At the beginning of Lent we meditated on the contingency of our existence, about the teachings of the phrase, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return”. We pondered the benefits of being well aware of our finite nature. Today, on the great feast of Easter, we seek the road to the Resurrection.
Easter is the celebration of new life, new creation, rebirth, transformation; it is happiness, interior peace, profound joy. Perhaps in life we don’t seek these goals following a straight linear road, but rather through a cyclical route, transported by the waves of life. We go forward step by step, not without stumbles and setbacks, maybe taking some detours... pursuing a slow spiral, and we do it embracing the cross. That personal cross, those limitations that we are conscious of, those hidden selfish acts, the jealousies and lazy habits that betray our lofty goals; it is simply necessary to bear those crosses. There is no way around it: As the evangelist says, “Take up your cross and follow me.” A key to the cross is accepting, embracing, gathering up everything that is difficult to bear. Accepting, for instance, how silly we can be at times; accepting the deceptions in which we entrap ourselves, like in the web of a spider; accepting the illness that reveals to us how human and fragile we are; accepting the dependence on others for so many things; and accepting and embracing the imperfection of our world, of the humanity that God created free, with all its miseries and vanities, capable of the most beautiful gestures and the worst atrocities.
Once we have accepted all of this, once we have embraced the cross, with the strength and grace of God, we lend the Father a hand in His work, as His beloved children, as His hands, His feet and His eyes. It is then when we can draw closer to His Son, in our attitudes, our tenderness, in our indiscriminate acceptance of others. It is then when we can draw closer to Jesus in our fight against injustice, against the merchants in the temple, against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, against the indifference of the Levite and the priest toward the wounded man. It is then when can draw closer to Jesus as He prays in the garden, asking for God’s will, and not our own, to be done.
It is then when we discover the joy of the Resurrection, when hope is reborn, when solidarity reigns. It is then when profound happiness grows, when fear ends and love is renewed. It is then when we live the Feast of the Resurrection.
Easter is the celebration of new life, new creation, rebirth, transformation; it is happiness, interior peace, profound joy. Perhaps in life we don’t seek these goals following a straight linear road, but rather through a cyclical route, transported by the waves of life. We go forward step by step, not without stumbles and setbacks, maybe taking some detours... pursuing a slow spiral, and we do it embracing the cross. That personal cross, those limitations that we are conscious of, those hidden selfish acts, the jealousies and lazy habits that betray our lofty goals; it is simply necessary to bear those crosses. There is no way around it: As the evangelist says, “Take up your cross and follow me.” A key to the cross is accepting, embracing, gathering up everything that is difficult to bear. Accepting, for instance, how silly we can be at times; accepting the deceptions in which we entrap ourselves, like in the web of a spider; accepting the illness that reveals to us how human and fragile we are; accepting the dependence on others for so many things; and accepting and embracing the imperfection of our world, of the humanity that God created free, with all its miseries and vanities, capable of the most beautiful gestures and the worst atrocities.
Once we have accepted all of this, once we have embraced the cross, with the strength and grace of God, we lend the Father a hand in His work, as His beloved children, as His hands, His feet and His eyes. It is then when we can draw closer to His Son, in our attitudes, our tenderness, in our indiscriminate acceptance of others. It is then when we can draw closer to Jesus in our fight against injustice, against the merchants in the temple, against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, against the indifference of the Levite and the priest toward the wounded man. It is then when can draw closer to Jesus as He prays in the garden, asking for God’s will, and not our own, to be done.
It is then when we discover the joy of the Resurrection, when hope is reborn, when solidarity reigns. It is then when profound happiness grows, when fear ends and love is renewed. It is then when we live the Feast of the Resurrection.
