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Hobson’s Choice

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By Sanjeewa Jayaweera

The television images and media reports from India are both heart-wrenching and frightening. Visuals of people dying whilst gasping for oxygen, desperately ill patients unable to gain admission to hospitals, and dead bodies floating in rivers were previously associated with movies created by directors with great imagination. But, unfortunately, those visuals and reports are authentic and affirm what can happen due to poor decision making by the Government and the people.

There is no doubt that the Indian Government has to bear the bulk of the responsibility for this humanitarian crisis, resulting in a daily death toll of over 4,000 people. However, the consensus is that this figure is significantly understated.

The relaxation of rules around the holding of election gatherings, religious festivals and attending cricket matches where there were no social distancing nor mask-wearing is now rightly held to be the reasons for the second wave in India. Despite warnings about the risk of these types of superspreader events, the Government allowed them to occur. I recall in February 2021 watching with concern the TV broadcast of the India and England test matches from India, where spectators gathered in thousands without masks. In contrast, in Sri Lanka, we played behind closed doors against the same opposition.

The Madras High Court recently castigated the Indian Election Commission (EC) for having allowed election rallies and even said that there might be probable cause for charging the Election Commission members for murder. The Supreme Court refused an application by the EC to expunge the comments of the Madras High Court. The EC petitioned, saying their standing in the country had been severely eroded due to the tongue lashing they received! It seems the death of thousands due to their irresponsible actions should be subservient to their ego.

I believe the Madras High Court should have extended its comments to the Central Government as well. Just before the second wave started, the Indian Minister of Health Harsh Vardhan had declared that India was in the “endgame” of the epidemic. There were also misguided reports that India had even reached “herd immunity” despite a raging second/third wave in the USA, UK and Europe.

Many in India will blame the Indian Government for having donated and exported millions of AstraZeneca vaccines to foreign governments resulting in a shortage for the local population. There will be a debate whether donations of vaccines by India and China are for political reasons. The people of the recipient countries are no doubt grateful to the donors. However, the many thousands succumbing to the dreaded disease and their loved ones in India will resent that priority was not to Indian citizens. History will record that neither the United States of America nor the United Kingdom donated any dosages and deemed their priority to their citizens.

The situation in Sri Lanka, too, is dire, with a record number of covid-19 positive cases detected daily and the increasing death toll. During the second wave, both government politicians and a few health authorities were adamant that there was no community spread. Thankfully, no such comments this time around. The need of the hour is to acknowledge the gravity of the situation and take urgent action to minimize the death toll.

In Sri Lanka, the third wave is undoubtedly due to poor discipline amongst the public in adhering to recommended guidelines approaching and during the Sinhala and Hindu New Year. No one can argue against that.

In my view, the Government before the New Year should have prohibited the movement of people between provinces. Of course, it might have been difficult to enforce this rule strictly, but those caught breaking it should have been arrested, fined, and even sent to jail. The decision may not have been popular amongst the public, but governments are elected to make tough decisions in the people’s interest. The argument put forward that people were wary of Covid restrictions and needed some space to celebrate the new year is utter nonsense.

When a rule might impinge on an individual’s freedom but benefit the majority, commonsense dictates that such decisions should prevail, overriding the unhappiness of a few. In the USA and Europe, there has been too much emphasis on individual freedom. The propensity of our people to have a good time despite hard times is aptly described in the pithy “Nava Gilunath Ban Chun.” Had the Government decided to prevent people from travelling between provinces during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, in all probability, the resulting loss of life and economic hardship that we are now facing could have been minimized.

There is no doubt that several key elements are essential in arriving at decisions taken as a team that results in a good outcome. This is applicable whether it is in running a country, a company or even a cricket team. A few prerequisites would be that the team should have intelligent members, have the necessary expertise, be selfless, honest, and walk the talk.

It has been proven all over the world that in managing this pandemic, the predominant decision making voice with regards to public health should be with the medical professionals. They are the experts in this area, and as such, they should prevail. Those who manage the economy should indeed have a say, especially in a country like ours. However, short term restrictions and lockdowns that curtail and minimize the spread of the disease is a far better tool than resorting to action after the horse has bolted. The economic repercussions are far more significant. The strategy of China, New Zealand and Australia has been “go hard and go early.” The success of that strategy is all too evident.

