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| JANUARY 2004 | ARCHIVE |
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Women deserve high prominence in the society. Family relations and its security is to be identified as one of the important challenge of the society. The mission of women for the behavioral glorification in family relations is very crucial. |
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Women deserve high prominence in the society. Till very recent past, women were subjugated to diverse repressions and exploitations. However, nowadays women are growing in parity with men. The participation of woman, in every walk of life, is quite significant. Women excel with atmost competence in their performance in every sector. This Excellency is well manifested in the Marthoma Church Women's Gospel Organization ("Savika Sangam"). The expositions of this Organization, in the Church’s spiritual nourishment programs and in the social reformative accomplishments are highly impressive. The most imperative matters necessitated for our contemporary society are:
Family relations and its security is to be identified as one of the important challenge of that kind. Many of our families encounter the menace of its disintegration. Family relations are being shattered by sectarianism. If man and woman
do not brazen out the life very cautiously, all the chances are there for devastation of the family. Time is the biggest gift given to us by God. Time should be expended vigilantly for fortification of family relations. It is indispensable that there should be love for each other and upkeep an unselfish mentality. Upbringing of the children and their growth are very imperative in relation to the family. Children should experience and get influenced by the affection of the parents. They should get the opportunity in the family for their behavioral glorification in relation to God. The mission of women in this aspect is very crucial. Doctrine of woman participation for the accomplishment of
Christian Mission, was commenced during the public service of Jesus itself. Those women were privileged to walk beside our Savior, as they were self-dedicated to the Lord's presence till his ascension. Jesus invites women to walk with God, realizing the requisite of the society. |
| [Maramon 2003: Original in Malayalam] |
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Sins are forgiven only if blood is poured out. Christ was offered in sacrifice once to take away the sins of many. Our Lord is the high priest and the spotless sacrificial lamp of God who was set apart before the creation of man to carry all the sins, sickness, and curses of everyman. |
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Sins are forgiven only if blood is poured out (Lv 17:11, Hebrews 9:22). Christ was offered in sacrifice once to take away the sins of many (Hebrews 9:28). When Christ went through the tent and entered once and for all into the Most Holy Place, he did not take the blood of goats and bulls to offer as sacrifice; rather, he took his own blood and obtained eternal salvation for us (Hebrews 9:12). Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself as a perfect sacrifice to God. His blood will purify our consciences from useless rituals, so that we may serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14). All sacrifices until the coming of sacrificial Lamb of God (Jesus Christ) were shadows and shades of the final and eternal sacrifice of our Lord on Calvary. John the Baptist pointed out the young carpenter from Nazareth to his friends and the people around and declared, “this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29).
Our Lord is the high priest and the spotless sacrificial lamp of God who was set apart before the creation of man to carry all the sins, sickness, and curses of everyman. In the act of crucifixion carried out by the Roman soldiers and Jewish leaders, Christ’s sacrifice was achieved on Calvary fulfilling God’s plan of salvation that was revealed through several prophets from time to time. He was punished for all of us (Isaiah 53 1-12). So God did away with all the old sacrifices and put the sacrifice of Christ in its place. Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do, we are all purified from sins by the offering that he made of his own body once and for all (Hebrews 10:9-10). Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself as a perfect sacrifice to God. His blood will purify our consciences from useless rituals, so that we may serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14)
Every Jewish priest performs his services every day and offers the same sacrifices many times; but these sacrifices can never take away sins. Christ, however, offered one sacrifice for sins, an offering that is effective forever, and then he sat down at the right side of God. With one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those who are purified from sin (Hebrews 10: 11-14). Our evil deeds and sins are no longer remembered. When sins are forgiven, an offering to take away sins is no longer needed (Hebrews 10:17-18)
All our sins of the past, present and future are eternally forgiven. Our Lord’s sacrifice cannot be repeated, imitated or duplicated by any priest, but it needs to be remembered and thanked through praises and worship. Christ did not go in to offer himself many times, for then he would have had to suffer many times ever since the creation of the world. Instead, now when all ages of time are nearing the end, he has appeared once and for all, to remove sin though the sacrifice of himself. Christ was offered in sacrifice once to take away the sins of many (Hebrews 9:25-29). Our High Priest lives forever, and his work, as priest does not pass on to someone else. So he is able, now and always to save those who come to God through him because he lives forever to plead with God for them .He is the High Priest who meets our needs. He offered one sacrifice, once forever when he offered himself (Hebrews 7:26-27)
So all believers in Jesus Christ are abundantly blessed because “ we have a great priest in charge of the house of God. Let us come near to God with sincere heart and a sure faith, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience (Hebrews 10:19-22) to worship, to adore and praise him always. There is no longer any sacrifice that will take away sins if we purposely go on sinning after the truth has been made known to us (Hebrews 10:26)!
Though the priesthood of our Lord is not transferred to anybody to do sacrifice for the remission of sins, all believers are called be his priests (1 Peter 2:4-5, 2:9, Rev 1:6) and asked to offer a different kind of sacrifice; to offer praise to God as our sacrifice through Jesus Christ, which is the offering presented by lips that confess him as Lord, to do good and help one another. These are the sacrifices that please God (Hebrews 13:15-16)
What a freedom we have in Christ Jesus! Let us confess our sins before God through one and only mediator, Jesus Christ, who has send us the Holy Spirit from the Father. The Spirit will convict us of our sins and mistakes and help us to experience the powerful and everlasting benefits of our Lord’s sacrifice, and thus we become the children of God and inherit the kingdom of God. All the blessings of the abundant and eternal life are ours because the Lamb of God was once sacrificed for all of us forever. Amen!
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He who made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. |
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Key verses: “He who made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. Whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery,” Mat 19:4-6, 9. “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” Mat 5:28.
We live in an age of crumbling relationships and broken marriages. In olden days, mostly parents, grandparents or uncles arranged the marriages and yet divorces were rare, even absent. Then, at least 50 years ago, marriages in our Church were conducted in Syriac, vernacular of our Lord, a language not known to many but the clergies and yet divorce was unheard of. Though they could not understand word-by-word meaning of the marriage liturgy they considered it divine as if from the mouth of the Lord and felt a moral compulsion to adhere to it. I do not suppose that all marriages were then ideal and problems were totally absent. Prostitution and adultery are as old as mankind. Outrageous, bad-tempered and infidels were not uncommon on those days and yet the underlying understanding of the moral and social obligations and sanctity associated with the establishment of marriage was never in jeopardy. Surely, spouse abuses were rampant, females being especially vulnerable and yet no one opted to terminate a relationship, they deserve immense credit, endured hardships such as abuses from husband and in-laws and at times siblings in the larger interest of upcoming children, family reputation, etc.
Marriages are now conducted in the vernacular and everyone knows well what is said. Most of the marriages are audio-video taped so to enable the spouses to rehear and refresh the memory of what they had agreed and committed in the presence of God, clergies, relatives and host of friends and yet many of them fail to live by their commitments, some live in utter revulsion and perennial emotional anguish and yet others miserably end in separation or divorce. Living conditions, educational levels, information technology, communication, transport and civic amenities have terrifically improved reducing the world into a global village. Analytical study of psychology has reached its zenith, which produced many marital and pre-marital counselors and yet divorce and separation are soaring daily. Statistics show that one out of every two marriages in this country end in divorce, without exception whether Christian or Non-Christian. The reason is that the so-called sexual revolution caused erosion in morality and basic understanding of the concept of marriage.
What is therefore marriage in the Christian sense? Marriage is union of one man and one woman as husband and wife with the intend to procreate, rear children, live in harmony, mutual sacrificial love, care and share fulfilling all the economic, social and religious responsibilities. This union is the most exclusive, intimate, emotional and sublime of all relationships. Unlike other relationships husband and wife relationship is essentially sexual oriented that is, they are sexual partners. For this reason spouse relationship demands perfect faithfulness and mutual submission. There are various views about marriage, its theology, and application, spiritual and secular significance and recently about its very definition.
We believe that marriage is God-ordained. For, it is God who created male and female. God conducted the first marriage in the Garden of Eden and blessed them to be fruitful and multiply. So it is a divine call and one’s duty to actively participate in God’s creative activity. Jesus Christ by His presence and participation blessed the marriage at Cana and through that the whole concept of marriage. He replenished their want, made water into wine that symbolized His approval of good social customs such as marriage, hospitality, etc. When Pharisees confronted Jesus with the question of divorce He went all the way back to creation, the original intent of marriage and insisted on the necessity to stay together and prohibited divorce. He decreed that since God united husband and wife, no man should separate them, Mat 19: 6.
St. Paul said, Marriage is honorable and bed undefiled, Heb 13: 4. Thus marriage is holy and a Blessed Sacrament. The mutuality, equality, inseparability, bond and family order are well explained in the epistles. “The wife has no authority over her own body but the husband does. Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does, 1 Cor 7:4. Husband should serve God as the head of the house. Husband and wife should submit to one another, Eph 5:21. Husband is to love his wife, nourish and cherish her as Christ Himself does to Church, Eph 5:28-29. Marriage is a great mystery compared to Jesus Christ as the eternal bridegroom and Church as His bride thus exalting its sanctity to celestial realm. These exhortations demand us to honor the institution of marriage in proper perspective.
