On Easter Sunday, the Pope stands on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and
proclaims to the world: Christ is Risen! As this good news echoes throughout the
world, the shadow of a Good Friday, the pandemic of coronavirus, leaves our
churches, cities and streets empty. Christ overcame suffering and death is the hope we
celebrate on this Easter day. The world is as if in a tomb; we are awaiting the stone of
pandemic to be rolled away! Just as the Holy Spirit hovered over the emptiness/chaos
at the beginning of creation, though we are shaken and devastated by the pandemic,
God’s Spirit will raise us up, create new order and bring light back to our hearts. The
risen Christ awakens peace and joy in our hearts but first we have to go through the
three days of dying and being in the tomb, which is our journey of life.
When unexpected distress like the pandemic strikes us, the risen Christ is our courage,
strength and peace. Paul talks about Jewish passover custom: for passover, they
throw out all old leavened bread and prepare new unleavened bread for the feast.
Leavened bread is the corrupt yeast of evil and unleavened bread is the kingdom of
God, truthfulness and life of service. The extended hands of Jesus on the cross saying
to us, let go all burdens, the leavened bread, do not carry them along. Easter
experience is not possible unless we surrender life in love. We feel the pain, feel
abandoned but Easter invites us to let all that go to reclaim our true self, transformed
and empowered by love of Christ.
Faith in the risen presence of Christ is the power we have in us to face all crisis in life.
Bonhoeffer waiting for his execution in Nazi camp wrote: ‘power of living is granted to
us by Easter, with a quiet heart we will sacrifice what God does not yet grant us or has
taken away’. This Easter we feel many things we cherish in life are taken away from us;
Easter is also the guarantee that what we have sacrificed transforms us into hope and
joy filled new existence. Easter is the triumph of self-sacrificing love, presence of Christ
that gathers, removes what divides and unites all who seek peace. These days of
isolation teach us lessons of sacrifice, new ways to connect and care for each other.
Will the world end all wars and conflicts and live in peace? St. Benedict, before he
started his monastic movement, spent time in a cave in Subiaco, in self-isolation; he
had no sense of day or time. One Easter, a local priest was told in a vision to go see
Benedict and share a meal with him. Learning from his visitor it was Easter Benedict
said: ‘I know it is Easter for me and a great feast as I have found such great favor at
God’s hands this day to enjoy your company’. Being spiritually connected with the
whole church and the world and pray for deliverance and peace is what makes this
Easter a great feast!
Easter is also a call to service. We are containers of God’s grace! God says to St.
Catherine of Sienna: ‘I could well have supplied each of you with all your needs, both
spiritual and material. But I wanted to make you dependent on one another so that
each of you would be my minister, dispensing the grace and gifts you have received
from me’. Resurrection of Christ speaks to our hearts that love shown on the cross was
true, real and not in vain. This power of Easter is in us that we may heal the heart of
humanity of sin and despair! Easter reminds us of our mortality and that our foundation
is God. May God open the tomb of fear and panic in the world and restore normalcy to
life. Let us try to focus on the good, the beautiful, happiness of children while taking
cross serenely; Easter is what lasts!