The reported episode of Minister Lokuge getting the lockdown of the district of Pliyandala lifted within hours speaks volumes as to what is wrong with the decision making process in our country. That he remains a member of the cabinet is a damning indictment of the lack of accountability for wrongful actions by those who wield authority. Others should also be held accountable for rescinding the order made by the Director-General of Health. The Director-General of Health would have tendered his resignation in some countries because of his authority being usurped by those not empowered to do so; it is futile to hold a position where one’s authority is usurped.

The other decision that made no sense whatsoever was to allow weddings of up to 150 guests. Given that these gatherings are primarily held in airconditioned function halls with poor ventilation, and attendees do not practice social distancing or mask-wearing, the commonsense approach was to ban all weddings immediately. As par for the course in our country, social media was agog with why the restriction was not announced. In the absence of verifiable information such as written confirmation from the hotel that hosted the particular wedding, we should confine such speculations to the dust bin. There is far too much fake news on social media.

The decision not to ban the immediate arrivals from India is also perplexing. It always seems that the Government is a few weeks behind making decisions that seem obvious to the public. These delays result in immense damage to the public and the economy.

Several Government decisions in the last few months, the reduction of duty on sugar when there were several months of stocks available, the overnight ban on the import of palm oil, the prohibition of chemical fertilizers, appear to have been made hastily without thinking through the consequences. One can only assume that the advice of the experts has not been sought or ignored. On the contrary, it all seems arbitrary.

The aggressive vaccination programs in the USA and UK are now being acknowledged as the most critical tool in managing the pandemic. In that regard, too, the various statements made by some Government Ministers seem to be inaccurate. In early March, a newspaper report stated that they had seen a letter from Serum Institute informing the Government of its inability to supply the AstraZeneca doses as per the original schedule. However, the following day the State Minister denied this report and said that we would receive the doses previously agreed. I believe the newspaper report was correct, although the onset of a ferocious second wave in India resulting in a ban on all vaccines exporting will forever cloud the issue. Whether the agreed-upon doses of Sputnik V will arrive in the country in quantities stated and on time is questionable. Every day we hear various figures announced by different Ministers. Given the demand for vaccines worldwide, and the single biggest manufacturer is not exporting vaccines for several months, it will be challenging.

The Sinopharm vaccine has finally been approved for emergency use in Sri Lanka. The vaccine was approved by the WHO the previous day. It seems the WHO has got its approval process to be in line with the urgent demand for vaccines. Within a week, it approved the Moderna and Sinopharm vaccines. The FDA approved the Moderna vaccine on the 18th of December 2020, and why it took the WHO four months to approve a vaccine after the FDA is puzzling.

As to how many deaths could have been prevented had these vaccines been approved earlier, it might need the appointment of another independent panel. It now seems almost criminal that 600,000 doses of Sinopharm remained in storage for over a month. I am not suggesting any shortcuts. However, time is of the essence in these desperate times.

For the people of Sri Lanka and its Government, it’s the “Hobson’s” choice. It seems that we need a nationwide lockdown to minimize the spread of the virus and reduce the number of fatalities. A panel in India has said that lockdowns need be in the range of six to eight weeks to be truly effective. The question is, can our struggling economy and the people with multiple challenges afford a lengthy lockdown, or will we encounter a daily death toll as predicted by a research agency in Washington?

In its editorial, Lancet, a prestigious medical journal, has stated, “India must now restructure its response while the crisis rages. The success of that effort will depend on the Government owning up to its mistakes, providing responsible leadership and transparency, and implementing a public health response that has science at its heart.”



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Some reflections on cultural revival of 20th Century Ceylon

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By Uditha Devapriya

Until the 1940s and 1950s, much of the arts in Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, remained the preserve of an English-speaking elite. They were very much moulded by colonial attitudes: the two most representative institutions of this period, the University Dramatic Society (Dramsoc) and the Ceylon Society of Arts, had been modelled along the lines of British institutions, including the Royal Academy. Restricted to a Westernised elite and circumscribed by their narrow vision, they became anachronistic long before their demise.

