Part of my penance I received at confession last week was, “You MUST rejoice this Easter”. Rejoice is a feeling of great joy. But the emphasis was on “must”. Often because of our familiarity with Easter, her riches may remain uncultivated if we allow Easter to be a passing theme. “Must” emphasizes the need to dwell into Easter to especially unpack the reasons for this great rejoice in our life.

We know Easter well in our belief for without occurring there would not be Christianity. We know it as a cornerstone of faith, of death being conquered, of suffering eventually giving way to eternal joy. We know Easter as a produce and consequence of the Love of God. We are familiar with the scripture passages of today. But what does Easter mean to ‘me’ in my personal life? What impact does Easter have over ‘my personal space’? You MUST rejoice – to uncover.

We are NOT mere units making up humanity. Each of us, individually, a created being, unique in identity, with a name and a distinctive personality, passing through different circumstances, never the same with any other person. They had been billions and will be billions more. Yet, Christ is focus only on ‘me alone’, his full attention on one, ‘me’. Not possible from us, only possible with Christ. You MUST rejoice – to encounter the Risen Christ.

To ‘encounter’ is to have this lived experience with the Risen Christ. We can only truly rejoice when we uncover Easter in our personal life. “That he must rise from the dead” (Today’s Gospel) cannot only be a teaching but a living experience. “You MUST rejoice” emphasizes the need to journey deep into our inner self and remove the stone covering our personal tomb.

It is in our tomb where we store our personal history, a library of past events, perhaps catalogued by emotions of happiness, anger, gratification, hurt, sweetness, and bitterness. It is here where our personal life rhythms the Paschal Mystery of life, death, and the resurrection. It is here too where we find the footprints of the Risen Christ accompanying us. For us to see, we first fill ourselves with gratitude (Rejoice!) then retrace the path of our history that brought us here. Look for the unexpected twists and turns, in the smaller details, to unhide the Risen Christ walking with us.

This is a good discipline for Easter, not just today but for the entire Easter season. Our personal history wants to reveal so much more. We can think of a past event each day in this season. Where did that lead me to? We will be quite surprised when we join the dots. It is entirely possible to encounter the Risen Christ in a past event in the here and now of today. Journeying deeper, we can also find healing for past hurts and pain – events left alone in the darkness of our tomb. Practice this discipline, rejoice, and the Risen Christ will become a living experience personal and unique to ‘me’.

Christ is focused only on ‘me’. How wonderful! This Easter season is the time to fan the new fire in us. Rejoice, be engulfed for new life awaits. Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday 2022

Today begins Holy Week. For me this week has always been heavy and intense, a lot of energy trying to do the right things, especially if I had been struggling somewhat in keeping up with the whole spirit of Lent. It is a demanding week if I want to be in it – the Passion today, the contemplative focus, the washing of the feet, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the quiet of Saturday, and finally the Resurrection.

I will admit that sneaking up below all these is for Easter to come quick. It is not about fulfilling the hope that Christ will rise because I already know it as an historic event. Perhaps it is the human weakness in me that I want to be release from the strict discipline of Lent, the fasting from alcohol for one that I had courageously or foolishly imposed on myself. It is to get out of this desert for my unquenchable desire to resume my normal routine of extravagance.

To help myself and potentially have the most meaningful week of my year, I will situate myself back into the challenging issues I had faced in my journey through life. They were many – relationship breakdowns, financial concerns, grief, hospitalisations, job losses, 2 maybe 3, and every setback that bred desperation. In the semi-darkness of uncertainty, I wondered when those sufferings would end, and life turn for the better. I remember the many times I had given up on faith, but I still clung to hope.

I compare myself to the people at the time of Jesus. What were they feeling? What went through their minds? I am sure for many, faith died with the crucifixion. But I cannot compare myself with them because I have the benefit of hindsight and my faith developed having known the Resurrection. Perhaps I can compare myself to Peter who denied Christ three times and despite that found himself still affirmed by and in favour of the Lord. The Risen Christ will never abandon us.

