I still visit the grave of a very dear friend of mine. She died relatively young. She was just a few days short of her fiftieth birthday. I visit the grave because somehow I do not desire to lose the connection with someone who I got to know quite well. Sometimes that visit evokes many happy memories while at other times my heart becomes heavy and sad. As I look at the photograph on the tombstone I recall a woman of great faith, a woman who loved life and a person who encouraged and gave hope to all the people who she met. Under the photograph there are inscribed the words of Jesus as recorded by St John. “I have come to give you life and life to the full.”
Very often during these visits, I often wondered how people can cope and live without a belief in the Resurrection of Jesus. Without faith in Resurrection my visits would end up in total depression. Life, beautiful as it is, would become meaningless and death would herald and announce a total and utter loss. It is precisely in a graveyard where everything speaks of death that the resurrection was first announced. It is very fitting that it was in a graveyard where death seems to reign supreme that the good news of Jesus’ resurrection was first announced. This is also why it was so appropriate to take the Cross and the Icon to the Bright cemetery.
The unique message of Easter is that God can turn what seems to be tragedies into triumphs. No body, not even the most brainy and intelligent person in this world can give us the promise and the hope of life after death. Only Jesus can. St Paul speaks very passionately about this reality in Chapter 15 of his first letter to the people of Corinth, a sizeable city in Greece. He cries out, “Death where is your sting? Death where is your victory? Moreover he calls Jesus, the first fruit of all those who died. What does this mean? The first fruits are very important to the farmer. If the first fruits are good and healthy then all the harvest will be good and healthy. However, if the first fruits are sickly looking and without life, then the whole harvest will display the same qualities. The first fruits manifest what the harvest is going to be like. This means that when St Paul says that “Jesus is the first fruit of those who have died” he is really saying. “Look at Jesus, whatever happens to Him is going to happen to all of us. Jesus died. We are all going to die. But Jesus rose again and it will be the same for each one of us. My firm belief is the Resurrection teaches me that one day I am going to meet again with my parents and with all those who have been dear to me. This is what the feast of Easter challenges and invites us to seriously think about.
Moreover when we realize who we are in God we develop a victorious mentality. we realize that finally everything is going to be put under the headship of Jesus. This helps us to become signs of the resurrected Jesus to others. When we live our lives doing the ordinary things in life extraordinarily well we are a sign of the resurrected Jesus. When our families try to live our Christian values and ideals we are a sign of the resurrected Jesus. When husbands and wives, fathers and mothers commit themselves to give the best to their children and to their marriage, we are a sign of the resurrected Jesus. Every time we give encouragement and maintain hope and perseverance in our society where at present we are experiencing high interest rates, difficult mortgage payments and spiraling costs of food and petrol we are a sign of the resurrected Jesus. Every time we encourage and affirm our young people who are desperately seeking for ways to make a difference in our society we are sign of the resurrected Jesus. Every little act of kindness and generosity is a sign that our God is alive today.
As believers in Jesus Christ alive, we are enabled and empowered to bring hope and courage even in the midst of most dire adversities. Today I would simply like to mention the Catholic Archbishop of Jerusalem Michael Sabbah. He lives in a country where the events which we are celebrating this week have taken place. Yet this country and this part of the world have not known peace for decades. It is an area of the world that has been witnessing hatred, vengeance, retaliation, armaments, invasions, prisons and death. In the past weeks we have witnessed the tragedy of one million people in Gaza Strip as well as the victims of the Jewish religious school in Jerusalem. What is his response to all of this? As a believer in the risen Christ this is what he wrote recently. Let us keep persevering in doing good because Christ is where the ultimate victory lies.
“The states, the individual Israelis and Palestinians, after more than one century of conflict must understand that armies don’t protect their people any more but expose them to more violence, fear and insecurity … It is high time to learn the lessons of history and engage in the path of God; it is high time for every people and individual to accept the vocation entrusted by God to them which is to build societies and not to destroy them. Violence destroys and never builds. We are all capable of building because God granted us part of His goodness and power so we can uphold human societies that respect individuals and in which they might view each other as brothers and as God’s creatures, equal in dignity, rights and duties. Amidst these difficult times, we celebrate Easter in Jerusalem and we tell you, brothers and sisters and all of you, men and women of good will: don’t feel weak in front of the death forces working within our ranks.”
We are also going to be faced with many similar situations that are difficult and painful. When your children, parents, husbands, wives, relatives and neighbours come to you sharing a problem or a situation that is causing them anxiety or grief, have the courage to say. “Can I say a little prayer with you?” Then talk to Jesus who is alive in you, about what that person has shared with you. Believe in your prayers. Believe that Jesus Christ can continue to work with you and through you because He is alive. Try it. You will be amazed what we can, all of us, achieve with this God who is here with us.
God Bless
