'Rejoicing should lead to conversion'

MANILA, Philippines - Easter is not just about rejoicing over the resurrection of Jesus Christ but a start of conversion and sincere commitment to follow His teachings, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle said yesterday.

“Let us rejoice! But let our rejoicing bring about conversion. As Jesus has died to sin and risen to life in God, we should also die to sin and live for God. Easter joy leads us to an examination of our individual and communal lives,” Tagle said in his Easter Message.

“From the tombs of hunger, ignorance, discrimination, insensitivity, selfishness, greed, and pride, let us allow God’s love to rise and be our life. Let it not be said that we chose death over God who is life. I pray that the Risen Christ may be our Way to true life – life in and for God!” Tagle said.

“The life that the Risen Christ now possesses is God’s very life. That is why He will not die again. Sin has no more power over Him,” he said.

He added that Jesus’ resurrection is a triumph over “sinfulness, viciousness, wickedness, corruption and violence. The Resurrection exposes and shatters the illusion of evildoers. Evil will never prevail over good!”

Jaro Iloilo Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, for his part, said Lent is meaningless without Easter.

“Holy Thursday and Good Friday are incomplete without Easter Sunday Resurrection. The crucifixion of Jesus at Calvary necessarily leads to his Resurrection and the Empty Tomb,” said Lagdameo, former president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

He said the essential message of Holy Week is Jesus’ declaration: “I am the Resurrection and the Life: whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

He said this explains Jesus’ readiness to suffer and die on the cross.

“Christ was a man of hope: suffering and death do not have the last word… but his Resurrection from the dead,” he said.

“The insight that we derive is that technological, economic and material progress for which we all work and which at the same time brings illusions, political conflicts, personal and societal suffering is never complete, satisfactory and fulfilled without spiritual progress,” he said.

“Spiritual progress is the fruit also of compassionate sharing which should be the dominant structure of economic progress. This spiritual significance and progress is brought about by Easter Resurrection. Do not stay on your Good Friday… move on to your Happy Easter,” he added.

Crossing over

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas called Easter the passing over “from darkness into light, from sin into grace, from despair into hope, from death into new life, from suffering into glory, from the old self to new self.”

As the Holy Week coincides with the Passover of the Jews or their “crossing over” the Red Sea from slavery in Egypt to the Land of Promise, the Christian Passover is a commemoration of the “passing over” of the Lord Jesus from death to new life, Villegas said.

“Easter is about leaving our present condition and crossing over to the other side – the side of God – the side where He always wants us to be,” he added.

“Every crossing over entails a little dying. It is leaving behind our fleeting comforts and false securities into where God wants us to really be,” he said.

He said God does not wish His people to remain in confusion and anguish. “God does not like us to remain with our divisive attitude, egoism and self worship. God does not like us to remain in fear, in guilt or in hopeless shame. God wants us to be free,” he said.

Villegas reminded the faithful that freedom is God’s promise to those who are willing to pass over to His side. “If you do not cross over and choose your false comfort now, you’re refusing growth. Do not be afraid to cross over,” he said.

Meanwhile, Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches national director Bishop Efraim Tendero said Easter means total submission to God’s will.

“As we celebrate His resurrection this day, let us, as a nation, recognize and submit ourselves to the authority of the risen Christ. Then and only then can we experience the change that we long to transform our nation from a culture of corruption, to that of following the tuwid na landas (straight path) that our President longs for,” Tendero said in his Easter message entitled “The Risen Christ Brings Radical Transformation.”

“Real change for good in all the branches of the government, the business sector, the media, other sectors of society, our families, and even in our very selves can only come as we let the resurrection power of Christ flow into our lives,” he said. – With Eva Visperas