Maname and Rekava are typically described as the artistic high points of the 1950s, and both are seen as having facilitated a rupture with the colonial setup. Correct as this view may be, however, it is important to note that by 1956 theatre and cinema had become dominated by another social class: a Sinhala petty bourgeoisie, who saw plays and films as entertainments. There was no difference between these art forms: between, for instance, the plays of John de Silva and the films of B. A. W. Jayamanne. Both replicated each other, both amplified one another, and both responded to just about the same crowd.

What this means is that, by the 1950s, Ceylon’s cultural landscape had bifurcated between two diametrically opposed ideological streams: an Anglicised colonial elite on the one hand, and a Sinhala petty bourgeoisie on the other. The colonial elite had their own institutions, well-funded and well recognised at official levels. The petty bourgeoisie lacked that kind of institutional support, but the emergence of political forces sympathetic to their demands compensated for such limitations. Before we go any further with this trajectory, however, we need to take stock of some crucial developments in 20th century Ceylon.

Ironically – or perhaps not so ironically – it was the sons and daughters of the colonial elite who first went against the grain, questioned accepted artistic conventions, and opened the arts to indigenous elements. In this they found themselves occupying the best of both worlds: access to money and capital, and the freedom to rebel against the same class that had provided them with that capital. The example of Lionel Wendt is the best there is: hailing from a prominent legal family, he spurned a legal career and took to photography and music, emerging as a patron of Sinhala culture and Kandyan dance.

The formation of the 43 Group only reinforced these trends. None of the founding artists of the 43 Group – with the prominent exception of Manjusri, the ex-Buddhist monk – were conversant, still less fluent, in Sinhala. Yet they patronised Sinhala dance, painting, literature, and other cultural forms, going back to Sinhala villages, outside Colombo, talking to locals, forming seminal friendships, broadening their horizons, helping them take their art to the world beyond their homes. To be sure, the elite’s conception of traditional art could be narrow, one could say even orientalist – as Qadri Ismail has noted in his critique of the 43 Group. But to local artists, their intervention proved to be pivotal.

The plays of John de Silva and the films of the Minerva Players – of Rukmani Devi and the Jayamanne brothers – pandered to a completely different milieu, as far removed from the Anglicised elite as they could be. Art forms like literature and dance could be revived: they could be salvaged and “redeemed” in the eyes of the elite. The sons of traditional dancers thus found themselves teaching Colombo’s upper-classes, in schools like Trinity and Ladies’ College, paving the way for that transition – which Sarath Amunugama dwells on in his study of kohomba kankariya – from art-as-ritual to art-as-performance.

These transitions more or less made it easier for the elite to absorb, immerse themselves in, and rejuvenate such art forms. Theatre and cinema, however, proved to be somewhat challenging here. For elite audiences, they remained, at best, mere entertainments. There was thus hardly any push to elevate these art forms: theatre and film producers merely pandered to the audiences who typically went to see Sinhala plays and Sinhala films. When Lester Peries, Titus Thotawatte, and Willie Blake visited Sir Chittampalam Gardiner, of Ceylon Theatres, for instance, the following exchange unfolded.

“I have just seen the finest Sinhalese film ever made.”

Our hearts fluttered for a moment.

Could it be – was it possible – that he was alluding to Rekava?

“Do you know that Seda Sulang will be an all-time great? I have seen it in Madras.”

Gardiner hailed from one of the most established families in Jaffna. His response to Seda Sulang – which today’s critics would put down as puerile and peechan, a typical song-and-dance medley that contains nothing to redeem it – was conditioned by the context of his times. The elite did not view film or theatre seriously, in part because these had already been taken up by a different crowd. That crowd had neither the money nor the political clout that the elite did. But as a class – formed mostly of merchants and mudalalis – they were influential in their own right, and they patronised these art forms. The colonial elite, for the most, accepted that state of affairs and played along.

Lester’s and Sarachchandra’s interventions were thus pivotal. They faced a dual challenge. On the one hand, they strived to use these art forms – theatre and cinema – to revive traditional culture, to represent that culture to the world outside. On the other hand, they had to emancipate them from the colonial petty bourgeoisie to which they had been confined until then. To put it crudely, Sarachchandra had to rescue Sinhala theatre from Tower Hall, while Lester had to rescue Sinhala film from the Madras studios.

