Christian perspectives

St. Sebastian, Great Healer

Christie FERNANDO Chilaw special correspondent

The 75th Diamond Jubilee of St. Sebastian's Church, Aluthwatta, Chilaw was celebrated on January 30 and 31. Vespers was held with the participation of the Bishop of Kurunegala Rt. Rev. Dr. Harold Antony and the evening jubilee Holy Mass was celebrated by the Bishop of Chilaw Rt. Rev. Dr. Valence Mendis at 7 p.m.

The village of Aluthwatta is predominantly Catholic and the church dedicated to St. Sebastian was built in April 1935 with the labour and hard work of ancestors. Down the years, St. Sebastian has protected this village and the inhabitants are grateful for curing them of deadly diseases.

They are also accustomed to offering an almsgiving every year in honour of the saint.

Saint Sebastian was a Christian saint and martyr, who was killed during the Roman Emperor Diocletian's persecution of Christians. He is commonly depicted in art literature tied to a post and shot with arrows. He was born at Narbonne, Gaul and became a solider in the Roman army in Rome in about 283.

Sebastian was known for having encouraged two Christian prisoners Mark and Marcellian to remain steadfast in their faith and were martyred for their belief in God. They were deacons and twin brothers. They had refused to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods and were arrested. They were visited by their father and mother, Tranquillinus and Martia, in prison, who attempted to persuade them to renounce Christianity.

St. Sebastian cured a woman of her muteness, and that the miracle instantly converted 78 other persons. Sebastian was named captain in the praetorian guards by Emperor Diocletian, as did Emperor Maximian when Diocletian went to the East. Neitehr knew that Sebastian was a Christian. When it was discovered during Maximian's persecution of the Christians that Sebastian was indeed a Christian, he was ordered executed. He was shot with arrows and left for dead, but when the widow of Castulus discovered his body, she found he was still alive and nursed him back to health.

Soon after, Sebastian intercepted the Emperor and denounced him for his cruelty to Christians, and was beaten to death on the Emperor's orders. He has been declared patron of plague suffers of his reported cures of those afflicted with many diseases.

St. Sebastian, the Great Healer of plagues and contagious diseases, pray for us and keep us strong and healthy!

Annual feast of Alawwa Church

Text and Picture A. Keerthisinghe Alawwa special correspondent

The annual feast of St. Sebastian's Church Alawwa will be held on February 8 under the patronage of Rt. Rev. Herold Antony, Bishop of Kurunegala.

The church dedicated to St. Sebastian was begun way back in 1900. It was originally housed in a cadjan roofed shed in the vicinity of the Alawwa railway station. The South Indian textile traders based in Colombo were in the habit of lodging here on every Saturday night. On the following "Sunday' they venerated the few statues found there, performed their religious duties and proceeded to Colombo.

The statue of St. Sebastian found the prominent place among other statues. Subsequently this little shed came to be dedicated to St. Sebastian.

After 1936 Alawwa progressed gradually during the tenure of the priest who came to Polgahawela. The Kurunegala road which borders the church in front and the railway lines at the rear, with its rumblings and hearing transport has had its toll on the church.

The walls are cracked, infested with termites and tiles dislodged, making it necessary to demolished the building and erect a new one.

Here a new budding was erected under the guidance of present Parish Priest Rev. Fr. H.S.C. Perera.

Christian unity - long overdue

Leonard R. Mahaarachchi

The unifying of all Christian denominations under the banner of Christ is something that has been long over due. A Unity day is being celebrated with fanfare every January but the issue dies down only to surface again in the following year. In between nothing is been done by way of uniting the manifold denominations, save only lip work.

This year we need to seriously ponder over the disunity that is prevailing among the so called followers of Jesus Christ and serious attempts should be made in that direction if real unity is to materialise.

