St. Matthew’s Day - 21 Sep 1958

We all know the story of the martyrdom of St. Stephen recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. In his defence before the Council the martyr relates Jewish history, in the course of which he refers to an incident that happened in the life of Moses. Moses once saw one of the Egyptian taskmasters smiting a Hebrew. He took the side of his oppressed brother and killed the Egyptian. The next day he found a Hebrew smiting another Hebrew. He was horrified to see two men of his own race one attacking the other. Moses went up to them and said, “Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?” Then the man who had attacked his fellow Hebrew said, “Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? Thinkest thou to kill me as thou killest the Egyptian?” At first Moses must have been surprised to see a Hebrew fighting another Hebrew. But that was what happened. Though they were one people by race the racial ties were not strong enough to prevent a fight.

The greatest need of the world today is a realisation of the brotherhood of man by all the people of the world. I am sure world events are compelling us to see this. Whatever may be the country to which we belong, whatever maybe our race or language, we are members of one family. When the distances were great and the means of communications were limited, we could have lived in isolation with little or no contact with our neighbours. Today we have the aeroplane and the radio, and these have contributed to making the world shrink to the size of a neighbourhood. The peoples of the world have been very much brought together. We cannot live in peace and amity until we realise our oneness as a family. We are brothers; unless we believe in it and act according to that belief, unless the spirit of brotherhood possesses all of us, we are doomed to self-destruction and death.

All people have begun to realise the need for the practice of brotherhood in international and inter-racial relationships. The Church was meant to be the most perfect brotherhood the world had ever seen. The teaching of Jesus may be summed up in the simple words: the fatherly love of God, the brotherly love of man and the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. He often talked about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, but never about the king. There is no King in the Kingdom of God; only a Father. The genius of the Gospel of Christ was the extension of the idea of the family to include all humanity. Brotherhood is not a mere detail in the religion of Jesus, but the essence and glory of His Gospel.

The task of the Church in Ceylon today is to tell the people of the land with firm conviction: “Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?” In our country, as in other lands, there are various groups showing a hostile attitude to each other. There is conflict between races and communities, and mistrust and suspicion. There are other divisions in society – between the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, the English speaking and the Swabhasha speaking, the high caste and the low caste, the respectable citizens and those who have lost all self-respect and are engaged in doing anti-social acts. These social barriers keep men apart and there is no sense of brotherhood. World events and particularly the recent events in Ceylon have made us realise that there is no salvation for us until we see our oneness as a family – the family of God. We must strive to remove these social barriers or we perish.

Today is the Feast of St. Matthew. In the Gospel we read that our Lord called Matthew the Publican to be His disciple. Matthew belonged to a class of people who were despised by the others. Our Lord, after calling Matthew to be His disciple, had dinner with many publicans and sinners, men with whom many respectable man would not mix. But our Lord deliberately set out to mix with them socially and thus to recognise them as persons. These men had been ostracised by society. Jesus was convinced that it was wrong and foolish to keep them out of society. To treat a man as a pariah would not cure him of his perversity, but rather tends to confirm him in it. Our Lord broke the social barriers of His day by mixing with those looked upon as outcasts of society.

What would our Lord say to us about our attitude to the class of people whom we call ‘thugs’, and on whom we put all the blame for all the atrocities committed in the country. It is not enough to keep them down with the help of the army, and continue to keep them out of our society. Perhaps society is responsible for the behaviour and conduct and the attitude of this class of people. They are also our brothers. The recent riots have brought home to us the truth that the fundamental defect in our society is broken brotherhood, and the fundamental remedy for all our troubles is renewed brotherhood. Let us do all we can as Christians to show our love towards other communities. Let us not give way to bitterness, but let us think and speak kindly of other people and other communities.

I am sure a large number of the Sinhalese people are not responsible for what has happened, and are eager to live in friendly relationship with all people. There are various solutions to our problems put before the people today: one language, separate government, increase in material resources, increase in the food supply. But no solution can be satisfactory until we realise our oneness as Children of God. “Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?”