This was a challenge that the colonial elite, especially the founding members of the 43 Group, did not face and did not have to resolve. The likes of Lionel Wendt, George Keyt, and Ivan Peries did not discover the traditional Sinhala village; the Sinhala village existed well before their time. Yet when they arrived on the scene, it was entirely up to them to depict it for everyone else. They did not have to contend with other social classes in this task because they were the first to arrive, the first to become patrons and financiers.

Lester James Peries and Ediriweera Sarachchandra did not have this luxury, because theatre and cinema had already been discovered, and dominated, by another class. That both succeeded in taking these art forms in a different direction, away from the confines of that class, is a tribute and a credit to them. In later years a completely different generation – more bilingual and more sensitive to cultural nuances – took up the challenge of going beyond even Sarachchandra and Lester. In doing so, they established these art forms as more than entertainments, fulfilling a task – a historical task, no less – which had originally fallen on the colonial elite, in early 20th century Ceylon.

Uditha Devapriya is a writer, researcher, and analyst based in Sri Lanka who contributes to a number of publications on topics such as history, art and culture, politics, and foreign policy. He can be reached at udakdev1@gmail.com.

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Life and Death in Battle Array

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BY Rev. Fr. Leopold Ratnasekera OMI.


While the first-ever Good Friday in the Christian Calendar registers the condemnation, crucifixion and the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter’s son of Galilee, the itinerant preacher and healer, by contrast the first-ever Easter Sunday hails the triumph of the Risen Christ who rose from the darkness of the tomb thus defeating death which is the common lot of every human being and indeed of every living thing in the world. Life and death happen to be the daily drama being enacted everywhere around us.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is an unprecedented event in the history of religions where a founder of a religion ever rose from the tomb. From the many tombs, just one solitary person came forth alive back to life. For twenty long centuries of the Christian era, the Resurrection continues to be the touchstone and decisive factor of the Christian believer’s religious faith and indeed of Christianity itself as a religious tradition.

The biblical scriptures of the New Testament are replete with the radicalism of this Easter faith which shaped the way of life instilled the courage of the earliest Christians indelibly. It anchored as an ingrained conviction which made them stand resolute and unwavering in the face of rejection, persecution, imprisonment and even martyrdom for its sake.

The Resurrection is a historical event

The incarnation of the gods, their dying and rising formed indeed a paradigm in early myths and religious legends. They were rampant in the mythologies of early Greeks and Romans. But the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was by its very nature unique as challenging the polytheistic mythology of the pre-Christian eras. While all those myths and legends have disappeared, the story of Christ crucified and risen remains to this day an imposing and incisive faith-tradition having seen its transition from the time of the Apostles who were the first disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, through early Greek and Western fathers battling with heresies to medieval romanticism and renaissance that inspired art and architecture and finally into modern and post-modern era which is hell-bent on questioning the very idea of religion as an illusion unworthy of modernity studded with radical rationalism, subjectivism and a pervasive dictatorship of relativism. Pure and simple scientism and modern high-tech too are antagonistic towards religion in principle drawn as they are to anchor heavily and solely on empirical and verifiable data.

There has been the radical atheistic communism which considered all religion as the opium of the masses condemning it as a sad obstacle for the development of man and his society. However, in recent times the world has witnessed the catastrophic downfall and extinction of communism through its utter rejection by those who fell victims to it for decades in some parts of the world. The history of civilization is replete with manifestation of religion and we see it as an anthropological fact that could hardly be denied or denigrated. It has been shown that nearly more than 90% of world’s humanity professes some form of religious belief.

Resurrection however defies any scientific enquiry based on empirical or scientific evidence. It is a spiritual reality and though historical, is a matter of faith and experience. Sometimes profounder and deepest of truths are attained through intuition and experience where scientific investigation may be incapable of. Jesus is not a myth or an imposing legend. He was a historical person.