Jesus said, there would be no marriage in the kingdom of God, Mat 22:30. St Paul said, virginity is better than marriage but allowed marriage as a means to avoid fornication, 1 Cor Ch 7. But these verses never negate or discourage marriage. Montanus, a monk believed in the inspiration of Spirit, raised heresies based on such stray thoughts in the second century that the end of time was near, Second coming of the Lord was imminent, New Jerusalem would soon descend, etc. He imposed rigorous fasting and discipline and prohibited marriage and wine. Venerable fathers of the Church fought against the heresy, defended the value of marriage and decreed, “Baselious Patriarch: Those who renounce marriage and wine and say God’s creation is defiled need be re-baptized for they are equal to Marcian (another heretic) and weak concerning God,” Hydaya Canon 2: 1. Now we are threatened with more heinous heresies.
Certain people deify sexual acts while some others deny its very nature of divine origin and intent. Not long ago, I heard an audio-cassette, which said, “The bed-room is the holy altar and the sexual intercourse is most holy act, it is most appropriate to receive Holy Eucharist immediately after sexual intercourse,” Potta priest. Another scholarly essay that came in my email titled, “The carnal mind is enmity against God,” Rom 8:7 says, (author quotes from various sources) “Our sexual energy is the closest energy to spirit. It is the closest energy to the divine force. Something intrinsically spiritual lies at the heart of sexual act.” (New Age Movement.) “Rightly understood, true and holy conjugal union does reflect the spirit of the Word from on High. It is like a mysterious love of the Father towards the Word mysteriously begotten,” Laura Jones. They call it “sacred sex.” “Sexuality is sacred because it is a sharing of energy,” Wanda Marrs in “New Age Lies to Women.” “Sexuality, intimate embraces between husband and wife and their subsequent union into one flesh is a holy altar. The moment when love leads husband and wife into a consummation of their beings is a holy moment and a sacred event,” says Father Dimitrios. Without going more into details I would resist to call sexual act of husband and wife a ‘holy altar’ and equate it to liturgical level. These incoherent notions are extreme deification of sex and needs vehement repudiation.
The author, an Eastern Orthodox priest, expounds with reason that all sexual acts are carnal. He failed to differentiate sex as intimate act of love between married couple and sex with others as carnality. He goes on to prove that these are not only erroneous but also unorthodox in concept, relying on certain Orthodox fathers. “Since lawful intercourse must be accompanied by bodily desire, it is fitting to refrain from entering a holy place immediately after, since this desire itself is not blameless. For behold David who said, behold I was shaped in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me.” Gregory of Rome. I have no difficulty to see eye to eye for no one should enter the holy place unclean. Cleanliness of both mind and body is strictly imperative. I would add that attraction and desire for sex is not malicious in itself, because it is God’s creation. All creations, including the minute and unseen one-celled amoeba, impart specific function in the ecology and are good and beneficial for the sustenance of universe. The sex instinct is embedded in the biological system and is fundamental for procreation. Nature itself bears witness; bees are the agent of pollination and sweet smelling fragrance and glowing colors of the flowers attract the bees. It is sexual attraction that invigorates desire and desire leads to consummation. Without desire marital life would be monotonous and if there is no element of pleasure, who will go for it and if no one goes for it how procreation will go on or how life in the universe will exist?
David’s statement, “In sin my mother conceived me,” Ps 51:5 since quoted to prove all conjugal love are sinful it needs more insight. David was born of legitimate wedlock. So how can it be sin? He is referring to the presence of innate nature that prompts every human being to fall short of the glory of God. Two most important purposes of marriage are companionship and childbearing. Companionship leads to emotional intimacy, sexual intercourse and that results in conception and childbirth. Ordinary human tendency is that the spouses indulge in sexual act just for pleasure without higher purpose in mind. Mere desire to satisfy urge of the flesh, which often precedes the other purpose, is sin because priority in this case is not given to God’s purpose but to the human pleasure. Tobit is an exception, a model, which newly married could emulate. As soon as Tobit and Sarah entered bridal chamber they prayed to God declaring the purpose of marriage; that they came together not for adultery but to fulfill the requirements of Law, Tobit 8:4-9. The purpose is more important than the act itself and the purpose determines the validity or invalidity of the act.
Killing a human being is murder. An executioner does the same act of killing, yet no one condemns the executioner as murderer for he acts under authority. Rahab helped the spies of Joshua. Actually it was an act of treason against her own country and yet she was saved, Josh 2:1-21. Judith treacherously murdered General Holofernes and yet she was honored as heroine because of her faith and help for God’s people, Judith 13:8. Saul sacrificed for the Lord but it was deemed unlawful and punished for it because he overstepped his authority, 1 Sam 13:1-14. Companionship is essential component in marriage without which marriage may break apart. Children are the worst affected when parents break-up as it endangers the safety and growth of children. Thus it can be cogent argument that Coitus between spouses cannot be deemed sinful even if it is for pleasure-sake. However, spouses ought to practice self-control and be vigilant against temptations. No one can argue against the innate tendency to err. St Paul amply expounded the state of human helplessness. “I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do, … Rom 7:14-24. So David was recounting how he fell victim to his own passion and the horrendous force that pull humanity to commit sinful acts. So carnality and legitimate wedlock-sex need be differentiated. What St Paul was saying is about lust of the flesh outside of marriage. Carnal mind is the one captivated with sin of flesh and devoid of moral compass.
“Had Adam not sinned, there would be no necessity for him to enter into carnal intercourse with Eve,” says Byzantine commentator-Zigaben. “God’s original intention was that we give birth not through marriage and corruption; the violation of the commandment introduced marriage as a result of Adams’s transgression,” quote from St Athanesius Great. The author considers sexual acts of husband and wife as carnal. His quote from St Athanesius, if it is correct, for I have not read the original, is also out of tune with the sanctity of marriage and to me it does not make sense. While it is true that Adam knew his wife and Eve bore a son after the downfall, it is wrong to suggest that God had some other devise for procreation. Not that God could not, but did not envisage another mode of procreation. “God created them male and female.” This clearly adduces beyond doubt that God intended procreation only through sexual intercourse and not by any other means. Sex was not a creation of the transgression nor it was created after the transgression.
Marriage was not incidental to violation of the commandment. Marriage of Adam and Eve with the blessing to multiply and replenish earth was done before the transgression. What impeded in the transgression was the righteous relationship they enjoyed till then with God. The immediate result was shame, guilt and tendency to misuse God’s creation. Thus sexual act within the framework of marriage is honorable and undefiled. Sexual act outside of marriage is carnal, because the purpose is lust of the flesh and hence misuse of sex. St Paul explicitly distinguishes carnality and marriage union when he said, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge,” Heb 13:4. John the Baptist said, “God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones,” Mat 3:9. No (animal) life ever created otherwise than through sexual intercourse and conception. St John was rebuking the Jews who felt too proud of being chosen people of God. It has nothing to do with procreation
Anatomy and health speaks favorably about sex. In the article titled, “Sex is good for body, mind” Art Carey says, Sexual intercourse is a good exercise, which can burn between 100 to 300 calories, reduce weight, increase heart beat (to 150) between 40 to 50 per minute, as good as climbing three flights of stairs, reduce the risk of heart attack by 50%, fill body organs with fresh oxygen, flush away toxins and wastes so the body feels cleaner and active and serve a workout for major muscles in the buttocks, pelvis, thighs, arms and shoulders. It is a biological orgy, which releases a cascade of hormones that reduces blood pressure, relieves pain and stress, fortify bones and muscles, accelerates metabolism, lower the cholesterol, boost the immune system, retard aging, promotes relaxation, contentment, bonding and well being. It is the physical consummation of emotional and spiritual intimacy. People who enjoy sexual intimacy are more resistant to disease, stay younger and livelonger. This extended research finding compliments St Paul’s (above) advice. Thus undifferentiated condemn of sex as carnal is not tenable. Since as elucidated marriage is God ordained and beneficial, let us consider how to keep it blameless.
What are the essentials for a satisfying and lasting marriage? This is a serious question that needs to be continually explored. There is no short-cut answer either. Before getting into its details I would say a small story that comes to my mind. There was a monk who taught moral lessons to young men. One of his pupils went to his far away home on leave and got married there. It was arranged marriage. After the expiry of leave he returned to his work place, visited the monk and informed him about the marriage. The monk enquiring details, asked him to describe his bride. The man described, among other things, qualities of the girl so as to impress the teacher. He told ‘the girl is slightly younger to him as was the local custom and was a good match for him. The monk drew a zero (0) on the black board. The man was a bit shaken at the unusual stark remark of the teacher. He then said, ‘she is very beautiful.’ The teacher wrote another zero (00). The young man became a bit upset and yet did not give in. He continued, ‘she has good character.’ The teacher added another zero (000). The man further said thinking the teacher would now appreciate, ‘she brought good dowry.’ The teacher added yet another zero (0000). The gentle man got nearly exasperated but did not give up. He said, ‘she has good education.’ The teacher kept his cool and simply added another zero (00000). The newly wed, almost desperate, thought what happened to the monk and yet continued, ‘she is from a reputed
family.' He was citing the usual ABCDEF concept.) The monk instantly added one more zero (000000). The young man hurriedly added as a final resort, ‘she is God-fearing.’ Now the monk smiled and wrote ‘1’ at the left-hand-side of the zeros (1000000). The young man was elated to read one Million. The monk explained that the single factor that makes all other factors worth is the God-fearing quality. All other factors render meaningless if one is not God-fearing. Make no mistake, the God-fearing quality is not assigned to wife alone, both husband and wife should have it equally not as a perquisite but as an essential character feature that makes marriage relationship enjoyable, meaningful, mutually satisfying and enduring.