We must learn from the past not only from Scriptures but more tellingly from our own personal history. We recall the times when trapped in our challenging issues. We longed for that suffering to end. Perhaps our faith was even lost, and we got angry with God but still clung on to hope. Somehow, that hope led us out otherwise we won’t be in this moment today. I see those days as my personal ‘holy weeks’ for at the end of each period I was risen to a new life. We must learn to give thanks for in thanksgiving will we see Him in our personal life.

My Holy Week will not have meaning and lasting impact if I do not spend time dwelling in the Resurrection during the Easter season that follows. Eagerly waiting for next Sunday to bolt out of the door and confining this Holy Week to another one done and dusted is like moving from one challenging issue to the next without fully embracing the triumph of love over death, of life over suffering, stuck at the foot of the Cross. The Easter season in our personal life is not just the immediate fifty days after Easter Sunday but every time we spend time in thanksgiving for the many blessings of life.

Like the people in Jesus’ time, we want a Messiah who will conquer suffering. Christ was humbler yet even to accepting death, death on a cross. Death is our biggest suffering in life. It is yet to come but we know that death has been conquered.

Hope never extinguishes. Even in the most desperate days when we deny God, hope is the faint light in the darkness. He was humbler yet. Hope is the Risen Christ disguised for us to cling to him. This is Holy Week. Do not let it end without the rising of our own personal life.

Passion Sunday 2022

This weekend we enter Holy Week. This could have been a long Lent for some of us, purposefully giving up what we enjoy, emptying ourselves to embrace the spirituality of the season. We cannot help ourselves casting half a glance at Easter and the days after. We are ready to jet off once again into the distractions, and temptations, of life. Lent is not a season-long ritual, but a reminder of who we are and who we can be, and a time to recalibrate our views and moral compass.

Easter, and mystagogy, is a purposeful season too. When we jump out of Lent without Easter, Lent can leave us stuck at the foot of the cross, half-thinking that suffering is part of the accord in being Christian. Suffering is simply part of life. A good Easter season help us to ‘see’ the Risen Christ in our midst, the living of our faith in the realities of life. A good Easter season draws us into the lived experience of the Resurrection.

But back of these final days of Lent. Last Sunday’s Gospel saw a group of men bringing a woman and standing her in public view condemning her for her sins. Jesus asked a question that should also probe our hearts, “If there is one of you who have not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her”. Something stirred in their hearts, for “when they heard this, they went away one by one”.

We too participate in this herd mentality even if we do not propose views. We participate when we are influenced by them. This is not all negative because the power of an Easter community can do wonders to our faith life too. Social media has been a powerful influencer. Technology and the internet are here to stay; they can take us away from a life of faith. Here is why we must be like the group of men in the gospel entering into the silence of self to discern. And walk away.

One of the ‘modern day’ development is that we have push confessions aside. This Lent, with the pandemic, may be too early for many to physically return to this sacrament. Like the group of men, we can go into an internal confession, and have that conversation with our God. Have modern day influences cause us to lose the sense of sin in many areas of our life?

Today we are all better at social skills; a smile can disguise the bearing of teeth ready to bite. We need to sort out our internal imperfections as we enter Holy Week to exit Lent and embrace Easter. We must confront how we truly feel, especially towards the other person. We have allowed prejudices to grow that can develop maliciously into unwarranted anger and even hatred. Our inner hidden views make us quick to condemn and throw stones at others. We say hurtful words even if they are in the silence of our heart. There are loads more. These are roots that can be self-destroying.

There is a lot happening inside us. Where there need to be they must be confessed, only then can Easter come in its full glory inside us. In these final days of Lent, we should not push aside our personal confessions. We must enter deep and have that discernment to walk away. We are all sinners. No one is throwing any stones at us.

For the 5^th Sunday of Lent