The Jesus of history is identical with the Christ of Christian faith with both being inter-dependent. St. Paul declares at Corinth that if Christ was not risen, his preaching would be of no use, the people’s faith would be in vain and they would be the most to be pitied (1 Cor 15: 17:-18). St. John a more contemplative gospel writer says that they preach about the Word of Life, something they have seen and heard and touched with their own hands (1 John 1: 1-6). St. Peter recalls their ecstatic experience of the Christ of glory and light at the transfiguration event on Mount Tabor: “We saw him and were asked to listen to Him” (2 Peter 1: 18). The Risen Lord manifested his presence to the disciples gathered in fear within locked doors.

He became a companion to the two distraught disciples moving away from Jerusalem after the shocking events of Friday. He was seen walking on the sea providing a miraculous draught of fish and having a meal with his dear disciples on the beach of Galilee. He commanded his disciples to change location to Galilee where he would be seen for the last time commissioning them to go and teach all nations to observe what He taught them.

The celebration of the Breaking of Bread, the earliest ritual of the Church would make the Risen Lord truly present again as they share the bread and wine. These assemblies became the privileged places and moments of profound unity, fellowship and solidarity among the believers. Today in various churches this celebration is given immense prominence and in the higher churches more solemn ritual adorns this celebration.

This meal continues the miraculous feeding of the five thousand by Jesus up in the Galilean mountains and is the drama we see re-enacted in the centers of great Christian and catholic pilgrimages, festivals and on ordinary Sundays. The hidden presence of Jesus Christ in those whom He considers as the least of his brothers such as those who hunger and thirst, the strangers, those who are naked, sick and the imprisoned is proved by the fact that when we see to their needs, it is Him alone that we serve (Matthew 25: 35-40).

This teaching on compassionate charity has inspired many saints even of the present time as Mother Teresa of Calcutta known for her care of the destitute and the dying. Christ also raised children as symbols of his kingdom calling the adult world to a life of childlike-ness. Children invariably teach us about life’s inviolable dignity becoming thereby evangelizers of life and prophets of a culture of life and love.

Today’s Mega-Drama of Life and Death

The era we live in is truly witnessing the mega drama of life and death. Modern life both in urban, sub-urban and rural areas is threatened by multiple forces of death, destruction and decay. They may be natural disasters that are beyond our control while others are man-made including disruption of the environment due to relentless abuse of modern technology. Melting of the ice-glaciers in the poles, the rising of ocean temperatures and emission of fossil fuels which poison the environment and the spread of viral deceases are some of them which make the earth our common home less safe and healthy a place to live.

Then there are the crucial moral issues directly infringing on the sacredness of human life such as direct abortion and euthanasia and the harvesting of embryos for scientific experimentation of various kinds. Nature has decreed that the dignity of marriage which is the way of spousal love and the door to new life through motherhood not be infringed upon through donor insemination or surrogate motherhood which amount to alienation of the persons involved.

Marriage, motherhood and new life are intimately linked in the human context. To divorce them would be a serious travesty of human relations so basic to the life of society and civilization. Both the global world-economic system run in favor of the rich and the weapons industry prevent funds being channeled to feed the world’s hungry masses. Wars can never be paths to justice and peace. What is important are the structures of dialogue needed for building bridges instead of walls of separation. Death-dealing factors are to be eradicated with life-giving resources explored to the full.

Easter is restoration of Life

Building a new world-order that fosters life in its richness and diversity requires as a condition-sine-qua-non the elimination of the culture of death and all that is a threat to life. Peace, goodwill and efforts at mutual understanding among nations and peoples are absolutely needed in providing an atmosphere of fraternity and solidarity that facilitate ensuring safety and security of life. It is only in a world at peace that joy of life can prevail as well as tranquility of order. Easter reversed all that led to the darkness, despair and fear following the death and burial of Jesus Christ.

Once risen with power and glory from the tomb, a radiant springtime of joy and peace dawned which made all hasten to share it with one another. Following the Easter paradigm, death has to be destroyed and life is to be restored. The battle for life and its victory, includes the struggle against evil and all its forces. It should not be forgotten that sound morality and preservation of wholesome ethical behavior are of great importance for raising a healthy society where people can experience their human dignity. There are so many factors today that denigrate society such as the drug trade, many-fold mafia and abuse of social media.

