Sermon of Joshua Mar Ignatios, Bishop of Mavelikara
A.D. 3rd century was a time when the Church underwent persecutions declared by Roman Emperor named Deoclesius. St. George who lived in this period sacrificed his life for the cause of his faith and love for Christ. It is remarkable to note that Edathua festival of St. George is traditionally celebrated in a highly solemn manner.
Pentacostal experience of the apostles of Jesus Christ is the foundation of Christian faith spread all over the world. They were set apart for God Almighty at the time of the bestowal of Holy Spirit upon them. St. Peter, head of the apostles, miraculously preached the gospel of Jesus Christ in Rome during the time of Emperor Nero. I am reminded of the words proclaimed by St. Peter at the moment of his death, “I am not worthy to die like Jesus Christ, my Guru. Therefore, crucify me in downward.” The seed of Christianity is the martyrdom of saints. Emperor Dioclesius, an opponent of Christianity, persecuted all Christians in his ruling time. As a result, even though many people became afraid of living Christian faith St. George who was also a soldier of the Emperor ardently proclaimed his faith in Christ even in front of him. It teaches us that we must be genuinely happy in living the faith in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.
According to an epic, there were two peculiar events happened in the life of St. George:
i) Once, when all the people of his region were seriously disturbed by a killer serpent who was appearing every day they unanimously decided in a meeting to give away daily one each person of their society as food for the serpent by way of putting lot. Gradually, one day Emperor’s daughter was chosen by the lot for this purpose. While St. George was travelling through the way where he saw the serpent as usual going to eat the queen, he surprisingly killed it. Hence, he could protect the whole society from this dreadful circumstance.
ii) There was a water fall in the place where the saint lived. Once, a serpent appeared from somewhere to pollute the whole water used by the people. But, St. George destroyed the killer serpent and saved people from water pollution which would have been caused by it.
Here, we must be aware of the importance of Christian faith in our daily lives. Today, our society is undergoing lack of unity among people. In fact, women, children, etc. are, in a way afraid to live in the society due to various reasons such as murder, theft, insobriety, prodigality and so on. The word of God that we heard now tells us, “…Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops” (Mt.10:26-27). We have to take initiative as St. George to free our society from the evils that I mentioned early, so that all the people can live in peace. The faithful life of St. George proved that no power in the world can destroy one’s love for Christ. Therefore, our adoration of the Lord may lead us to save our families from the evils we are facing today.
One of the most serious problems we are encountering today is lack of drinking water. Recently, we heard that the drinking water being supplied in many places is very dirty and scientifically proved the percentage of bacteria found in it, which is, in fact injurious to our health. How dangerous is to live without water! It is time for us to change our attitude in life style. We must earnestly seek and find together the way to solve this problem of water. Here, we should not ignore that if St. George who led a holy life could solve the problem of water encountered by his society then today we who are having the same faith that of the saint can also make it possible to solve our great problem of drinking water by leading a holy life.
We shall pave way for the good of our society, and thus glorification of God Almighty.
Let us all earnestly pray for it.
News & Events
02-05-2012
Hundreds of pilgrims from Tamil Nadu started staying here as part of their festival celebration. There was Pontifical Holy Eucharistic celebration in Malankara rite by His Excellency Joshua Mar Ignathios, Bishop of Mavelikkara, at 7.30 a.m. Also, he preached sermon during the liturgy.
03-05-2012
His Grace Mar Joseph Perumthottam, Archbishop of Changanacherry celebrated Holy Eucharist and preached sermon at 7.30 a.m. Hundreds of people participated in this liturgical celebration. He inaugurated exhibition stalls of pro-life organized under the leadership of Archdiocesan pro-life group and of the life of Kerala AssissiPuthenparambilThommechan. Thereafter, the holy statue of St. George was placed solemnly at the Church’s main entrance in the presence of the Archbishop.