What is God-fearing? This again is a hard nut to crack and a totally alien concept for the present generation and contemporary culture. Fear has varied meanings and contexts in the Bible. Fear in this context is different from the excitement when apprehending danger or painful emotion. It is the extreme sense of reverence to the awesome nature of God, an innate and yet enigmatic conviction that He who causes all animate and inanimate things at His will and sustains them in perfect order and fashion is worthy of honor, adoration and worship above all other things. It is yet a passion for explicit admission of the higher power and obedience to it in abject negation of ones self. It is admitting and venerating the Might of God in relation to one’s own frailty. It is clearly placing God first in all the private and public conducts of an individual. In other words, it is the answer to the question: who is the master of one’s life.
For Jesus said, no one can serve two masters at the same time. The individual’s conduct both in public and private, especially the thought and actions when no one else is around, is the decisive factor to adjudge who is his or her master. If one fears God it means that such individual belongs to God and whatever such individual does in private shall conform to God’s standards. Many a people would conduct themselves flawlessly in public not because they are guided by a higher principle but essentially because of people around who might evaluate the actions and for fear of loosing reputation, job or income. Thus a spouse could be morally corrupted in mind while playing honesty before the spouse, a leader or public servant could be unclean internally while meticulously playing ethics before the public, a religious leader could be wicked and unclean in his objective while it is possible to perfectly camouflage his ulterior intentions and show piety. In other words these are the people who publicly conduct themselves as praiseworthy, honest and lawful, while they are internally just the opposite. This kind of people may rightly be called hypocrites for they say something in public while they are not what they claim.
Jesus rebuked Pharisees as hypocrites, Mat. 23:28, Lk. 12: 1. David indulged in hypocrisy when his anger was greatly kindled against the rich man who for his pleasure robed the poor neighbor of his only ewe-lamb and decreed the death of the rich man along-with fourfold restitution for he had no pity, 2 Sam 12:5-6. The fact that David thoroughly forgot was that he had no pity for his devout servant Uriah. He came to senses only after prophet Nathan pointed his finger at him. Truly, at one time or the other, one-way or the other we all become hypocrites, often worse than David and the Pharisees and yet the difference is that David earnestly repented, confessed and fell into the Mighty hands of God which we often fail to accomplish and remain in sin and sense of guilt. One who fears God cannot be a hypocrite rather a hypocrite cannot be God fearing. God fearing is complete surrender of self in perfect obedience to all the commandments of God. Patriarch Abraham demonstrated the best example of God-fearing quality by positively responding to God’s command to sacrifice his only son. Job demonstrated God-fearing by his patience and glorifying God even in the midst of extreme affliction. St Mary demonstrated this quality by believing the Word of God and willfully submitting to it without seeking personal comfort. Apostle St John demonstrated it by obedience to Jesus’ command while on the cross to receive St Mary as his mother. Thus we have a host of exemplary God-fearing men and women in the holy bible. According to St Isaac the Syrian, fear is a means to draw one’s rational soul closer to God. But how those become relevant in our lives, is yet another question.
[To be continued with Part II of this Article in next Issue...]
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The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth and its inhabitants are scorched.. God also works through certain guidelines and natural laws. |
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There is no place in the world that has not been molested by the hands of modernity. Delusion means to impose upon with something assumingly true, but truly not. The symptoms of modernity are: high culture highlighted by club life, Epicureanism, pop culture, sophisticated art and sports, mass media of various types, drugs and hard drugs of an egalitarian society, religious fundamentalism nurturing sure salvation, feasts and festivities, procuring the tools, equipments, machines, vehicles of modern technology, and what not, not realizing the fact that modernity is not the question of date but of outlook. The translation of fossil wealth as dollars, pounds and dhinars is the common denominator for the flowering of a subterranean culture that embraced humanity all of a sudden without any warning.
Kerala once a pastoral land of peasants and agriculturists, depicted as God’s land inhabited by St.Thomas Christians, the followers of St. Thomas, the founder of Indian church in A.D.52, has also been converted as a haven of multitudes of modern delusions. The creeks, brooks and rivers that originate from the panoramic mountain views and kiss with the Arabian Sea make the fertile plains as the home of a rich fauna and flora of this blessed coastal state. But everything is changed at the blink of our eyes. There is no place in the world that has not been adversely affected by global warming. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth and its inhabitants are scorched...(Is.24; 5-23). This is the destined end of the whole inhabitants of the earth, not confined to one area only. The pastoral lands that converted for producing the commercial products, such as rubber, coco, coffee, tea and other spices, paving the way for breeding mosquitoes and pests of all types and the fertilizers and pesticides used for exterminating them, coupled with our epicurean sedentary life, have only multiplied our woes and wailings.
Whichever home you go, we are greeted with the question whether we take sugar in our tea, followed by the miserable portrayal of lethal diseases (cancer, heart attack, peduppu or diabetes, blood pressure ...), caused by hard drugs, alcoholism, smoking culminating in suicides, together with profligacy of all kinds, domestic violence, starvation and malnutrition, road deaths, political violence and vendetta, bandhs, strikes, picketing, rampage of bravados, gharavos, eventuating in an endless list of tortures, corruptions and bribery of plutocrats and bureaucrats nurtured by rampant red tapism and so on. The plight of once a rigid society of religious fervor so addicted to the filth and permissiveness disseminated by global T.V.channels is another heart breaking fiasco. Kerala is not an exception; similar or worse is the condition in every nook and corner of the world.
IMPACT OF GENETICS THEORY : The majority, including theologians, psychiatrists, medical teams, farmers, fishermen,..., are all singing the same chorus in one tone and tune that it is the gene, not character and life style, that determines mostly the fate or rise and fall of an individual. As Darwin said that monkey is our ancestor, we mimic and worship it in all the days of our lives. Accepting the ape in the chain of our genealogy, we have been imitating an ape culture since then in unison with giving birth savage like mechanical children with the help of our great grand- mother Electricity.
If genetics is the mastermind or guardian of an individual, although true in certain cases of inheriting the complexion, size and shape and imitation of behavior to some extent for few generations, how will we account the changes taking place in his fleeting moods and nature in relation to the fluctuations, variations and mutation and mutability of the genes and on. Can you prove that there are changes taking place in the structure of his genes continually? If each species of animals also evolve spontaneously or simultaneously, how come we don’t witness animals evolving to human beings?
GENETICS HYPOTHESIS, AN ILLUSION OR FACT ?: For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God....We have not received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed us from God (1.Cor.2: 10-16). Genes theory is apparently true to a limited extent just as the Darwinian theory of Origin of the species has bewitched us. The essence of the peripheral body of man and animals is the same, whereas the spirit of man in likeness and image is of God’s, differing from animals whose spirits are entirely of this world. The common denominator of body nature in man and animal cannot be construed as an evidence to prove the guinea pig experimental result in man.
Rejecting God, the modern scientists, educators and educationists and researchers have bequeathed the spirit of the confusion of Babel, which scattered the people who were haunted with the spirit of darkness, to rise in rebellion against God. God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom.1: 24-25). Towards the close of the age in a parallel longitude, God sends upon a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned to who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2.Thess.2: 5-12).
On enquiry by prophet Daniel for the sign of the Lord’s coming, the angel said, Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall increase (Dan.12: 4). The knowledge riding over the organized commotion is manifested through science and technology. Falsehood is camouflaged in apparent truth. I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart (1.Cor.1: 18-25). As a chain reaction, this galvanized falsehood encroaches into the thoughts and walks of our lives, private as well as social arenas, knowingly or unknowingly. Pomp and splendor is the driving force behind such mental gymnastics; money is the lingua franca of the present dark age, it only speaks the wisdom of the age of turmoil.
WHAT IS THE REAL TRUTH ?: Fasting dilutes the accumulated toxin of the body by using it as food during the time of fasting. The shedding of tears during prayer cleanses the body, making it as a seat for the H.Spirit to dwell in. For a chaste person in thought, word and deed food is only a secondary thing; such people can sustain the body strength by the spirit imbibed from pure water and air for about 2 months continuously. They are the living dynamos shedding luminous energy, even from their clothes and the things that they touch, for the creation of a magnetic field around them for others to be lured in. Purity of mind, heart and body are the essential ingredients for God to brood in. Cleansing of the whole being is the primordial and matter of paramount importance.
Genetics is true since the time of Adam in certain spheres of life, as man only can beget man, not animals and vice versa. The same genes of Adam can keep us as human beings still with the same image and likeness, genes to a greater extent are not altered; the changes that took place is only in the realm of character, conduct and outlook on life. The structure of our genes remains the same, yet differing in inner outputs on accounts of vivid vibrations that tickle through them. The chaste health of the genes depends on the amount of Divine electricity (life force) that baptizes them perpetually, not alone by the dormant energy that inherits from.
If genes are the carriers of our character and behavior in toto, why all the children of same parents neither look alike nor act and respond in the same way in the same or various surroundings and situations despite they keep the same image and likeness but vary to a minor extent in details. How could the genes of Cain and Abel vary in opposite directions despite they were the products of the first generation? There was no option of inheriting the diametrically opposite genes from their grand parents or ancestors for they had none. The likely ascribed answer of the unbeliever could be the inherited blood of the Homo sapiens. The structure of the genes of each individual may be similar, but not the makeup of them. Thus it is the genes that are important but the more important is the fusion of the unseen celestial electric current either at the time of conception or at the time of birth or the way the individual shapes his destiny in association with the celestial powers or a conglomeration of all such ingredients put together.
