Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Today we celebrate the holiest day of the year. Christ has conquered sin and death, and he invites us into that victory with him. Today is a celebratory day. The priests wear gold vestments and the music within the liturgy echoes the triumphant melody.
Our whole Christian identity relies on the mere fact that Christ rose from the dead. Today we celebrate and reconfirm our belief that that death has been defeated in Jesus Christ, and he is triumphant in reconciling humanity back to himself. This is Good News! Incredible News! This is our Faith! Instead of hello or a good morning, the traditional Christian greeting on Easter, is “Christ is Risen!” and the response is “Christ is risen indeed”. The whole faith hinges on the Resurrection of Christ, so let’s continue to proclaim the hope that is in Christ Jesus.
Christ's Radical Victory through the Cross by Kenneth Manyari Magro
This Easter at home offers us a special opportunity to reflect on this celebration as a family. The theme of this reflection is: sometimes tragic events are not what they seem.
I had a good friend in college and we had this recurring debate about awkward situations. He would say that some situations are inherently awkward, but my position was, "it's only awkward if you make it awkward". The argument always came up whenever he was trying to avoid some sort of fun activity or responsibility. "No I don't want to do that, it would be awkward". But, I never let him get away with that excuse, and so the argument would begin. And yes, we even debated if having your pants fall off in class was an inherently awkward situation. But I held firm because I believed that if you went through life with complete confidence and the right attitude, then you could turn any situation into a comfortable one.
This was all a fun debate between friends at the time, but looking back on it, I think it says something important about the way we can view any situation. Instead of awkward situations, can't the same be said about tragic situations? It's only tragic if you make it tragic.
There is something unnerving about positively optimistic people. Why can't they just experience fear and dread like the rest of us? "What is wrong with them?" we seem to think. We have an urge to bring them down to our pessimistic level. But there is a difference between optimism and naivety. Whenever I think of optimism, I think of the book, "The Hiding Place". It is a book about a Christian living in a concentration camp with her sister. It is authored by Corrie ten Boom. Corrie's sister was one of those optimistic people. Even in the concentration camp, her optimism never wavered, much to the annoyance of her Corrie. One time, Corrie's sister even thanked God for the flea infestation which had just taken over their living quarters. Corrie thought, how on earth could she be thankful for yet another misfortune, as if being in a concentration camp wasn't bad enough already, and now they had to deal with fleas. But it is not until 4-5 chapters later that Corrie then realizes that the flea infestation kept the Nazi guards away from the living quarters, which allowed Corrie and her friends the ability to have their secret Bible studies. If it weren't for the fleas, they would have been caught. There is a bright side to every situation, we just need hope to see it, and the trust in God to know it is there even if we can't see it.
And so every tragic situation can be seen in a different light. Maybe it is hard to see the good in the death of a loved one, or even a terrible global calamity, but if we have our hope and trust in God, we can always be optimistic in every situation.
I remember listening to Father Anthony's sermon on the story of Lazarus, and the statement he made that struck me was, "Fear of death is the instrument of Satan's power over us". When we fear death, we do not hope and trust in the Lord. Because we should know that death is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end. It is the end of the beginning. For our next lives is where we were truly meant to be. Death is just the beginning.
So our human understanding will mourn death, sickness, poverty, tragedy and war. And we should mourn those things, but we should not be discouraged or defeated by any of those things. Let's say something tragic happens to us, how do we respond? Do we pout, sulk, curse and despair? If we do that, then we have truly created a tragedy. Or do we hope, trust, and look forward to our reunification with God? It is only tragic if you make it tragic.
I feel as though this is the message that Jesus was trying to send us throughout his entire ministry. Starting all the way since the Beatitudes, "...Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth...: to teachings like "The last shall be first and the first shall be last". Jesus was trying to flip human understanding completely on its head. And all these seemingly far-fetched contradictions culminated in one last oxymoron: victory on the cross.
Human being's understanding of victory and success is completely different from God's. The Jews were expecting some political and/or military Messiah that would deliver them from the Romans. But God had a different plan. A plan that included victory over death, with a death. Satan was probably celebrating Jesus was crucified, little did he know that the "tragedy" of the crucifixion would become God's greatest glory. It's only tragic if you make it tragic.
So what do you have to be thankful for. In what ways do you see God's victory even in this present situation? Today is a day of celebration. A celebration of how God took away our need to fear death.
