*******Fr. Conrad Saldanha
Imagine yourself watching an exciting game of football or cricket and the situation for the team you are supporting is depressing because of the possibility of losing. I am sure you would either want to run away from the situation or would want to shout your guts out to these guys to better keep at it and not to give-up. What would happen if one of them at the last moment becomes a hero? I am sure your excitement would be far greater than an ordinary win or easy win. The impossibility of the situation when saved by a great and mighty effort and talent creates an excitement which is exceedingly great.
In a war too, we could face a similar situation or excitement. A victory and it is celebration! Unfortunately many of our young generation have no memory or taste of war. But the partial taste is well experienced in a cricket match between Pakistan and India. If the game tilts in Pakistan’s favour it could make any one feel low but when it tilts in favour of India then the whole country is excited and there is a celebration. This fever of excitement can be so contagious that it gets rubbed on to others, even those who are least interested in the game.
What happens to the guy who is never interested in the game and is many a time oblivious to what is happening on the cricket field or does not understand the game? You may find them going about their daily routine without much botheration. You ask them the score and they will wonder whether you have used a bad word against them! Some may ask you to stop, it can irritate. A housewife may sometime get irritated about the crazy glue effect towards the T.V. set. She keeps wondering what is that this is leading to; whether he is fallen in love with the T.V. set?
A similar but far greater thing happened 2000 years ago, of utmost significance to the whole of the human race. Someone who came to reveal our true situation of a losing battle that could be won with only with his help. Thus this victorious day of Easter was born; the most important and significant feast in the Christian Calendar. The day when Jesus Christ fully revealed to us what he achieved on that great Good Friday.
Do we really know what Jesus has done for us? We may sometime reap the fruit of an event yet may never know the impact the event can have on our lives. The more we participate in an event the more we are enriched and yet we may never know the significance of the event.
It’s like the man who works all day long, laboring hard, wholly aware that there is someone waiting for him. That someone could be his wife or child or any family member he is working for. The thought of working in order to feed them and look after them gives him that added impetus to put in a little more of that extra effort. A meaningful goal helps us strive and do better in life; whether the meaningful activity in reality is based on truth does not matter to the individual in order to achieve a particular goal.
Likewise, Christ’s resurrection from the dead is sure guarantee and hope and those well immersed in the truth and experience of the resurrection becomes equipped to face the fragility of life with ease and strength. As St. Paul would puts it in one of his letter; “And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power” (1 Cor 6:14). This is not just an eschatological experience but an existential reality. Each time one decides to die to oneself one experiences the resurrection of Christ. The first death is the death of Baptism, the death exercised in faith. In other words, it is an ongoing dying to our self, to seek the self of Christ who alone is able to save us from all our iniquities.
If a child has a goal to become a doctor and if that goal is clear and well supported then it’s much easier to achieve the goal than to a person who never has had a goal in life. The whole of life is oriented in a direction in which he or she takes. The reading material, the TV programmes watched and other such extracurricular activities is oriented in the same direction. In a similar example you have a situation where the child is told that he has inherited a great amount of wealth from his great grandfather and he need not work all his life or his future generation. The attitude is bound to change his thinking pattern and the way he or she will grow-up.
The Easter message is similar; Christ Jesus has given us a clear, visible and tangible goal in his resurrection. Hence the hope that we carry is for one a sure hope which is never going to disappoint us (Rm. 5:5). He himself in course of human history has given us a concrete example, a sure historical event to show the reality for which we can live for and even die. Those who hold a job and work for salary at the end of the month may not doubt the receipt of their salary, yet the eternal life that Christ came to assure those who believe is a more sure hope than the salary of working person. For example – For those who have a working career, may place their hope and plans on the month end salary, but the eternal life that Christ came to assure those who believe is a more sure hope than the salary of working person.
Easter is an assurance of an inheritance which is imperishable undefiled and, unfading that Christ has promised (1Pt.1:4). Yet what is offered on a platter as a free gift cannot be enjoyed unless one employs the same attitude to life as Jesus. Life is never easy; it is rather hostile to life as scripture says; “that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God”. Acts 14:22 Living the message of Easter in this life is to live contrary to the values of this world. “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory”. Col 3:1-4
Prayer: Lord by your resurrection raise me up from my many bondages to sin and decay and help me to live in the power of the Easter victory which you offer to your chosen beloved. Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY AND JOYFUL EASTER! MAY THE RISEN CHRIST ENLIGHTEN YOUR MIND TO ALWAYS REJOICE IN HIS VICTORY!
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