captivated the hearts of all.

These hymns of Fr. Marcelline Jayakody are simple and close to people. They are appreciated even by non-Catholics, and are ever popular in churches. They contain both Christian aspects and national sentiments. They are a clear example of cultural adaptation in its true perspective.

In 1949, Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was invited to train the choir for the song Namo Namo Matha for the first independence anniversary as the composer Ananda Samarakone had gone abroad.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody rose to the occasion, trained the students of the Musaeus College and presented it and it was well acclaimed. This splendid performance paved the way to adopt Namo Namo Matha later as our National Anthem. In the late 1949 Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was appointed the Editor of Gnanartha Pradeepaya the official Catholic weekly in Sri Lanka. It was Fr. Marcelline Jayakody who designed the caption of Gnanartha Pradeepaya in a traditional cultural setting and this caption is still being continued. He also increased the pages of the journal from 8 to 12 and introduced new features with a national outlook.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody could not stay long in Gnanartha Pradeepaya. The manager of the journal insisted that Fr. Marcelline Jayakody should closely follow the Catholic English weekly the Messenger. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody refused.

The Manager took up the issue with the Archbishop of Colombo.

The Archbishop ordered Fr. Marcelline Jayakody to present the news and articles contained in the Messenger in Sinhala. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody bluntly refused again explaining that it would amount to translation and not journalism. He then packed up and left Gnanartha Pradeepaya and went to Shanthinikethan in India. Today Gnanartha Pradeepaya is far from being a translation of the Messenger. It has its own identity and the stand of Fr. Marcelline Jayakody is vindicated.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody underwent some training at Shanthinikethan, the famous Oriental arts centre set up by Rabindranath Tagore. When Fr. Marcelline Jayakody returned to Sri Lanka, he was sent to Tolagatty in Jaffna as a punishment for leaving the country without the permission of the Church authorities. Later he served as a teacher in St. Patrick's College, Jaffna.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody made use of his stay in Jaffna to make a study of Hindu religion and Tamil culture. While in Jaffna he wrote a series of articles to the 'Times of Ceylon' on Hindu culture, simple and serene life of people and the beauty of Jaffna.

In 1953 Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was appointed to the staff of St. Peter's College, Colombo. At St. Peter's he set up an Oriental Arts Centre. He got Heenbaba Dharmasiri to teach traditional dancing and introduced indigenous fine arts to the leading Catholic school in the metropolis.

In 1956 Rekawa presented by Lester James Pieris revolutionised the Sinhala film world. Until then most of the Sinhala films appealed only to the gallery. This was the first Sinhala film presented with a real indigenous outlook. Lester James Pieris got Fr. Marcelline Jayakody to write lyrics for songs in Rekawa and Sunil Shantha to provide music for them.

At a poll conducted by Sunday Observer Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was selected as the leading personality of the film world in 1956 for his magnificent lyrics for songs in Rekawa. Dr. W. Dhanayake, the then Minister of Education who presented the award said "If I could write a single song like this, I consider it's a greater achievement than being a Minister."

In 1970s Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was carrying a column in the Messenger. He wrote it for four years and continued it even from abroad. In 1976, his popular column was suddenly discontinued over a controversial article. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody could not be thwarted in that manner. Instead he wrote a series of poems to Kaviya magazine extolling Buddhist Sinhala culture.

That is not all. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was the author of several books of prose and poetry both in Sinhala and in English. He was a well-known journalist who carried columns in both Catholic and secular press. He was also an active member of Hela Havula. For several decades until his death, he was the President of the Sinhala Poets' Association. Ven. Dr. Ittapane Dhammalankara Thera has written a book on Fr. Marcelline Jayakody titled Malpale Upan Pansale Piyatuma. This is the first book in the whole world written by a Buddhist monk on a Catholic priest.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was awarded the Kalasuri title by the State and Kithu Nandana Pranamaya by the Catholic Church for his outstanding contributions to arts and culture in Sri Lanka.

Sincere to God and sincere to man, Fr. Marcelline Jayakody is the proud boast of Catholics as a national artist and patriot.

The writer is a former President of Newman Society Alumni Association

Stamp to honour Mother Theresa

E. Weerapperuma

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mother Theresa will be honoured on a postage stamp on her birth centenary. With this stamp, the US Postal Service recognizes Mother Theresa, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work. Noted for her compassion toward the poor and suffering, Mother Theresa, a diminutive Roman Catholic nun and honorary US citizen, served the sick and destitute of India and the world for nearly 50 years. Her humility and compassion, as well as her respect for the innate worth and dignity of humankind, inspired people of all ages and backgrounds to work on behalf of the world's poorest populations.

Mother Theresa, an ethnic Albanian, was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, now the Republic of Macedonia. Drawn to the religious life as a young girl, she left her home at the age of 18 to serve as a Roman Catholic missionary in India. "By then I realized my vocation was towards the poor", she later said. "From then on, I have never had the least doubt of my decision." Having adopted the name of Sister Mary Theresa, she arrived in India in 1929 and underwent initial training in religious life at a convent in Darjeeling, North of Calcutta. Two years later, she took temporary vows as a nun before transferring to a convent in Calcutta. She became known as Mother Theresa in 1937, when she took her final vows.

Following a divine inspiration and deeply moved by the poverty and suffering she saw in the streets of Calcutta, Mother Theresa left her teaching post at the convent in 1948 to devote herself completely to the city's indigent residents. Two years later, she founded her own congregation, the Missionaries of Charity. Like Mother Theresa, the nuns of the new order wore white saris with a blue border rather than traditional nuns' habits. In addition to the traditional vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty, they took a fourth vow of wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor. In order to understand and help those who have nothing, Mother Theresa told the young women, we must live like them.

When Mother Theresa accepted the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, one of her numerous honours and distinctions she did so in the name of the poor, the hungry, the sick and the lonely and convinced the organizers to donate to the needy the money normally used to fund the awards banquet. Well respected worldwide, she successfully urged many of the world's business and political leaders to give their time and resources to help those in need. President Ronald Reagan presented Mother Theresa with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985, the same year she began work on behalf of AIDS sufferers in the US and other countries. In 1997, Congress awarded Mother Theresa the Congressional Gold Medal for her "outstanding and enduring contributions through humanitarian and charitable activities."

Mother Theresa died in Calcutta on September 5, 1997, and is buried there. She had been a citizen of India since 1948.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton and the US Congress awarded Mother Theresa the honorary US citizenship. As of February 2009, the honour has only been bestowed on five others. Winston Churchill received it in 1963, Raoul Wallenberg in 1981, William Penn and Hannah Callowhill Penn in 1984, and the Marquis de Lafayette in 2002. With the exception of Hannah Callowhill Penn, each of these figures has also appeared on a US postage stamp: the Marquis de Lafayette four times (1952, 1957, 1976 and 1977), William Penn in 1932, Churchill in 1965 and Wallenberg in 1997.

The stamp features a portrait of Mother Theresa painted by award-winning artist Thomas Blackshear II of Colorado Springs, CO.

The new year transaction of the Kandana People’s Bank Branch was held at the branch premises recently. Here Franciscan priest Rev. Antony Sirimanna conducting the religious activities. Kandana People’s Bank Branch Manager P.D.A. Dharmasiri, Operation Manager M. Swarnalatha and Deputy Manager Jayanthi Wijetunga were also present. Picture by Mahanama Vithanage Malwana group correspondent