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iaaaaaaanp · 4 years

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Where are you during the Resurrection of Jesus?

Holy Week is over. We are now in the Easter season. And only few of us celebrate this season. We just greet one another a “Happy Easter” during Easter Sunday. But after that day, we do not realize anymore that it is still the Easter season. There is the Easter octave, eight days of singing the Gloria in the Church, a solemnity in the Church. And this season is observed by the Church for 50 days. But why it seems so ordinary for many of us? It is as if that after Holy Week, we immediately return to the Ordinary Time, and yes, we return again to our ordinary life, the same old life.

It is Easter season. It is Easter octave. But why only few of us recognize this kind of season? Because in reality, many among us cannot move with Jesus towards the Easter, towards His resurrection. Mas gusto natin ang Holy Week kaysa sa Easter. Mas gusto natin ang Good Friday kaysa sa Easter. Mas gusto natin ang Pasko ng kapanganakan kaysa sa Pasko ng Muling Pagkabuhay. Perhaps, we do not notice, Easter is so controversial for us that we cannot enter it. Easter seems so impossible, especially when we apply it in our lives.

Easter season is the celebration that Jesus triumphs from death. He is the victor over death! He is risen! But the resurrection of Jesus has no drama like that of what happened during His passion and crucifixion. In His passion, there is the betrayer, there is Barabas who is chosen than Him, there is Pilate who washed His hands to appear innocent, there is Veronica who wipes the face of Jesus, there are the centurions, and of course there are the dramatic words of Jesus before dying. But the Resurrection happens without any character, without any drama, only Jesus who rises up from the tomb where He is laid down. The resurrection is not even a public event like that of the crucifixion where everybody is watching. The resurrection happened in the middle of the night, in the darkness of the world, in the depressing moments of the disciples of Jesus, in silence. That is why, only few people attend the Easter Vigil. Because the Easter Vigil is actually an image of that resurrection: How darkness covers the Church and only one light is seen, the light of the Paschal candle and it starts with silence. No procession to the whole town like that of the Good Friday. But in silence. We do not want Easter because it is celebrated, yes, with the resounding voices of Alleluia but with a great silence in the deepest core of humanity: the heart. The heart, which is the tomb of Jesus.

Mas gusto natin ang Good Friday kaysa sa Easter Sunday. Mas marami kasi tayong sakit at hirap at masalimuot na nakaraan na ang hirap hirap pagtagumpayan. It is in Good Friday that we see Jesus as a human person, suffering with us, carrying the cross with us, having the drama of our own life. And when it comes to the Easter Sunday, bumalik nanaman Siya sa pagiging Diyos. Bumalik Siya sa pagiging makapangyarihan. Bumalik Siya sa pagiging matagumpay! At sa tagumpay na ito, tila ayaw nating sumama kasi tila impossible na magtagumpay sa mga pagsubok na meroon tayo ngayon. Tila ba sa pagsapit ng Easter Sunday, iniwan tayo ng Diyos sa krus at libingan, iniwan tayo ng Diyos sa sakit at hirap na gusto nating tambayan. We hate Easter because we are not like Jesus who can rise up that easily from the pains of His cross. We hate Easter because we are not like Jesus who is so powerful that can forget the past and can forgive His disciples who left Him during His passion. We are not like Jesus who has been hurt just yesterday, who has been betrayed just yesterday, who has been forgotten just yesterday, and who has been treated badly just yesterday, and after that yesterday, today He smiles and starts a very wonderful life again. Dahil kung tayo si Hesus, baka pagkabuhay nating muli, ang sabihin natin sa mga nang-api sa atin kahapon, “Patay kayong lahat sa akin ngayon!” We cannot move on easily like Jesus. We cannot rise up from our own tomb easily like Jesus. And thus, Easter is a myth. Easter is just for Jesus and not for humanity!

But dear friends, Easter Season is not a selfish act of God. Easter season is not just for God. Remember the words of St. Augustine of Hippo, “We are an Easter People, and alleluia is our song.” We are not made for Good Friday or Black Saturday or Christmas Day, we are meant for Easter Sunday. Easter is not an illusion, Easter is a reality of every Christian. Why is there Easter? Not just for Jesus to prove that He is God, but to show us our destiny: Resurrection. Each one of us is destined for Easter. We are destined to rise up from the pains of the world. Please do not forget, that during Good Friday until Easter Sunday, Jesus is both God and man. In Good Friday, yes we see a suffering man, but He is also a suffering a God. And now, in this Easter Season, we do not see just see a powerful God who rises up from death, but also a powerful man who through His obedience to the will of the Father, rises up from the pain of the cross. He is a God at the same time a human person who triumphs from death, opening for us the gates of heaven. Calling us to do the same.