Browsing through the past history we find that the Christian church in Rome split and went into schism never to be re united again for centuries. Thereafter the split widened with mushrooming denominations split over one issue or the other. The year 2010 denotes a landmark in the annals of church unity history, in that it is the centenary year since the 1910 Adenburg conference. Held in Scotland in June, in the town known by that name, the date changed to January in due course of time. The reason was that the Christian West celebrated a feast in honour of Sts. Peter and Paul at January end. The idea of unity was the brainchild of Rev. Paul Watson who conceived the idea two years prior in 1908.

The Catholic church which celebrates a feast in memory of St. Paul's conversion on January 28 after Vatican II joined the other denominations in celebrating. The Christian Unity day, in keeping with the changes envisaged in the Council deliberations. Since then the day has been kept from January 18 to 25 annually with all Christian sects participating in the proceedings. Though the catholic church did not join in celebrating Unity day earlier, once it did, it was the missionaries of Asia and Africa (not Europe) that showed interest in uniting with all non Catholic sects to make the Unity idea a success.

Church unity was shattered by the Reformation started by Rev. Martin Luther in 1517 only to be made worse in 1534 by King Henry VIII whose controversy gave rise to the Church of England. Came 1560 and the Presbyterian church sprang in Scotland led by John Knox. The Church of England split further with a new church called the Protestant Episcopalian church in the Seventeenth century and spreading to all American colonies.

Holland started its own church, the Congregationalists in 1582. In 1606 the Baptist church sprang in Amsterdam, Holland, started by John Smith. In 1744 John and Charles Wesley started the Methodist church and Joseph Smith commenced the Mormon church in 1774 in London. London was the scene again in 1865 when the Salvation Army came into being. Capt. William Booth was its founder.

William Miller in 1831 started the Adventist movement with headquarters in Dresden. Came 1914 and it was time for the Assembly of God to form its own church. Long before that in 1830 the Church of God movement started by John Wine Brenner. At the turn of that century i.e. in 1896 another Christian sect called Church of God and Saints of Christ appeared in the USA. Before that in 1832 The Disciples of Christ. denomination commence which is also known as The Chamberlain church. But at the beginning of that century in 1803 Jacob Albright had commenced the Evangelist church in Pennsylvania. More churches came up till the last of them Calvary church and The Worldwide Church of God came up and since then more than 30 new denominations have come up during the last half a century of the previous millennium.

Needless to say the split of Christianity in different countries gave rise to religious disturbances giving rise even to war between different sects of Christians, much against the basic principles of religion. This became a stumbling block to the spread of the knowledge of Christ among non Christians especially in Europe. Even in Sri Lanka history has it that the Dutch persecuted the Catholics. While that was the scenario in Asia, the Protestants fought with Catholics in Europe. "I love Jesus Christ, but I hate the Christians." So said Mahatma Ghandi of India, for such was the sorry picture the diversionists had made of Jusus, the founder of Christianity. This sorry state of affairs baffled the adherents of other religious, like Hindus and Buddhists. Battles were staged in Asia and Africa by missionaries in an attempt to spread the religion. This gave a negative picture of Christianity which became unpopular in the eyes of non Christians.

It is under this background that we have to view unity and take it seriously in the interest of Christianity. Unless the followers of Christ have unity among themselves, the world cannot expect to have unity between other diverse sects, be they ethnic, tribal or whatever. The world is grateful to Christian missionaries in Scotland., who were the pioneers in the cause of unity of churches.

At this moment of time, when we have reached 100 years since the 1910 Adenburg conference, all feuding parties should be determined to make church unity a significant feature by showing unity not merely by an annual forum but by living in a united spirit and propagating unity in spite of the diversity. The Catholic church has rightly invested the church I Scotland with promoting unity via its Faith and Order Commission.

Don Bosco Sri Lanka:

Second Chapter begins tomorrow

The Sri Lanka Don Bosco Salesian Vice Province headed by Rev. Fr. Anthony H. Pinto SDB, Country Director/Provincial Superior will hold her second historical Provincial Chapter from tomorrow, February 7 to 12 at the Salesians' Headquarters at Dungalpitiya, Negombo. Rev Fr Joseph Pulikal will be the moderator.

