Two thousand years ago, the
first Christians, a group of men and women who followed and accompanied Jesus
of Nazareth throughout his public ministry, happily confessed that the
Crucified, “the one killed by hanging him
on a cross,” had changed their lives. He had taken them out of an old human
condition and transformed them into new men and women: with new mentality, a
new way of being and acting in the world. From that point on they believed,
confessed, proclaimed and celebrated that Jesus was alive; that the Christ was
resurrected; that the last word from God “the Father” about his Son’s life was
not death; that the resurrection of Jesus meant triumph of life over death,
triumph of good over the manifestation and experience of evil in the world.
These facts bring to human history the view of a new horizon and a possibility
to see the hope that does not die.
Transformed
by the once dead whom they now confess is alive, they can so confess precisely because
of the change which he brought to their lives. The first Christians go out to
the world to share and to preach with words and actions the good news of the
Resurrection. At the same time they consign in writing their confessions of
faith, together with historical facts which occurred in their small, new,
fraternal and Eucharistic community of believers.
All this shows that the
Resurrection is, more than a doctrinal body, the foundation of Christianity. It
is a new life experience of transformed life, abundant life; and a
manifestation against evil, sin and death.
The resurrection which we celebrate is a conviction which is manifested
and sustained with a new lifestyle. Through it, Christians devote themselves
and hope for the construction of a better world; that is to say, a more divine
world in its profound humanity.
Through Christ’s Resurrection,
Christiany as well as each Christian, rises to propose a more equitable world:
more just, more solidarious, more visible, more fraternal, more human. They
would be against all manifestation of evil, against all inhuman and
dehumanizing experiences, against all aggression to human and humanity, against
anything which damages the image and
likeness of God in his creatures.
The Resurrection, therefore,
is a confession of faith. It is the liturgical feast, but --above all-- it is the personal and ecclesial commitment to
be in and for the world daily; a space/time of hope among hopelessness; a sign
of joy among sadness; a space of mercy among so many forms of selfishness, division
and violence; an opportunity for peace in the middle of war, pain and
death. This is the evangelistic task of
the Church. In it resides the reason to be and to exist of the Christian
Community, and gives it its identity and its mission in the world.
Never before has it been more
opportune, never more convenient, but also never more compromising to have the
celebration of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ --our celebration with him and in him-- in a world in crisis, in a society urged with
men and with new and transformed structures. Never before has there been the
present urgency to live and to share what it means to confess that Christ
lives!
“Easter” (Greek:
Pascha) comes from the Hebrew word
which means “to pass”: “to pass” through
the Red Sea, “to pass” from death to life, from sin to grace, from life without
Christ to a life in Him; from hate to love, from indifference to a solidary
commitment; from a world without God to a world constructed for humanization
which is deification
May these days of “Passover” celebration mean the
renovation of our most important Christian commitment in a personal and
ecclesial manner: to be (for a world in crisis) a sign of the new and abundant
life which Christ offers to us. Happy
Easter! Blessed Pascha!
