This year was remarkable in so many ways and, therefore, this year’s celebration of the Holy Father Sebastian of Jackson was no exception.
Devotees and pilgrims from his ancestral Herceg Novi, Jackson’s sister city, from his native San Francisco, from Los Angeles, where he founded the first church and served therein, as well as from other parts of California and the United States of America, unfortunately, could not fulfil their great wish this year to visit Jackson again on the day of its Patron Saint. However, it was precisely in their absence that we felt their presence perhaps even more strongly than in the previous years. Filling the half-empty church with their countenances, within our hearts and with our spiritual sight, we pondered how grateful we had been for each other in the past, how much we appreciated and nurtured our dearly paid unity in the Body and Blood of Christ, crucified and shed for us? How much had we valued Time as a gift, how wisely had we used it, redeemed and sanctified it with our lives, or had we delayed our repentance and reconciliation while forgetting that we do not know the day or the hour that our earthly journey will come to its end? Now, at a time with far fewer of us being physically present in the church, each face shone before us as the living icon of God, and those who were absent seemed closer and dearer than ever before.
The Holy Liturgy was served on Sunday when we prayerfully remembered the founders of our church. Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew was celebrated on that day, and the Parable on the Good Samaritan was read from the Holy Gospel. Bishop Maxim reminded us that, although we have many reasons to be proud of our ancestry, affiliation and calling, we are expected to confirm them through our deeds and our lives, and while doing good and taking care even of those who are foreign to us according to the worldly comprehension, we can bring them to the Lord as well and make them our brethren. Saint Sebastian, the main founder of the Jackson Parish, did just that by eradicating all corrupt divisions, bridging distances and through his love, goodness, faith and prayer, through Christ within him, connected the inconnectible, the East and the West, the North and the South. After the Divine Liturgy, on a beautiful, sunny and warm day, in accordance with the local health department regulations, lunch was served outside, next to the church hall.
Source: Serbian Orthodox Church