It has brought tragedy to the lives of individuals and even families. These modern pathways of evil and moral corruption have to be dealt with since it eats into the moral fiber of society in general. The immense good that social media can accrue for those who use them is to be appreciated. May Easter that saw the destruction of death and the rising of new life, inspire all to walk the paths of life, love and peace which ensure a safer and more secure journey for humanity.

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Easter and the Roman Centurion: A Symphony of Redemption

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Easter, the cornerstone of the Christian faith, is universally described as a celebration of penance, hope, renewal, and the triumph of life over death. Central to this profound narrative in history is the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, a pivotal moment that unfolded on the cross; an instrument known, and well-recognised, as an emblem of condemnation, retribution, and shame. However, on that fateful day of the crucifixion, amidst the anguish and agony of the execution of the Son of God, one figure emerges from the pages of history; the Roman Centurion who stood at the foot of the cross. His coincidental encounter with divinity and spirituality transformed a moment of despair into a guiding light of redemption.

It has been said over and over, again and again, and even year in and year out, that the death of the Son of God on the cross is a moving symbol of the divine love of Jesus that had most definitely been negated and overcome by the deep human wickedness and the imposition of the compelling sense of a much-deserved punishment to a heretic criminal. However, it could also be portrayed as a paradoxical narrative that intertwines the brutality of the crucifixion with the profound message of liberation. As Jesus hung suspended between heaven and earth, with the weight of humanity’s sins pressing intolerably upon him, the Roman Centurion stood as a silent witness to a cosmic drama unfolding, ever so slowly, drearily, and even menacingly.

That Roman Centurion, a well-acclaimed symbol of authority and military prowess, was tasked with overseeing the crucifixion; a humdrum, if not callous, duty for a man hardened by the brutality of warfare. For him, this was a routine job and in truth, nothing very special. He had seen many criminals breathe their last on the cross. Yet for all that, when Jesus breathed his last, in that moment of despair and darkness, as the sky turned sombre, grey, and grave, and the earth quaked, something extraordinary transpired within the Centurion’s well-hardened heart. The galactic drama of the crucifixion unfolded not only in the heavens but also within the depths of a human soul; a soul which, right up to that time, had been completely insulated against human suffering.

The crucifixion of Jesus had very clearly pulled, ever so strongly at that, on the hitherto cloistered stony heartstrings of a time-tested warrior. In the Gospel of Matthew, we find the Centurion’s response to the events relentlessly unfolding before him, when he said, “Surely he was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54). That proclamation, uttered by a human who had participated in countless executions, as well as many killings in war, reveals a profound disclosure; the sheer recognition of divinity and mysticism, even amidst dreadful anguish and agony. The Centurion, in witnessing the selfless sacrifice of Jesus, found himself face to face with the divine, transcending the boundaries of his earthly role of being the supervisor of yet another slaying by crucifixion.

That transformation experienced by the Roman Centurion embodies the universality of redemption. His acknowledgement of Jesus as the Son of God stands as a powerful testament to the inclusive nature of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. The crucifixion was very definitely not only for a select few, but for all of humanity, transcending cultural, social, and historical boundaries. The Centurion, through his revelation, becomes an unexpected and unforeseen proclaimer in the gospel: a reminder that the transformative power of Easter extends beyond the expected circles.

These echoes of what happened all those years ago have major implications for the present and most certainly for all of us. As we celebrate Easter, we are invited to reflect on the profound implications of Jesus’s death and the unanticipated conversion of the Roman Centurion. The crucifixion is not merely a historical event but a timeless symbol of celestial love that resonates through the corridors of time, and right throughout the ages. The Centurion’s testimony serves as a touching reminder that redemption is not confined to the devout or the righteous, but extends even to the most unlikely of hearts.

In the death of Jesus Christ and the revelation of the Centurion, we find a beautiful Symphony of Redemption, weaving together the threads of humanity’s frailty and brokenness, with the gossamers of the divine melody of grace. Easter therefore becomes a celebration, not only of an empty tomb from which the Lord rose from death in triumph, but one that transformed lives, where the darkest moments gave birth to the brightest of hope; a reputed beacon of salvation.

It is most certainly a deliverance that all of us need to embrace with a singular dedication.

Prepared by Dr B. J. C. Perera
with some assistance from Artificial Intelligence

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