Human God

No less than three times in today’s Gospel reading was the Risen Christ quoted as saying: "Peace be with you." Here I am, with you. From suffering and death to New Life. Be assured that I will never leave you. Even when you do not see my physical self, my divine omnipresence will be there with you. Just be aware of my presence within you and all around you. This can make all the difference in your life. Be it in joy or in sorrow, in sickness or in health, in success or in failure – I will be there with you, most especially in your darkest moments. I will suffer with you, so that together, we can share my New Life. I am your New Life. I am your peace. Here I am. "Peace be with you."

Once again, through this Easter Season, Almighty God reminds us that His most outstanding quality as GOD is His HUMAN compassion. His divinity in His deepest humanity. This is the person of Christ, the God-Man, our Human God. Moreover:

"We have seen what Jesus was like. If we now wish to treat Him as our God, we would have to conclude that our God does not want to be served by us, but wants to serve us; God does not want to be given the highest possible rank and status in our society, but wants to take the lowest place and to be without any rank and status; God does not want to be feared and obeyed, but wants to be recognized in the sufferings of the poor and the weak; God is not supremely indifferent and detached, but is irrevocably committed to the liberation of humankind, for God has chosen to be identified with all people in a spirit of solidarity and compassion. If this is not a true picture of God, then Jesus is not divine. If this is a true picture of God, then God is more truly human, more thoroughly humane, than any human being. God is, what Schillebeeckx has called, a Deus humanissimus, a supremely human God." (From A. Nolan, Jesus Before Christianity)

In our own Filipino way of expressing this, let us live by the very words of that song we often sing at Mass:

"Sino pa’ng tutulong sa ‘yo kundi ang katulad ko, kaibigan mo Ako.

Sa akin mo sabihin ang problema mo. At magtiwala kang di ka mabibigo.

Kasama mo Ako sa hirap at ginhawa, at may karamay ka sa ‘yong pagdurusa.

Kapag nasaktan ka ay h’wag kang susuko.

Kahit may takot ka ay h’wag kang magtago.

Di ka nag-iisa, kasama mo Ako. Tawagin mo lamang, di ka mabibigo.

Kaibigan kita, kaibigan t’wina.

Sino pa’ng tutulong sa ‘yo kundi ang katulad ko, kaibigan mo Ako.

Ngayon nalaman mo na may kasama ka.

Hinding-hindi kailanpaman mag-iisa.

Kasama mo Ako sa hirap at ginhawa, at may karamay ka sa ‘yong pagdurusa."

The Risen Christ is with us till the end of time, if time indeed has an end. "I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Mt. 28: 20) Such is the divine paradox of Christ’s omnipresence and seeming absence in our country today. Seeming absence – with all the corruption, political disunity, socio-economic injustice against the poor, and what-have-you. These are embodied in persons and groups whose hearts are hardened, unable to feel God’s presence within them and all around them, even as they pay lip-service to God through external rituals and church membership.

On the other hand, there are so many more who are simple and humble, ordinary and vulnerable, whose hearts are alive with the love and compassion of the Human God. The Lord’s Passion-Death-Resurrection is not in vain. It is constantly being passed on and lived by so many, not only among our people, but in every nook and corner of God’s universe.

It is in this context that I ask our readers to remember the late Tom Fox, a volunteer-member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, who was tortured and killed just last month in Baghdad, Iraq. From his diary, we read: "But if Jesus and Gandhi are right, then I am asked to risk my life and, if I lose it, to be as forgiving as they were when murdered by the forces of Satan. I struggle to stand firm but I’m willing to keep working at it." (From National Catholic Reporter, March 24, 2006).

Inner peace amidst external forces of unpeace. This is the Easter experience.

"Peace be with you."