Dear friends, Easter Season is not a selfish act of God. God is not asking you to forget the pains and darkness in order for you to reach Easter. Remember, when Jesus appeared to the apostles, He bears with Him the wounds that He obtained from the cross. He even asked Thomas to put His hands on the big wound at His side to show Him that He is risen and alive! Jesus does not ask us to forget the wounds in order to move on. Jesus does not ask us to run away with the traumatic memories of the passion and of the crucifixion in order to move on. But He asks us to remember these wounds and learn from them. The wounds are parts of our past and so are parts of who we are today. There will be no resurrection without the dying on the cross, without the wounds from the cross. No new life without sacrifice. No development without learning from a painful past. Touch the wounds, remember the wounds, and then learn. Who told you that it will not be painful? It will be painful! But again, you are not meant to remain to the horrors of those wounds, but move to the glory of those wounds! Only through that glory, one can truly move with the resurrected Christ. Remember, people in heaven are not flawless people. They are scarred people. They reach heaven, not because they are SCARED of horrors of their wounds but rather, but because they are SCARRED and so beautiful because they found the glory in their own wounds.

Dear friends, Easter season is not a selfish act of God. He rises from the tomb to become the helping hand to raise up people who cannot rise from their own tomb. Who told you that you are going to Easter on your own? You cannot make it. You cannot just rise from the problems that you have, from the struggles that keep on pulling you down. He rises from the tomb so that He can raise you up! Jesus Himself did not rose from the tomb alone, the Father and the Spirit is with Him. And so we are! We can only rise from the tomb through Him, by allowing to do His part. Today, there are many people who cannot think of what they should do with their lives. Some are jobless, some are hungry because of the quarantine, some are sick, some are hurt, mistreated and judged. Coronavirus is in front of us, mocking our humanity, mocking our incapacity to terminate this kind of evil, mocking our own weaknesses. But are there any of us who told ourselves that “God, ikaw lang talaga ang makakatapos nito. God ikaw lang!” I am tearful in watching people die helplessly, and doctors and nurses seems so helpless in saving their lives. And all I can utter is the word “God”. Even Pope Francis would look up to God as a child, with his teary eyes, uttering the word “God”. What should we do with our own lives? This must not be our question. We must change it and say, “God, what are you going to do in our own lives? We trust in You.” Jesus rises up from the tomb so that He can be a helping hand to those who cannot rise up. And you know, in my life as a seminarian, there are mornings that I don’t want to rise up from my bed, mornings that I don’t want to start the day again because of so many burdens that I will face again and again. You know, we wake up at 5:15 to begin our prayers. And sometimes, it so hard to go at the chapel in front of God, early in the morning with a heavy heart. Minsan sa buhay na ito, mas masarap itulog nalang ang lahat. Humimlay. Manatili sa Black Saturday at wag ng bumangon pa. But these moments are moments where God keeps extending His hands so that I can rise up from my own tomb. There are seminarians who will knock at my door to wake me up in the morning and saying “Brother, umaga na, bangon na.” Sometimes, there are people who will chat me, “Kamusta ka na, sana okay ka.” And some will ask for my advice on bigger problems that they encounter. Bigger than what I am experiencing. Those are hands of Jesus that pulls me up. And in those moments, I don’t do anything but allow Him to do everything for me. May mga sandali sa buhay natin na hindi na talaga natin kayang lumaban, ang tanging magagawa lang natin ay hayaan siya na ipaglaban tayo. Isinuko man tayo ng iba, maging ng ating sarili, kailanman, hindi tayo isusuko ng Diyos. Ipaglalaban Niya tayo.

Dear friends, Easter season is not a selfish act of God. It is His way of showing your destiny. It is His way of asking you to stop looking at the horrors of your wounds, but find the glory in them. And lastly, it is His way of pulling you up from the tomb where You are already drowned with so much darkness.

Where are you during His resurrection? Where are you during this Easter season? He is risen not for His own self but for You so that hope will always remain in You! Habang may buhay, may pag-asa! Habang may Kristong nabuhay, may langit na matatamasa! Umalis ka na sa Good Friday mo, halina at dalhin ang sugat ng Biyernes Santo sa Luwalhati ng Linggo ng Muling Pagkabuhay!

We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song! Happy Easter!

#Easter Catholic Hope

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