“EVA- Global Symposium on Life”, the legacy marking event organized by the Eparchy of Kalyan to promote the culture of life has total 16 sessions in which serious and relevant subjects relating and regarding life would be discussed and explained by research scholars. The first session began at 1:45 pm at Animation Renewal Centre (ARC) Auditorium. The session explained the ‘Sanctity of Human Life’ in which 2 different papers were presented by 2 different people. Paper I dealt with the ‘Sacredness of Life in the Old Testament & New Testament, presented by Rev. Fr. Dr. Mathew Illathuparambil, Rector- St. Joseph’s Pontifical Seminary, Aluva.
Rev. Fr. Dr. Illathuparambil remarked that “On the one hand, human society spends a huge amount of money to protect human life, enhance its quality and keep it happy and content. On the other hand, human life is being destroyed in huge numbers, lost on the street and attacked against on very many fronts. We are living in the midst of a culture that takes the form of a veritable culture of death and this culture is actively fostered by powerful cultural, economic and political current that encourage an idea of society exclusively concerned with efficiency, even at the cost o losing or violating human life and its dignity.” Further, he added, “From a Christian perspective, human life I not merely the highest value, it is sacred!, Bible considers any form of life as something valuable and the simple but important reason for this is the fact that it is created by God but human life is all the more sacred, since God has created human beings in a very special way.”
Rev. Fr. Mathew reminded the gathered crowd that God is against any violence contrary to human life and emphasized that because of the sacredness of life, human beings enjoy a unique dignity. He concluded his presentation by highlighting that human life does not end with the natural death of the body, it continues to live forever and exhorted that human life becomes meaningful only when it necessarily turns out to be eternal.