The congenital factors contribute a lot, no doubt about this. The combinations of the gist contained in the dictums, ‘energy is born, not made, and ‘man is the architect of his own destiny’ are the underlying forces that shape the future of an individual. This poses another question whether heredity or environment plays the more crucial role in shaping up the fate of an individual. The evil spirit that haunted prophet and King Saul was due to his disobedience, which drove him for his and his virtuous son’s suicide. The greed of money propelled Judas for his suicide. Thus the prime importance goes to the working of the Spirit of God in man. God’s Spirit drives the demi-God man on earth with the fuel mixture of blood, air and water and accelerates the mobility with the automatic clutch and gear of genes and DNA.
TYPES OF COSMIC ENERGY: Despite one may argue that the causes for incurable diseases are germs and the surroundings, the root cause of the same is something else. It has been an accepted fact that the body is infected only when the mind is under duress. As long as the inherent battle between good and evil prevails in our system, the body and soul also become a prey for the same. Two kinds of cleansings are needed at this juncture, one for the body, preferably with natural medicines, and another for the soul, the purgation of the mind by the repenting tears of fasting, penance and penitence. Despite the allopathic treatment focuses on symptoms, not on the root cause, and complicate the case by suppressing the sickness, it gives a temporary relief though the side effects and complications are immeasurable. As the sufferer himself is the author of his own inner ailments, he himself will have to make a purge of himself. As he himself is confused in arriving at an answer for his miseries, a spiritual doctor is indispensable for the ailing spirit as the dimensions of sufferings vary in depth and magnitude. Once when an incurable sickness preys upon one, it is not easy to get out of it by ordinary means.
The devil wins the perpetual war in man if he fails to glorify God incessantly in truth and spirit, buttressed by righteous deeds. Man’s inner and bodily developments and sustenance depend on the rhythm of inherent musical glorification of God for which he is created in place of Lucifer. Failing to glorify God will automatically end up in glorifying Satan. The devil that works in our heart snatches away all the good seeds (Mt.13: 19), good genes too, converting us as synonyms of infernal gloom (Lk.11: 34-36). Such a condition is called chronic disease, unless the person is at an extreme old age. The devil is the supplier of sufferings to man, of course with the tacit knowledge of God as in the case of Job. Job was a guinea pig experiment to prove that the devil has the full authority over man and the world (1.Jn.5: 19).
In order to relieve him from this deplorable juncture meditation and yogic therapy may perhaps drag him out from the fireplug of the diabolic one. Yoga is likely to invoke the centres that are the seats of our passions and desires and divert or quell the thirst of the flesh. True fasting and prayer embrace the multifarious sides of all yogic and spiritual purgation of the body and spirit. Desire is the deep- rooted enemy of our being. Detachment and renunciation are the only remedies of our ever-craving passions, which secrete acidity and poison for all the organs for their ultimate destruction. All the Divine laws and commandments are not blind doctrines meant for God; the pragmatic effect of the same keeps our body and soul pure which is the preliminary step for our spiritual life. Love kindles everything into beauty, whereas hatred and vengeance permeates everything into darkness.
The poisonous secretions that we make on account of our hatred, vengeance and intrigues of all types corrode our delicate body system into ruin, which impede us from pure worship of God. The benefits of the observances of the commandments of God are for us( for the healthy body for its healthy association in social intercourse), not for God. God is not too much concerned about our offerings, supplications feasts and festivities only; we marginalize Him by our commissions and omissions (Gen.4: 10-11;Lk.10: 25-35;Ps.50: 13-23), the effect of which has devastating effect on our soul and body and the kiths and kins. In spite of God’s displeasure over Cain’s offerings He kept silent but broke it at the time of Abel’s murder. Such toxins that are transmitted through the genes will have far-reaching, detrimental effects on the next generations. ..For I the Lord your God is a zealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Ex.20: 5-6;Deu.30; 19). If not washed out the stains of our guilt by the repenting tears, the pernicious effect of them may be transmitted through the genes lasting for more than 4 generations. The genes are not the problems; we are at fault of transmitting our toxins of hatred, backbiting, and infidelity in to the blood streams of the innocent embryos. The devil is the prompter of all evil things in us. The sufferings are given by the demons (Jas.1: 12-15; 1.Cor.10; 13) while the good angels watch. I have read in a book that the net result of a hideous murder committed in the 17th century in which they recorded that they counted about 700 perverts (criminals, rapists, psychiatric cases, robbers, etc.) over the years in that family. Remember that every vice has an evil spirit.
Genes and molecules of cells can be readjusted in line with our thinking and actions. Food, weather and care can also change the size, shape and colour of a person. Man is not a puppet of God; hence He is helpless in aiding us in accordance with the free will once bestowed upon unless we seek His help with a willing spirit.
The gene dogma is a substitute for God for those who don’t believe in Him, so also is the theory of Evolution, concept of modern medical treatment, Psychiatry and so on. The organized confusion is the deity of the time. Professionals restrict anything that we eat, scaring us with the label of cancer, heart attack, diabetics and so on. Every day, there are new theories and warnings, and are changed every now and then in the light of the contrived researches published by plagiarists, novices and irreligious people, and propagated by cheap readings. Listen to what the Spirit speaks to St. Paul about the confusion reining at the end of the time. Now the spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which god created to be received....For everything God created is good....by the word of God and prayer (1.Tim.4: 1-5). For them enjoyment of sex with out wedlock with all forms of laxity is more important than anything else; in order to keep lean and thin and enjoy the omnivorous taste of conjugal pleasure at its utmost with as many people of different ethnic origins they avoid fat, cream, etc and engage themselves in rigorous physical exercises.
Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man (Mt.15: 11). Not realizing that that which goes out of the mouth and emanating from him defile a man, they are deluded with the notion that that which goes into the man make him sick. All our maladies are deep-rooted in our senses and sensibilities. Once we are addicted to certain incurable diseases and treatments and hallucinations it is not easy to get out of it unless we have strong will power. As the whole global community is electrified to such illusions and medical treatment, the entire mass is under the magnetic field of similar vibrating slaveries. There is no room left behind for our individual development; everything is run on a hidden agenda perpetrated by politicians, moneymaking business communities, mass media and irreligious mass.
The allopathic treatments show quick but temporary relief from the symptoms, concealing the colossal aftermath of electric reactions within the body. Medical treatment of today is better in one way because the natural therapy is not efficacious to the crooked, adulterous and degenerating species leading a different life style; surgery, X-ray and anesthesia and chemical drugs are suitable to our sophisticated way of living and hard-hearted individual makeup. The Genetic engineering has done nothing but perverting the truth and body metabolism and producing the fatherless, abnormal and duplicate giants (Gen.6: 4), not intellectual elites, as once happened in the beginning of history, where as God’s 6 billion people of today have individual identities, at the same time keeping the same image and likeness of God. The beauty of the surface of the ephemeral paradise that we are sucking now on earth is the product of the delusions of technologies sent by God. The genetic engineering that mothered stem cell treatment is more despicable than the urine therapy or obnoxious than the pig eating its own vomit. It blatantly challenges the dignity of man and desecrates the name of his Creator. If I put in decent language, it is the overripe and worm-whirling fruit of the forbidden fruit kept preserved so far in the land of darkness for the destruction of God’s species at the consummation of the time. The devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short (Rev.12: 12). The tentacles of the devil have squeezed all the good things from us, sedating us with the fruits of the land of gloomy silence.
What have we achieved from all these inventions, discoveries and carnal knowledge other than for tracing the criminal records of a global criminal society and the production of genetically modified food, which even the starving third world countries shun? The chronic diseases and devastating plagues multiplied lately have led mankind to a nightmare of sufferings of different magnitude and dimensions. We have been converted as the dupe of the devil by delivering us with the bitter products of the land of lawlessness and pandemonium: vices of all types for the destruction of the soul, confusion, starvation, famines, exploitation, drug trafficking infusing social and family havocs, wars, blood letting, inhuman atrocities of homicides and genocides, global sex slavery entangled with all deviations and perversions. Just as Jesus sent vibrations of delusions for the defeat of the devil by His enigmatic utterance on the cross, “Eli, Eli, lama, sabach-thani (My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?), His arch enemy, together with his cronies, is riding over the delusions sent by the Almighty for another defeat at the close of the Age.
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Blessed are those who seek the glory that comes from God. The glory that comes from God demands total selflessness and dedication. Blessed are those who count their blessings in the midst of their sufferings; for they will not lose hope. |
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Let us take
it in the Bible perspective and analyze what God has done. God selected a community of people to be His own and He never
repudiated others. God demonstrated the history of Israel for us as a living example.
He's what Hagar experienced in the wilderness. Hagar was asked to leave Abram’s fold.. Hagar is a nobody but God makes her as important as his chosen Abraham and Sarah. God promised her and she had faith enough in Him. Many of us go through the Hagar experiences in our lives. It is at these times we hear the call of the Lord who not only sees but listens too.
