Something missing as it should be

Easter Sunday

It doesn’t need restating but I’m still going to say it- our celebration of Holy Week this year has been unprecedented. Although priests have been faithfully celebrating the Holy Week liturgy, they have done so without the assistance and attendance of a congregation. The faithful, instead of flocking to our churches in droves, would have to be contented with watching these liturgical celebrations on the screens of their devices, computers and television. This week we witnessed a Palm Sunday without a procession and palms; a Holy Thursday without oils being blessed, feet being washed, and communion being received; a Good Friday without the traditional veneration of the cross; a Holy Saturday vigil without baptisms. There is something surreal about this. When so much is missing it is not hard to imagine how easy it would be to question the very foundation of our faith.

The reason for this sentiment is that Catholic piety is deeply rooted in objective realities. A leaf, water, candles, a crucifix, bread and wine are not just mere objects to be used, they come alive through our celebrations - they make our faith real and visible. They help us touch, see and taste the very invisible mysteries which are celebrating. Our faith is not a faith built on ideas. It is faith that it firmly grounded on the sensible and the tangible, because the Word of God did not just remain the Word of God. The Word of God became flesh, dwelt among us and was swept up in the events which we commemorate every Holy Week, where He suffered His passion, died on the cross for us and finally rose from the grave.

Today, adds to the list of missing items from Holy Week. We have a missing body from the tomb. But instead of leaving us to languish in despair at what has been taken away, it is good news to us Christians. A corpse may be missing, but the Risen Saviour and Lord is not. It may be sad news to hear that we are not having our palms blessed, feet washed, crosses kissed this year. But an empty tomb and a missing corpse is always good news!

The empty tomb is a necessary condition for the Resurrection, but atheists are right in stating that it's not sufficient. The Apostles needed to see in the flesh that the Lord was alive again in His body, but in a transformed and glorified state. And this they did, and so did many others who witnessed the resurrected Lord in the flesh, not just in their dreams or imagination. Even as Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, the Resurrection was one of the stumbling blocks for its spread. Christians were mocked for their belief. It's impossible; even ancient people knew that dead people stayed dead. And yet, we witness the rise of the Church in spite of all these unfavourable odds.

The resurrection of Christ is and must always be the foundation of our Christian faith. The resurrection gives reality to our faith. It proves salvation is real for millions and millions of believers down the age from all over the world and also millions who have gone to be with the Lord hoping to be resurrected someday. “The Resurrection above all constitutes the confirmation of all Christ’s works and teachings.  All truths, even those most inaccessible to human reason, find their justification if Christ by His Resurrection has given proof of His divine authority, which he had promised” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 651). St Paul reminds us, “if there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain” (1 Cor. 15: 14-15).

Today, in the face of a global pandemic, war, famine, dispossession, injustice, the darkness of sin, the loss and death of our loved ones, we cry out to God to act quickly and decisively to destroy what remains of death’s powers. But God waits patiently, offering every opportunity for our enemies and us to come to our senses and embrace the ways of His kingdom. And we must wait too; but not passively. By our words and actions we boldly announce God’s Easter victory over death – light has triumphed over darkness, truth over falsehood, love over hate, grace over sin. In God’s new order, distress, sickness, death, displacement, sin and violence will no longer hold sway. They will be replaced by joy, peace, hope, truth and love. This is not wishful thinking. This is real because Christ has Risen! Indeed He has risen, Alleluia!

Light overcomes the darkness

Easter Vigil

There is no denying that the two great Christian feasts of Easter and Christmas form an inseparable link. At Christmas, the light enters our world, but it’s only at Easter that the light actually achieves its objective and defeats the powers of darkness.

The Easter candle reminds us of the light which pierced the darkness of that first Easter morning. It is a symbol of the brilliant light that emerged from the tomb while the world was still dark and asleep. When all had seemed dark and hopeless, Jesus burst forth from the tomb alive once again, a light that illuminates and makes all things new, a living light that even the sunrise could not rival. He is life itself, which shatters death and brings life to each one of us.

Sometimes we too despair. We experience dark days, disappointment and disillusionment. More than ever before, our current crisis, this global pandemic, has left us with a dark cloud hovering over us which doesn’t seem to dissipate.

But today, we are reminded that as the Lord broke free of the darkness on Good Friday, He, the Light of the World, will invade the shadowland and conquer the darkness in our lives. The “end” of the darkness is an eternal light. It may not seem that simple, in fact, it is gradual and may take time. It may take us a while and the battle is long and fierce. We may still have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but we already see the blazing light at the end of the tunnel. We are therefore called to endure. The end of darkness is Christ who is the Light.

Now, in the COVID-19 era, many people are speculating about the dark gloomy future with cocksure self-assurance, but the truth is no one can really predict the outcome. The fact remains that no one knows anything about what the future holds. No one this side of heaven, at least.

