Today is Holy Saturday and tomorrow Christians all over the earth will celebrate Easter; Christ is Risen and the time of prayer, fasting and alms giving is over. Or is it?
It seems to me that this year is different. We are waging several wars, the unemployment rate is out of the charts, people are losing their homes, our civic leaders are fighting a war of their own and they seem to care more about politics than about the common good they are expected to foster.
I turn to my faith for strength. For heaven's sake, the scandals appear in the headlines of all major newspapers all over the world. "The Pope should resign!" "The list of priests who have abused children continue to grow and the silence of the leaders is frightening."
What is the meaning of Easter in this mess?
It is my belief that this crisis has brought about a rude, but healthy awakening in our church:
- We need to put our trust back in the Spirit to guide us.
- We need to reclaim the spiritual power that we (lay people) surrendered to the clergy many centuries ago and start working with them and not for them. We are in this together!
- We must rediscover who the center of our faith is.
- We need to assume more responsibility in the religious and the civic societies.
- We need to stand for the truth.
- We need to be a prophetic presence in today’s church and world.
I choose to believe that the Spirit of God will guide us as we continue to live the Gospel values.
Yes, we can celebrate Easter which brings us the same message as the Incarnation: God is with us. God is not out there somewhere waiting to reward us in heaven one day; God is here, in the middle of this mess, suffering with us, dying with us, and bringing us together to the dawn of a new day.
A blessed new beginning to all!