Hagar says that God is not a seeing God but a Listening God too. She calls the Jehovah by a new name Beer-lahai-roi. (Genesis 16)
God never wants us to run away from our situations and aversions in life. He wants us to face the real truth and we grow in Him with difficulties that come our way. We may take things for granted, I have a good income, secure accounts, good family, my children love me, but what happens incase of Job, that’s where trials and tribulations are put to test. God helps us if we stay by Him. I think there’s not another person than Job who would have stood by God when all these evil befell his household. All of us I bet would have murmured and denied such a cruel God. But this is where such a deep faith comes to work. God steps in when the world steps out. Trust in God and He will act.
See the social point of view in Hagar’s case, she was pregnant and didn’t have a husband. Imagine her situation in today’s society. Wouldn’t it have been worse then!! Won’t she be abused and stoned?
Let us put ourselves in a situation like this. Hagar is being ill treated that’s clear cut here. But just look back and see this ill treatment upon her is from a family having very close ties with God. What would our response be in such a case? These kind of situations do exist today in many of our lives. This is the situation very often when people conclude and doubt the very existence and necessity of God.
Well God intervenes in these situations for people of faith and this is purely divine mercy. This is what Hagar says “God not only sees but Listens too”. Yes, he`s Beer-lahai-roi.
There was a British man who visited India and his guide told him, “This is Kerala God`s Own Country, but Devil’s Own People”. Well these are but the right words to sum up the people of our land. We are responsible for this. Do we nurture the future generations in for our selfish intentions or according to the will of God? There are 65 lakh Christians in kerala! Whats our role in today`s society?
When do we start a God oriented goal search and see God in what we do whatever our profession and situation be giving thanks to Him in all that we do and all what we are. God will surely speak to us to our inner minds. He will remove the veil of darkness from our conscience and lead us to Light of knowledge. Pray to God, Lord show me the realities of life and give me courage to face them, never make me run away from my responsibilities. Have mercy and grant us the wonderful grace to hear your call in our lives.
May God work wonders in your life? |
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Staines was nobody to his killer, personally or professionally. The murder was explicitly proved as the product of mere prejudice bred by an ideology alone. Law does not permit to hang an ideology for an act of crime. A religious-minded person has to see crime done in the name of his religion as a crime against his religion. |
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The keenly-awaited verdict is pronounced at last. The trial judge has found Dara Singh and his twelve associates guilty of the murder of Graham Staines and his two sons: Philip and Timothy. He has, thus, validated the findings of the Wadhwa Commission that inquired into this event. The extent of punishment the culprits are to receive is not known yet. But that hardly concerns us here.
Justice requires that the instigators of a crime too be held guilty along with its perpetrators. For all practical purposes, Dara Singh was the hired assassin of a certain ideology. Sure enough, he was not engaged specifically to finish off Staines, like professional hit-men are. But it was on account of his ideological fanaticism that Dara, who did not have any personal grudge against Staines or his sons, felt obliged to eliminate this friend of the lepers of Baripada. Consider this. Dara was a native of Utter Pradesh. He was sent to Orissa on a specific mission: to spread the Sangh Parivar ideology in the tribal belt of Orissa.
At the time of committing this murder, Dara had already become a dreaded leader, as the Wadhwa Commission Report points out, of Bajrang Dal with at least eleven major criminal cases pending against him. This explains two things, which are otherwise inexplicable. First, Dara enjoyed immunity to law for the crimes he committed, one after the other. Second, he came to the conclusion that Graham Staines was “a threat to Hinduism and Indian culture”. Justice Wadhwa, who was a sitting judge of the Supreme Court when he enquired into this murder, states explicitly in his Report that it was this resentment that motivated Dara to kill Graham. The lepers of Baripada would still have had their friend, if these two factors had not reinforced each other.
That being the case, we stop short of the whole truth if we slap the responsibility for this ‘murder most foul’ wholly on Dara and his associates. Dara is incomplete and harmless without the Hindutva ideology, of which he is only an ardent camp follower. In the wake of the murder, several meetings were organized, including one in the Constitution Club, Delhi, to express solidarity with Dara by those who felt obliged to him. Staines was nobody to Dara, personally or professionally. The murder was the product of mere prejudice; and that prejudice was bred by Hindutva alone. The murder of Graham Staines is, hence, utterly inexplicable if we exclude the ideological motive behind it. Of course, you cannot hang an ideology, unlike an assassin, for an act of crime. But a sane society with any commitment to justice has to rein in ideologies that preach hate and instigate the murder of innocent and defenseless people. Even more importantly, every religious-minded person has to see crime done in the name of his religion as a crime against his religion.
Apart from seeing the murder of Staines in a wider perspective, we must also reckon some key issues that emerge from this act of perfidy that has defamed us globally. There is, in the first place, the orchestrated defiance of the rule of law. For years together, Dara had lived in this tribal belt in total defiance of law, intimidating, humiliating and hurting those he disliked at will. He was a law unto himself. Though he was wanted by the police in several cases, he could roam around freely and pursue his agenda without let or hindrance. According to a version of the event we gathered from Manoharpur, it was at a camp for school children Dara Singh organized in Takurmunda, some 17 KMs from Manoharpur, that the plot to kill Staines was hatched. Communal atrocities cannot happen in a society that respects rule of law. The murder of the rule of law was re-enacted yet again in Modi’s Gujarat for over three months in 2002. Its hangover continues to this day and justice is beyond the reach of the victims. The situation has proved serious enough to exhaust the patience of the Supreme Court. In extreme exasperation, the Chief Justice of India instructed Modi to deliver justice or to quit. Hindutva imperils the sanity of our society by glorifying the subversion of the rule of law. The demolition of Babri Masjid was a slap on the face of the rule of law; yet our Prime Minister felt it appropriate to romanticize it, on the floor of the Parliament, as an outbreak of nationalistic fervour!
The second issue that emerges from this bleak scenario is that of the threat that communalism holds out to religious freedom. Majoritarian communalism has the potential to rob minorities of their religious freedom. The ideologues of Hindutva derive much mileage from the Supreme Court verdict of 1976 [Stanislav vs. State of Madhya Pradesh] that excluded conversion from the ambit of religious freedom as envisaged in Article 25. Graham Staines, as per Dara’s (mis)information, was converting people; thereby posing a threat to Hinduism. The Wadhwa Commission Report exonerated Staines of this baseless allegation. And we who have visited Staines’ leprosarium in Baripada since his death, and interacted with its 86 inmates, can vouchsafe this to be true. Not one of them had converted to Christianity, even though they all regarded Staines as their “father”. The irony of this scenario is that Dara Singh can be free to enjoy his version of religious freedom, the freedom to blackmail and kill; whereas Graham Staines has to forego the freedom to practise his religion, which mandates him to care for the lost and the least. This is the curse of communalism: it degrades religious freedom into a license to do wrong but denies the freedom to practice social justice and philanthropy. Dara Singh has not created this aberration; instead, this aberration has created Dara Singh.
In a subtle sense, therefore, Dara Singh too is a victim. This is the truth that underlies Gladys Staines’ readiness to forgive him and his associates. At a news conference in Delhi, where journalists vied with each other to interact with this living saint, she quoted Jesus’ words from the Cross: “Father, forgive; for they know not what they do.” That is literally true of Dara Singh. Surely, he did not know that he was killing a dedicated social worker who was selflessly taking care of his forlorn Hindu brothers. He did not know that he was robbing a saintly lady of her husband and sons. And, above all, he did not know that, in killing Graham, he was also fatally wounding Hinduism. Is not the whole of humankind, according to Hinduism, one vast family (vasudhaiva kutumbakam)? In that case, are not Dara and Staines brothers? Is that not the reason why Gladys wants him forgiven? But who is responsible for Dara’s murderous ignorance? Who has filled his heart with hate and his eyes with darkness? To pronounce Dara Singh guilty is, therefore, to also indict the ideological ventriloquists who used him in this abominable way.
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Long time ago, before Christ, there was a Rabbi in ancient Judia by the name Solomon who was very famous for his wisdom, honesty and generosity. Every day of Sabbath many youngsters, both man and woman of Judia, after worshipping Yahweh, gathered in the shade of the trees of Synagogue, to hear and discuss with Solomon whose wisdom they appraised as comparable to that of Wise King Solomon. Rabbi Solomon was so scholastic to answer any questions of the Youngsters with reference to the Holy Scriptures. Yohanes, Martha, Ezekiel, Esther, and Ahaz were some of the active participants of the group discussions with Rabbi. Esther, an young girl, of the group recorded all the sweet discussions with Rabbi day to day As:
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Today we had an interesting discussion about the privileges and responsibilities of living together in a society. It was Martha who began the discussion by sharing a personal problem: Rabbi: I agree that yours is a difficult problem, but don't think that you are alone. All people face this problem to some extent. To one direction, there is a pull to be alone, and to the other direction, there is a pull to be with the others. We need to keep a balance between the two.
Our ancestors were also aware of this problem. We understand it from the second chapter of Genesis. God made only one human being at the beginning, who could be neither male nor female.
Feeling lonely, that being walked around in the garden to find some similar being, but no one was found. There were many animals, birds and plants, but ideas and feelings couldn't be communicated with any of them. Realizing the problem, God divided the human being into two--a man and a woman, and there was the first family. They are called Adam and Eve in the story. The first being who was divided into two beings is also called Adam in the story, which is rather confusing. It is necessary for us to distinguish between the original unisex Adam and the male Adam.
