(Each Saturday, a faith leader in Franklin County offers a personal perspective in this space. To become part of this series, email religion@recorder.com)
“But it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Lord, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” 2 Timothy 1:10.
This Easter will be unlike any other that most of us have known. For most of us, Easter Sunday was a day of celebration: Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets filled with candy, people wearing their finest clothes to attend Easter Sunday services, and finally a gathering of family and friends to enjoy a wonderful prepared meal.
But not this year.
This Easter, unfortunately, will be a day without Easter egg hunts, Easter Sunday services and gathering of family and friends to enjoy that wonderful Easter Sunday meal.
This Easter has been replaced with much fear and anxiety for so many due to the coronavirus and this season has been replaced with death and sadness.
In retrospect, being a Christian, I think back on the events that took place in Jerusalem, circa 29 AD. There was a man from Nazareth, named Jesus, who came to heal the sick and who preached a Gospel of hope and love. So many came to believe in this teacher as the long-awaited Messiah, promised through the words of the Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Malachi.
We read that on that first Palm Sunday, so many people gathered in Jerusalem to show their love and devotion to Him. What joy was expressed and what hope was felt as multitudes of people welcomed Him and laid palms in His path. But their joy was soon to be replaced with sadness and their hope was soon to be dashed. For so many, present on that first Good Friday, they saw their deliverer and teacher from Nazareth suffering, beaten and bleeding and made to carry a cross to His own crucifixion and who so many hid themselves behind locked doors out of fear for their own lives and safety.
But for His followers, this was not the end of the story, for something remarkable was about to happen. For on that first Easter morning, darkness was to be replaced with light and sadness was to be replaced with joy. On that first Easter morning, the tomb which held the body of Jesus was empty, and there were many who experienced the presence of the risen Lord that day. Did not Jesus foretell of His own resurrection and His promise to all, as found in John 14:19: “Because I live, you will also live”?
I believe that Jesus came not only to declare His own divinity, but also, as a teacher, taught of the divinity that exists in all mankind. We have seen and continue to see this divinity, this divine spark, expressed among the countless doctors and the nurses, the first responders, the health workers and so many others, who have left their own homes and separated themselves from their own families, to minister selflessly to the sick and the dying during this terrible crisis. This spirit of love and sacrifice of others for one another is what Jesus came to teach about and to die for as he taught: “Greater love has no man than this, than that a man lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13.
Though there is much darkness and sadness in our world today, there is, and always has been, rays of light, which shines forth through darkness. As God’s people, we have the assurance that in the Resurrection of Jesus we have a message of hope as found in the words of this teacher from Galilee who said in John 16:33: “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.”
May His words bring to all of us this Easter that message of hope.
Holy Name of Jesus PNC Church is at 15 Thayer St. in South Deerfield. We are a family-oriented church established in 1929 by a community of parishioners whose legacy of spiritual freedom is still with us after 90 years.
We are a democratic, non-papal Catholic parish, family-oriented, with a Liturgical worship style. Follow us on Facebook. For more information, call 413-665-2129.