“We are sinners by nature…both in words or in actions, we fail to meet His perfect standards”.

I came across these words in the renowned seat of the Diocese of Kolkata, the St.Paul’s Cathedral where I had paid a visit with my soul mates just before Christmas. Many such words pass me by in many places; I see them but never read them . I don’t know what magic these words inscribed in the interior walls of the Cathedral contained that it held me back for a while, as if to penetrate my Soul and succeeded in taking me to a world of reverie.

In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve were punished by God Himself for tasting the Forbidden fruit and pursuing Forbidden Knowledge; but much unlike Satan as they regretted their deed, Merciful Almighty created Earth and instead of sending them to Hell sent them to the newly created Earth so that they can undergo purgation. Later Christ, the messiah was also sent to Earth to wash away the sins of the people on Earth by means of Self Sacrifice. But one question lingers on in my mind:

“What was the Use?”

O Jesus, the Father of Mankind, why did you sacrifice yourself? The people and their sins have not changed…rather day by day they are increasing in number.

In the past ages, Kings of different countries did not hesitate to fight each other and even kill men in order to acquire wealth and position. Even in the Reneissance period, we find conspirers like Macbeth and Banquo, as reported in Hollinshed’s Chronicle, plotting out a regicide coldheartedly. They did not fumble before killing even the King - God’s representative on Earth. The Romantic period in Britain corresponds not only with an impressive flowering of imaginative literature, but also, as Ian Haywood reminds us in his fascinating new study, Bloody Romanticism, with a series of 'catastrophically violent events'. Embracing the the French Revolution, the slave trade and the Irish rebellion , the Romantic era remains a witness to inhumane violence like A West Indian slave being chained to a rack, beaten, disemboweled, and beheaded; a French princess being dragged through the streets and torn limb from limb by a revolutionary mob; an Irish rebel being hanged, fired upon with pistols, run through the body with a sword, and chopped up into pieces to be buried on the side of the road in front of his friends; an American woman 'scalped' and left for dead by 'a band of Indians' in the pay of British troops. Again Incidents like the Bloody Sunday in the Victorian era left the whole world dumbstruck.

Also in colonial India, the British officials had practiced barefaced savagery and violence upon the natives in the process of exploiting them and some of the instances which shocked the world involves the bestial firing at Jallianwala Bagh. In the modern era, man did not even hesitate to use science to cause destruction. The dropping of atom bombs by America on the two cities of Hioroshima and Nagasaki of Japan during the world wars remains the greatest example of wild animosity - an unforgivable crime whose consequences are suffered till date.

Such multitudes of Crime! Oh God!

“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.” [ Macbeth; Act 2 scene 2]

The world, hence, comprises of a heap of sins. O Lord! How much of it has been washed away with the blood of saints like Thomas- a- Becket?

Men in today’s world are committing sins which are not only inexplicable but also beyond imagination with brutality and connivance as if being the words of inspiration in modern world. Instances of coldblooded murder, gang rape, adultery, patricide flood the newspapers almost every day.

Oh Jesus, why did you shed your precious blood for such subjects who never bothers to value your sacrifice? See Almighty, your subjects are not fit to be showered with your mercy.

The Delhi Gang rape brought forth before us ruthless ‘Satan’s who dot today’s world. Though the whole Country had protested and the government reformed many existing bills, did Nirbhaya get Justice eventually? The juvenile criminal was spared from being hanged. Isn’t it likely that he should have been shot down to death or inflicted with inscrutiating pain? This bestial creature did not consider his juvenility when he indulged himself in the bestial act…did not refrain himself which he should have been as he is a “minor”.

The Aruna Shanbaug case bewildered the nation again, showing how bestiality led on even to the question of euthanasia of an innocent victim, a victim whose life was plagued beyond wonders, who suffered for forty two long years at no fault of hers. Furthermore, cases of child abuse, especially the one in the G.D Birla School and many more which even go unnoticed takes place almost regularly. Besides exploitation and murder owing to indomitable lust, even burning down women live because of her rejecting a marriage proposal as has recently taken place in Secunderabad, the sending of old parents to old age homes and not paying a visit to them, the instances of driving an old parent out of the house after seizing of all his/her property have become almost regular occurrences. Vices like Quarrelsomeness, Jealousy and Mistrust have also left their imprint on the human race. Fathers mistrust their children, brothers mistrust brothers which again leads to the corruption of the society.

To add on to the miseries and helplessness, another vice - the Greed has also succeeded in overpowering human race. Social Servants like doctors and police have lost all their moralities and easily submit their loyalty before bribes. People without much influence in the society hence are unable to get justice for the crimes committed on them. Even the refusal of rendering treatment to serious patients by doctors and hospitals has become a colourful trend in the modern society - such is your diligence, your responsibility, Great doctors! Has the Hippocratic oath just become a mere custom for you that you easily can forget about the wellbeing of the helpless patients and produce false reports, give false medicines in return of money?"

We celebrate Christmas, a festival backed by the story of purgation and rejuvenation of mankind; but Jesus, even after all these incidents of hostilities which shape today’s world, do you still think that you have been able to purgate the world? Don’t you feel ashamed? Don’t you regret your act now? Speak Jesus…speak out please!