Martha: Rabbi, I have a funny idea. Why don't we give the original Adam a new name to be distinguished from the other Adam? I prefer the name Adeve, for it is a combination of Adam and Eve.
Rabbi: That is a good idea. Let's use the name Adeve for the original human being. But the problem doesn't end with that. We refer to Adam and Eve with the pronouns he and she, but we don't have any pronoun to speak about
Adeve.
Martha: Then let's create a new pronoun for that. Why don't we use 'hu' to speak about Adeve?
Rabbi: Alright, let's use hu and its forms hum (like him), hus (like his), and humself (like himself). So we have solved the problem of language. Now, can you imagine how Adeve lived in the Garden of Eden? Hu was the monarch of the world around hum. There was nobody to control or influence hus behavior. Hu could do everything as hu wished. Hu didn't need anybody's permission to do anything. But hu had certain disadvantages too in living alone. Hu had to do everything by humself. Hu had to make shelter and enough clothing by humself. Hu had to bring water and cook food, all by humself. As hu had a lot of work daily, hu couldn't find enough time to improve hus skills and the quality of hus life. Hu couldn't make better shelter, better dress or better food. Hu had no one to share his love and there was no one to care for hum.
Then there was a society of two people- Adam and eve. Neither of them had the absolute freedom enjoyed by Adeve. Their life and activities were governed by an unwritten agreement between them. They limited their freedom by their own will. Neither of them could do anything as he or she pleased. Each had to obtain the consent and co-operation of the other. And what did they gain by living together? They began to share their activities. For example, Adam took the responsibility of making shelter and bringing grain and vegetables, and Eve took care of cooking food and making dress. Both of them got more time to improve their skills. That is, they could make better shelter, dress and food than what Adeve used to make. They shared not only their activities but also all the aspects of their life between them. Thus they had a more qualitative life than that of Adeve.
A more qualitative life--that is the advantage of living together. Today in the complex societies like ours, there is very high specialization of jobs. Some of us are farmers, some are carpenters, blacksmiths, traders, and so on. We have a very qualitative life in such a society. But this privilege involves responsibilities too. None of us live like a monarch as Adeve did. There are others around us, and we cannot ignore them. We have to limit our freedom, impose certain rules upon ourselves, and co-operate with the others.
A society is sometimes compared to a living being. Its members are like the various organs of the living being. Each member is responsible to abide by the rules of the society, doing some work useful to others, and in turn, that person can enjoy a very qualitative life. Consider, for example, the organs in our body. My eyes exist as parts of my body. In exchange for the qualitative life they enjoy as parts of my body, they see things for the whole body. Similarly, the ears hear for the whole body, just not for themselves. Hands work, legs walk, and the heart pumps blood--everything for the whole body. Each organ is specialized in only one kind of work, and it does the work for the whole body. In return, each organ enjoys the result of the work done by all organs. Thus a human society must exist like the body of a living being. Each of us must find a job useful to the whole society, and specialize in it. We should not think that some jobs are superior to others. All jobs useful to the society must be equally honored.
Martha was deeply touched by the discussion. She said: Thank you very much rabbi, I have understood my mistake. I don't want to run away from this society and live like Adeve. I shall live as a responsible member of this society doing some work useful to all. |
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EXALTATION OF HOLY CROSS |
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Before the time of Christ, Cross was an instrument for humiliation, punishment, torture and death. With death of Christ on the cross, it became the symbol of love, victory and salvation. Cross gives Meaning to our Human Existence. Cross is the epitome of Love. It is a victory over the power of Evil. |
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Roman Catholic Church and all Orthodox Churches in the world celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross as one of their greatest ecclesiastical feast. Ecclesiastical Feasts are considered as a holy day which are celebrated in commemoration of the sacred mysteries and events recorded in the history of the redemption of the mankind by God. This ecclesiastical feast of the Exaltation of Holy Cross, as it is written in the ecclesiastical writings, has its object the triumph of Christ, his resurrection and the veneration of the holy cross, the sign of his victory over death.
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is celebrated each year on September 14. The Feast commemorates the finding of the True Cross of our Savior Jesus Christ by Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine. The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, started in the city of Jerusalem. In AD 326, during the twentieth year of reign of Emperor Constantine, he sent his mother Helena to venerate the holy places and to find the site of the Holy Sepulcher and of the Cross. As per the traditions of the early Christians, it is known that Helena could excavate the precious cross along with the crosses of the two thieves crucified with our Lord. Patriarch Macarius of Jerusalem identified the True Cross of Christ by touching the three crosses in turn on a dead body and when the Cross of Christ touched the dead one, he immediately came to life. Empress Helena and her court venerated the identified precious cross.
The Emperor Constantine built Church of the resurrection and Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The date of dedication of these Churches was chosen as September 13 in order to supplant the pagan feast of the Temple of Jupiter in Rome. The Church of the Resurrection had five naves and in the interior a circular structure covered by a dome, which protected the sanctuary of the sepulcher or tomb of Christ. During Christmas time "Manger Square" in Bethlehem is thronged with pilgrims coming to worship at the Church of the Nativity. At Easter, Christians follow the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem After Crucifixion of Jesus: Emperor Constantine: Helena brought up Constantine and raised him up with great piety and rendered elite education in all knowledge. She sowed the seed of adoration to Christ and compassion in his heart for the Christians, however she did not dare to have him baptized. Eventually he became disposed to accept Christianity by the early teachings from his mother. Constantine grew up well matured and he was a bold and skilful horseman. At his father's elevation to the dignity of Caesar, Constantine reached at the court of Diocletian. Constantine witnessed the horrors of persecution by Diocletian and his determination to ruin the confessors of Christ and this also predisposed him in
Christian favor. After the death of his father Constantius, in AD 306, Constantine was offered the kingdom and he reigned with justice and great integrity. All his subjects loved him and his righteous judgment spread all over the Empire.
The Roman people who were grieved from the injustice of a tyrant and profligate Emperor Maximianus, sought help from Constantine. In 308 AD Constantine marched with his army toward Rome to save them. In 312 AD, a new war arose between the Emperor Constantine and the Ceasar Maxentius, the son of Maximianus. During the war Constantine saw a symbol at the sky, in the middle of the day; a Cross made of stars, and on it was written in Greek words which being interpreted as "With this you shall conquer." That night, the Lord appeared to him in a dream with the same sign of the Cross and said that by this sign he would defeat the enemy. The next day morning, he prepared a large flag with the sign of the cross on it and by his order; images of the holy Cross were made on all the armaments of his army. By the power of the Cross, he gained a glorious victory over enemies greatly superior in number. The enemy Maxentius drowned himself in the river Tiber.
Having gained the victory over Maxentius Constantine triumphantly entered Rome and its people welcomed him with joy and gladness, and the scholars praised the Holy Cross and considered it the Savior of their city. Then they celebrated for the Cross seven days and Constantine became the Emperor of the East and the West. Constantine along with many of his court men and subjects believed in Jesus and got baptized. Constantine was chosen by God's Providence to accomplish the greatest turnabout in the empire and in the whole world. In AD 313, Constantine together with his brother-in-law, Licinius, issued the famous Edict of Milan, to put an end to the persecution of Christians and permitted everyone to accept Christianity without fear. He declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Conquering Byzantium, he built a beautiful capital city on the Bosphorus, which from that day was named Constantinople.
The relations between the Emperors Constantine and Licinius did not last long. The conflict arised between the Emperors was putting the fate of Christianity in Roman Empire on test as Licinius suspected the patronage of Constantine for the entire eastern Christians. Constantine always safeguarded the Christians. The conflict turned out to a battle. The oracles foretold victory to Licinius, while the Christians prayed for Constantine. In AD322 God gave the victory to Constantine in the Battle of Adrianople. Constantine became the sole ruler of the empire and Christianity triumphed. The Emperor Constantine dedicated his whole life to the good of the Church and benefits of the Christians. It was during his reign the Holy Council of the Three Hundred and Eighteen bishops assembled at Nicea in the year 325 A.D. During the reign of Constantine, the name of the city of Jerusalem was restored in place of Elia Capitolina, which it had been given under the Emperor Hadrian.
Constantine died peacefully in the city of Nicomedia during prayer in 337 AD. His body was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. Palestine born Greek apologist and church historian Eusebius of Caesarea, contemporary of the Emperor Constantine, had recorded that the Emperor judged it incumbent on him to render the blessed locality of our Saviour's resurrection an object of attraction and veneration to all; he issued immediate injunctions for the erection in that spot of a house of prayer: and this he did, not on the mere natural impulse of his own mind, but being moved in spirit by the Saviour himself.
Empress Helena: When his troops proclaimed Constantine emperor in 306, one of his first acts was to call his mother from political exile and give her honors befitting the mother of the Roman Emperor. When Constantine embraced Christianity, Helena gave her strong support and
encouragement. Helena worked enthusiastically to promote Christianity, and eventually went to the Holy Land, where she spent large sums on the relief of the poor and on building churches on sacred sites.
For about eight years Helena traveled throughout Palestine and the eastern imperial provinces, encouraging the establishment and spread of the Christian faith. In Palestine she sought out the original locations associated with the life of Jesus, and she oversaw the construction of churches Constantine had ordered built at such sites. A pagan temple to Aphrodite built on the tomb site of Jesus' resurrection was torn down and replaced by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Helena's tour became a pattern for Christian pilgrims to discover and honor the places where Jesus had lived.