The members of the Don Bosco Salesian's Order have been working well over five decades in Sri Lanka and it was elevated to the state of a Vice Province of the SDB on September 8, 2004 and installed Rev Fr. Anthony H. Pinto as the first Provincial Director of the Sri Lanka Vice Province.

The Second Vice Provincial Chapter of Sri Lanka is held to assess the extent of implementation of the decisions made at the 2007 SDB General Chapter held in Rome. The very first Vice Provincial Chapter in Sri Lanka was held in February 2006 as a prelude to the General Chapter SDB held in 2007 in Rome.

The Don Bosco Salesian based in Rome, is a global Catholic Religious Group spreading her wings across the globe embracing and coming in direct contact with around 15 million youth well over 130 countries. Sri Lanka is a proud member of that international family and the main thrust of activities of the Don Bosco here, is formation and training of youth to be useful citizens.

At the Second Chapter of the Sri Lanka SDB Vice Province ,the progress of various sectors and all other activities would be assessed, take stock of the development made, action plan to complete the development work envisaged and the attention will be focused on the future of the SDB working in the country. The SDB Directors heading various institutions in the country and other ex-officio members are scheduled to attend the Provincial Chapter.

Weekly Devotions:

ABEL, first shepherd

Abel was the second son of Adam and Eve. He was the first shepherd mentioned in the Bible. He was murdered by his brother Cain through jealousy. Abel's sacrifice was more acceptable to God than Cain's, which triggered anger and jealousy culminating in the first murder mentioned in the Bible. Abel's name is amongst the faithful mentioned in Hebrews 11.

Heb 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. I am sure God made it quite clear to Adam's family that they could not commune as freely as they did before. Sin entered the world. In fact, God banishes Adam from the Garden of Eden, the paradise He had prepared for man and two angels are kept to protect the garden preventing man from entering into it again.

He would have definitely spoken about how only through a blood sacrifice man could enter his presence. I am also sure a certain amount of faith had to be exhibited in believing this procedure, as why this sacrifice is essential. This had to be accepted through faith, in what God was saying. According to the above scripture Abel offered unto God this sacrifice where his heart and action were acceptable to God.

Abel's heart was right with God and this cost him his life. He was the first person to face death, after creation. Shedding of blood and death would have been somewhat shocking as it was the very first time it happened. Although in itself the murder and death of Abel is gruesome, from then on we find sin escalating rapidly until it actually grieved God that He had created mankind.

Man of faith and was righteous before God, First shepherd mentioned in the Bible, The first martyr to die for his faith and The first human to face death

Abel's life clearly shows us that life is unfair. Even though you may do everything right in the eyes of God, people can treat you unfairly. However, it is also clear that nothing escapes the eyes of God and the deed will not go unpunished by Him sooner or later.

Prayer

Lord our heavenly Father, teach me to accept life to be unfair, but in being faithful to You I will be blessed by You. I pray for protection from the evil one and help me to follow You according to the way You have shown us. Teach me to accept what you have taught us even if we do not understand it fully. Be thou our wisdom and understanding, In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Sunitha Sahayam

Pope asks Christians to contribute to 'just societies'

Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday urged Christians to "contribute to creating just societies" in his Lent message, which will be read in Catholic churches worldwide.

"Material goods are certainly useful and required," but Jesus himself "surely condemns the indifference that even today forces hundreds of millions into death through lack of food, water and medicine," he said.

The annual statement, issued by the Vatican in seven languages, added that "injustice, the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively external roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious cooperation with evil."

Presenting the message to the press, German cardinal Paul Joseph Cordes insisted on the need to "correct" social factors that caused injustice, saying the Catholic Church had a role to play.

"It would be false to place us Christians among the those who are opposed to a just redistribution and have continuously defended an unjust social order," said the cardinal.

Lent, which will begin this year on February 17, is as a period of prayer, repentance and self denial that culminates in the Holy Week leading up to Easter. AFP