And yet, our Lord - who not only knows best, but loves best—is still in-charge. He has never assured any of His followers, an easy path. Quite the contrary, He promises that discipleship will ultimately lead to the cross where we have to pass through the valley of darkness and shadow of death. We are to keep putting one foot in front of the other and embodying His love to everyone we encounter, even if our social distancing changes the nature of our interactions.

We need to also realise that no matter how a person meets his or her end, the death rate still remains 100 percent. Our hope cannot just be in finding a cure or a vaccine to this pandemic or a solution to the next problem which we will face. Our hope must ultimately be rooted in the resurrection of the body and creation of a new heaven and a new earth.

This is the reason why Easter is a celebration of hope and faith in the midst of darkness. Hope is about focusing not on what we can see, but on what God will do. In that moment of crisis, when God seems absent and our plans fall apart, that’s the moment we need to hold on the tightest. We may often wonder why He does not remove the darkness entirely. God could replace our fear in an instant. But instead, He often uses the darkness as a training ground for replacing our fear with faith.

Like a good parent, God is not just helping us through what we’re facing now. He’s also preparing us for what’s to come. When Jesus shows up in our most challenging moments, His light overcomes any darkness. He brings healing for the sick. He offers joy amidst heartbreak. He brings peace into the chaos. Jesus’s resurrection is proof we can move forward with Him, overcoming every darkness.

Why would we call it "good"?

Good Friday

Today is the day we remember how our Lord, innocent though He was, was put to death by His enemies. Today is the day our Saviour is nailed to the cross because those whom He had come to save rejected Him. Today is the day when His thousands of followers and even His most intimate friends abandoned Him and leaving just four women and a man to accompany Him during this horrible ordeal. Today, the Word of God is silenced on the cross - no farewell speech to encourage or inspire His followers. And yet we Christians call this day “Good Friday” and our Eastern brethren have an even more audacious sounding name for it - the Great Friday.

Why on earth would Christians refer to this Friday as “good”?

It’s called Good Friday because even while powerful men were conspiring to kill the Son of God, God Himself was acting to save the world from itself, once and for all. Even while the world’s authorities were conspiring to perpetrate history’s greatest evil, God was working to bring about history’s greatest good.

Yes, we Christians have not made a great blunder in naming today as Good Friday. It isn’t a misnomer. Far from a mistake, our Lord’s death and sacrifice on the cross is God’s greatest achievement, His most prized trophy.

Today is good because on the cross, our Lord suffered so that we would not have to suffer eternally. Yes, we are not saying that Christians are insulated from suffering because of what Christ did. Christians are no strangers to suffering. It’s part of our DNA. In fact, to be a Christian means to deny ourselves and take up our crosses in imitation of our Lord. But all suffering in this life, no matter how unbearable it may seem, is only temporary. Suffering has a shelf life because of what our Lord did today.

What Christ did is that He “traded places” with us. He lived the sinless life that we should live, and died the death that we deserve to die. He took our guilty record, died for it, and offers us His perfect record in return. That is why Saint Paul declared that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1).

Today is also not just a good day but a great day because by His death on the cross, our Lord Jesus reconciled us to the Father. Long before social distancing became the norm, man had already socially distanced himself from God by our sins. It is not God who had distanced Himself from us; it is not God who had abandoned us. It is we who have abandoned Him through sin. Because of our sins, we have alienated ourselves from God and others, but Jesus saves us from our sins in order to mend those relationships. The reconciling powers of Christ will cause all relational barriers to be torn down, including the barriers of ethnicity and nationality (Rev 5:9-10).

Finally because of the cross and the resurrection, we have hope for the future. As you all know, Good Friday is not a stand-alone feast. The story doesn’t just climax and end with Jesus dying on the cross on Good Friday. The real ending is found on Easter when Jesus will burst forth from the tomb, break the shackles and prison of death and rise again so that now we may have new life. With every darkening which seems to come with Good Friday, there is the new dawn of Easter.

Though Christ’s death has defeated the powers of death, suffering and evil, we must still wait for the day when He will return to put all these enemies under His feet. Until then, we must hope and believe that the victory is already His, that death is not the end, that suffering will not have the final say. Mission accomplished. This pandemic or any other calamity, natural or otherwise will have no hold over us. The work of Christ is complete. From the cross, He assures us, “It is accomplished.”

It does seem odd to refer to anybody’s death as “good.” Yet, God’s good plan is often counterintuitive: As Jesus says, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life will find it; “the first shall be the last and the last shall be first” (Mark 10:31). And yes, through the “good” death of God’s Son, humanity can receive new life, abundant life. He has given us eternal life that will never be defeated by any infection, calamity or even death.