Return Of Holy Cross to Jerusalem: Since its first destruction and subsequent restoration, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was alternately destroyed and rebuilt several more times. When the Arabs conquered Jerusalem in AD 638, they safeguarded the city's Christian sites. The Arabs left the Christian sites relatively undisturbed for almost four centuries, with the exception of a riot in 966 AD. during which the door and roofs of the Church were burned. The current structure closely resembles the building brilliantly restored by Crusaders, who conquered Jerusalem in 1099. Due to this tumultuou past of the site, the six Christian communities share the responsibility for the churches. At the end of 1996, a renovation project was completed.
Transformed Cross: Christ said, “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me, is not worthy of me” (Mt 10:38). The Lord taught us, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their CROSS and follow Me. (Matt.16:24)" Self-denial is for the sake of carrying His Cross of the Lord Christ. Without the experience of Cross the life of a Christian become insipid.
In Cross of Jesus the meaning of sacrifice and self-giving is discerned. And he humbled himself and was obedient unto death, the death of the Cross.” (Phil. 2:6a,7-8)
Cross gives Meaning to our Human Existence. Cross is the epitome of Love. It is a victory over the power of Evil.
“The message of the Cross to those who are perishing is madness, but to those of us who are being saved it is the power of God. . . For the Jews ask for signs, and the Arameans seek wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to the Jews, and folly to the Arameans.” (1 Cor. 1:18,22)
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(Excerpts from 'Light of Life - The Bible : A Family Companion' to be launched) |
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WALLS TO BE DESTROYED AND WALLS TO BE REBUILD |
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The wall of Jericho could not have been fallen by the strength of the people of Israel or by the superiority of their weapons. To attain the promises from the High we have to break certain walls in our life. Only with the strength of God and with the spiritual efforts these walls can be collapsed. |
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The Word of God, we read or hear are taken to our hearts persistently and each word is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit of God, to grasp its inner meaning to a new horizon . Even a word secreted, may be the one by which the Spirit of God touches our heart and transform our entire life. Even though, mortal human beings are being used for the proclamation of the Word of God, they all are literally borne along by the Holy Spirit and the human wills of the speakers are not the originators or carriers of God's message. Our thoughts for today is chosen of two different walls described in the Holy Bible. The first wall is the one we see in the sixth Chapter of the Book of Joshua.
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"On the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times...So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. " (Joshua 6:20)
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This scripture portion recount about the wall of Jericho. The Wall of Jericho could not have been broken by the strength of the people of Israel or by the superiority of their military
arsenals, as it was made thick and strong. In order to fulfill and receive the promised deliverances from God to Israelites, Jericho wall had to be destroyed. The strength of God came upon them and hence they could break the the wall of Jericho and enter to the land of
Canaan. The shout of faith as their spiritual effort and the might of God could put down the strong wall. Thus by faith, not by force, the walls of Jericho fell down.
The word of God demands us to tear down the walls in our own life to receive the great and precious promises from God. The walls to be fallen in our life are many. Inquire about the strong walls in our life and investigate our inner heart, in order to find where transformations are needed in our life. Our pursuit, for the exploration to detect the walls to be destroyed and the candid efforts for its devastation, should become the theme and culmination of our spiritual life. The walls to be
destroyed in our life are the sins. The sin is the factor which alienate us from the presence of God. It may be our proud, deficit in our
spiritual life, attractions to the world or any disposition which keeps us away from our God. The impulse to delve into the walls in us should be originated in our own self with the help of Holy Spirit of God. Through our earnest prayers He exposes the sin of our heart which is build up as big walls in our life. Sin may not be external, it may be the one which man do to himself. "...Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." (1 Corithians 6:18 )
Eskimos who live in Arctic Poles of earth use a special technique for hunting Wapusk (White Bear) for their skin. If they kill them by the spear the costly black skin will be distorted. So they pierce a double edged spear in the ice with its sharp edge upward and its tips tainted with blood. The carnivorous white polar bears, reliant on ice for their hunting, lick the spearhead for the blood. It goes on cutting their
tongue and keep on drinking their own blood from the spear with out the knowledge that it is the blood of their own body and eventually they die. The bear does not know that their blood is oozed out while they are enjoying the taste of the blood. In the same way the sin which is
against our own body is oozing out the blood of our spiritual life and alienate us from God. Many a times Sin keeps us in the bondage. So far we are not willing to peer into our internal, we try to denunciate others for our debacle.
Apostle St. Paul exhorts us that our life is a big race and a big battlefield. In this battle we become victorious only by the great Grace of God. We should attain
strength to tumble these walls in our life. The battle that is typified here is the battle with the sin. In the circumstance we live in, where the western thoughts are prevalent, the
psychological answers are being choked out for every questions. These deliberation firmly believe that any conflicts in life can be resolved with advancement of the scientific growth and
psychological evaluation. That is the reason for the intensifying the counseling
programs in the western culture. It is a big limitations in our country that we lack the facilities for the good
counseling. We can notify its bad feedback also. We see that suicidal cases are maximum in Kerala. Especially the rate is seen very high in some weird locations. Man is trying to find solutions for his problems with his own worldly wisdom, knowledge, scientific advancement and popular psychology.
Amidst of these, man deliberately forget about the soul and its salvation. In his race to find his own solutions with his own codified principles and skill sets configured out his expertise, the man deprive of the nourishment or the explorations for the salvation of the soul. However as per our traditions, we find that our forefathers assimilated the energy to sustain the spiritual tenets and destroyed the walls which are to be destroyed by the communion with the God. They never confined their problems as problems of their self body or mind. In this world what we need is the reconciliation and communion with God for the nourishment,
fulfillment, enlightening and rejuvenation of our soul.
As per the scripture; "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed." (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). Even though we are sick, our soul is healthy. Even though we have bodily affliction, our soul is rejoicing. Even though we are killed, we live in our soul. This is the effects of spirituality. In the lives of the saints, inspite of that there were obstacle in their life to destroy their spiritual life, it did not have any effect in them. Notwithstanding we live in this world, our soul should not seek for worldly matters. That should be the real Christian life.
In order to open the walls between God and the man we have to break first the walls between man and man. In the Epistle to Ephesians, St. Paul talks about a wall. "For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; " (Eph. 2:14)
Apostle here demonstrates that those who were in a state of enmity are reconciled and peace and fraternity is established. Between the Jews and the Gentiles there had been a great wall of enmity. There are walls between God and every unregenerate man. Jesus Christ is our peace. He made peace by the sacrifice of himself with his blood and came to reconcile and hence the middle wall between Jews and Gentiles are broken. In our community there are people who rejoice when they are not in the neighborhood of our own community people. Modern man desire for a life away from the society. Now Jesus had made all one, by reconciling between divisions so that we should not malign, hate or reproach each other.
The life cycle of the silkworm is fascinating in this aspect. When the larva is fully mature, it begin the metamorphosis to spin its cocoon with continuous and reelable thread which it secrets, moving its head around in regular order continuously. On completion of the cocoon, the chrysalis must be killed without damage to the cocoon. As worm spins the cocoon with one continuous thread, it should not be damaged. So Cocoons are boiled in vats. Workers remove the boiled cocoons from the vat and find the end of each strand of silk. In a similar way we are entangled in our own actions and get alienated from the society.
Western countries have taken as a virtual axiom to keep up an individuality culture. It is an attitude of those persons who refuse to subscribe for shared values and common welfare. This is a tendency to magnify individual liberty, as against external authority and individual activity, as against associated activity. Individualism which runs the note of emphasis upon the importance of self: ‘my comfort, my pleasure’; these ideologies can never be justified in Christianity. Modern philosophers started vouching for the dichotomy to establish a socializing community, which are talked in its fundamental terms as collectivism. In our community life and in the social atmosphere, we should establish the intimacy in our relations. The Bible words "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) should prevail in basics of our Christianity.
In our family life, quite often we notice that although we live together, we lack love, compassion and real concern in its root for our father, mother, brother or sister. Unless we are ready for the sacrifice of our own pleasure, we can not have the culmination of love. Man looking at his co-being with suspecian expose the paucity of real love in all sectors of life.
How the Jericho was broken? Joshua formulated a strict methodology. It was not an individual effort, but it was joint effort, a corporate endeavor. As per the Book of Joshua 6:4-22, we learn of three elements involved in this great effort. 1. The Ark of Covenant 2. Priest 3. Disciplined community. This joint effort gets simulated to the act of the Holy Church. "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." (1 Cor. 12:27) Worship together and share the Grace of God together. We share the Grace of God so that others become partakers of it with us. When we minister, or pray, we draw others into a communion with us of the grace we have received. The strength of falling the wall should be attained through our fellowship and spiritual ways. Our ability and talents are to be made use for others. Joshua orders them that you should keep silent till I order you. This refers to a disciplined community.
The second wall we perceive is in the book of Nehemiah, Chapter 2. "...Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?" (Nehemiah 2:3) When the King asks Nehemiah "Why is your face sad though you are not sick?”; he replies him these words. Now the holy walls of the city of God were fallen and Nehemiah was lamenting about it. During the public mission of Jesus Christ we see the Lord lamented about the city of Jerusalem. When some people spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, Jesus laments about Jerusalem: "As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." (Luk 21:6) "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matt. 23:37)
Nehemiah was concerned that the wall of the city of God is to be rebuild. He assigns the miseries and ruins of Jerusalem as the true cause of his grief. Once the Community is broken, family is broken, society is broken or Church is broken we have to extend prayers for it seconded with our serious endeavors as Nehemiah had done. Any of our small effort to create a good atmosphere, let it be even environmental, it may help for a peaceful return. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. The Prophet beacon the multitude to rebuild the fallen walls of God's city. This attitude we should maintain in our family, church and community. We should be self subscribing for the group rebuilding of the social and moral infrastructure of our neighborhoods.
