Easter Gives Hope to the Weak and the Despairing
The Universe
(May 11, 2003)
Some believe that Easter is over, but that is not so. The Easter experience of reliving the events surrounding the arrest and execution of Jesus and his powerful resurrection recharges my faith and inspires me to try to make his message a living reality.
Easter is never over, Jesus lives on in all believers and through them he prolongs his presence in the world. He extends his power to help, save and forgive through us who believe in him and he challenges us to live out his message to love one another as he loved us.
For me the great experience of Easter is not only the moving and inspiring Holy Week Liturgy but it is when I witness the rebirth of hope in those who are hopeless and in despair, when I see the strength of the weak rising to overcome adversity, when I share in the power of the powerless doing battle with evil and emerging victorious.
I see that it is all God's doing, we are being raised up as was Jesus. I have seen the power of the Risen Christ carry people to heights of courage and bravery. Whether it is some child trusting that Jesus will give her the courage to testify in court before her abuser, or the village women blocking the destruction of their shacks and shanties with their own bodies. When I read of selfless people doing good for the poor and the hungry wherever there is injustice and deprivation, writers and journalists risking themselves to tell the truth, I see Jesus there, reaching out.
I am filled with admiration for them and I know that the spirit of unselfish love brought into the world by Jesus is alive and flowing through them like a river of grace. These are a few of countless experiences that are evidence of the Risen Christ. As he said, He is always with us to the end of time.
This world needs him to be with us as never before, guiding, empowering and inspiring us to oppose all evil and seek justice no matter what.
In a very secular world where one super-power now, we need the courage and strength to stand up to this new form of empire building and domination of the weak by the strong.
Jesus made his stand on this very issue, He said the Kingdom of God is for the peacemakers, for the poor in body and in spirit, for those who suffer persecution, for those who weep and mourn. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, theirs is the kingdom. It is not for the power hungry corporations and their political puppets that have reduced the worth of the human person to a measure of how much they can spend and consume.
It is not by the amount of material possessions we accumulate or how big is our bank account that we find peace of mind and fulfillment of the spirit, rather it by sharing what little we can spare with the poor and hungry that is the true measure of our life's journey. In the end they are the criteria by which we will be judged.
Jesus tells us we can never be as beautiful as a lily of the field no matter how much we spend on perfume and fashions. Beautiful is being natural, as God created us, innocent, pure and without guile, not what the fashion fanatics of Paris or London tell us is beauty.
Nor can we be fulfilled by
chasing after prestige and acceptance and approval of our peer group or
society. Only when we firmly believe that God, our creator, gives all of
these things through Jesus Christ and we have His acceptance and approval
then we are close to the Kingdom of God.