At the time of Napoleon, portrait of a Royal Lute (Veena) was exhibited on his Palace walls with its strings broken and parts disjointed. It depicted the fall of Napoleon. When the family threads were broken, his Empire also was broken. In the society wherever we are, when it pass through storms and difficulties, we should evaluate ourself whether the plummet is caused by our individual slip. In the society we live, at our professional places, in the Churches, we should not be the cause for its delinquency. The walls are to be build for two reasons. First need is Security. As per Scripture portion Eph 2: 23, we are the stones of God's temple and each stone has its own message. We are the safe guards for others. We are the living stones. As Nehemiah build the walls, we should be able to comprehend each other and build up our relations.
There are mainly three points of view to skulk away from the glitches of our society:
1. I do not have to do any thing in the current situations. 2 All commonly are with evils, but I am different. 3. Individually I cannot do much. As World belong to God, it can not be fully evil. If there is evil, we are also responsible for it. For the problems in our family, for the problems in our church, for the problems in our society, we are also equally responsible.
Second need for the wall is to secure our boundaries. We are living in a marginal society and also we opt to live a margin free life i.e. with no boundary. We are loosing many of our boundaries. As a father, children expect many things. As a wife husband expects something. As Children parents expect something. As a teacher student expects many thing. As a priest the people expects many things. Many of our social taboos are gone beyond its limits. We have to start building the walls to keep our boundaries. The freedom that we should enjoy should be the freedom we get through Jesus Christ. This is the freedom created out of sincere relationships and communion with God.
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[ JOINT ORTHODOX CONVENTION - 2003 PHILADELPHIA ] |
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Original Vocal in Malayalam : Translated by Dr.Rajan Mathew |
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Inundation of the Grace of God on his face, intense compassion in his eyes, acuity akin to Prophet Samuel in sacramental celebrations, graciousness in his words, precision in his mission, spirituality as his traditions; above all an icon of humility and simplicity by his outlook, conglomerated, H.G. Mathews Mar Barnabas, Shepherd of the Malankara Orthodox Church in North America had completed 25 years in the Christian ministry as a Bishop. This is an occasion to offer sweet savor of praises to the Lord our God for his noble leadership and laudable ministry to the Church and community. It is a blessed moment for us to enjoy the exceptional and cherished experience of being respected ourself while we respect the respectable. It is the simplicity of Mar Barnabas that distinguish him as unique. His humility expresses his sincerity. Sincerity is faithfulness, which comes from love. His austerity reveals the trait of his uncomplicatedness to such an amazement while he achieves a grand level of Godliness through it. As per his own words 'A lot many people try to win the praise through pretension and these pretension is a type of hypocrisy and reveals the lackness of sincerity.' H.G.Mathews Mar Barnabas was born on August 9, 1924 to the Mariamma and Korulla couple of Thombra Kallarakkaparambil family of Vengola, Perumbavoor. Mathukkutty, by the name he was known that time, had graduated in Science from Madras Christian College and postgraduated from Osmania University, Hyderabad. He was ordained as a Deacon in 1943 by H.H. Mar Basalios Geevarghese II. Dn.K.K.Mathews started his career as teacher in M.G.M. High School, Kuruppumpadi and later in M.D. High School, Kottayam. The Deacon was ordained as a full Priest in 1951 by H.H. Mar Basalios Augen I. Fr.K.K.Mathews served as a Chaplain in Christian Medical College Vellore, Malankara Medical Mission Hospital Kolenchery and as Vicar of St. Andrews Church Secunderbad, St. Peter's & Paul's Church Valayanchirangara, St. Thomas Church Calcutta, St. George Church Jabalpur and St. Luke Church Vellore. In 1967 Fr. K.K. Mathews was assigned the post of the Warden of Theological Seminary, Kottayam. In 1977 he was ordained as Ramban and in 1978 May 15, he was consecrated as a Bishop by the name Mathews Mar Barnabas and taken over the charge as the Asst. Metropolitan of Ankamali and Kottayam diocese. Later he was assigned the charge of diocesan Metropolitan of Idukki and from 1993 onwards he is Metropolitan of American Diocese. At different stages Mar Barnabas had officiated the positions of Assistant to Malankara Metropolitan, Manager of Malankara Orthodox Church Colleges, President of Malankara Sabha Magazine, President of Anti-Liquor Society, President of Women's Organization of the Church, President of Girls Association etc. His Grace is a good litterateur and authored many Spiritual and ecclesiastical Books. His beloved and faithful believers of the American Diocese are celebrating the Episcopal Silver Jubilee of their prefect, at various provinces of the North American Diocese at different time of the Jubilee year, as token of their allegiance to their spiritual leader. H.H. Basalios Marthoma Mathews II has portrayed him in his Special Message ‘His life is a shining example of one live in love and righteousness and will provide necessary inspiration for others to emulate him,’ The encouragement and blessings given by Barnabas Thirumeni to us for this humble mission of edification is tremendous. We are gratified and exceedingly grateful to Barnabas Thirumeni for the same. In the fullness of prayer and purity of truthfulness we, The Christian Light of Life Publication along with all its associates, wish Thirumeni all the best and pray to God for the long life, health and prosperity in spirituality. May the God Almighty shower His Grace and strength to Thirumeni for many many years to come for the sacred service to the community and Christianity. Dr. Rajan Mathew |
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David proclaims in Psalms 133:1, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”
Inspired by these words, a young Orthodox group came together last August to organize a small camp for the Dallas M.G.O.C.S.M. What resulted instead was a massive effort that produced one hundred and fifty young men and women, ranging in ages from 14 to 28, whom came together in fellowship and unity for the first annual Dallas Orthodox Youth Camp named Camp TeamCHRIST. Representing those in attendance were youth from the cities of Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and even Washington D.C.
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GROWING TOGETHER WITH JESUS (EPH. 2:19-22; 4:15) |
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By bringing all these kids to Cleburne, TX, we were able to promote the true purpose behind Camp TeamCHRIST, which was to promote the concept of Unity in an interactive and fun approach. Also, under the umbrella concept of Unity, four major sub themes of Loyalty, Patience, Humility and Friendship were taught, discussed and practiced through fellowship, outdoor activities, short interactive lessons, sermons, and praise & worship sessions.
Beginning on the Friday evening of August 29th, the attending youth were split into the four teams that they would spend the rest of the weekend with. Each team was asked to develop an identity by building a flag, a cheer and most importantly, a friendship. The next day included a rotation of teams through our sub theme centered outdoor activities. Each stop introduced new challenges to each team that prompted them to participate in physical competitions, physical challenges or mental challenges that reflected one of the sub themes. After each activity, the leaders took some time to discuss the importance and Christian perspective of each sub theme and how it related to the activity they had just finished participating in. All those lead to a combined large event for all four teams that culminated in a very physical but enjoyable “Capture the Flag” game.
In addition to the outside events, all of us were blessed by the inspirational words of the Rev. Fr. Alexander Kurien from Washington D.C. His message provided a definite highlight for the camp as he enriched his audience in the gospel of our Lord. Also, once in the morning and once by the candle lit night sky, the camp was dually blessed by the amazing Praise and Worship Band that lead the camp in song after glorious song. With candles in hand and a bonfire blazing behind us, this part of the weekend definitely drew a spiritual fire in everyone as we sang and worshipped together in the Lord’s name. As symbolic as any part of camp, the sea of candle flames showed what we hoped to convey about Unity in the Orthodox faith.
Finally, Sunday brought about what we thought was the best part of camp, which was appropriately saved for last. Alexander Achen performed an awe inspiring and touching English Qurbana on Sunday which was reciprocated by an equally moving church body made up of 150 youth wearing the same camp shirt, expressing the same camp spirit of unity and belting out the same English Qurbana songs. The Holy Spirit was truly in our midst and made the service and the weekend that much more blessed.
Our goal was to bring a camp atmosphere to help rejuvenate spirituality within the Orthodox youth through unity and a little good-natured team competition. The positive vibe felt from Camp TeamCHRIST connected all 150 people in a way that is hard to explain through these simple words. Hopefully, all of the participants left with the same sense of pride and excitement in the Orthodox Church that we as leaders came away with. So far, the feedback for Camp TeamCHRIST has been overwhelming and even better than what we expected.
We believe that this is just a beginning and that hopefully a sense of excitement for future MGOCSM events will arise from our work. We thank all those that attended, and everyone that prayed for its success. We are hopeful that events like Camp TeamCHRIST will inspire other youths nationwide in the Diocese to take a more active role in their MGOCSM. In the end, it is our own personal responsibility that the Orthodox faith stays alive and grows even stronger for generations to come. What has been most rewarding out of all this has been the ability to see genuine enjoyment and excitement inspired within the youth about our Orthodox brand of Christianity. In closing, one camper said it best when he said, “the camp was superfabulawesome!”
-Camp TeamCHRIST Planning Committee.
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