Pain, joy, life are the recurring notes in this Easter tide. They unlock a scenario that, while not ignoring the harshness of certain moments, urges us to read into them by seeing them in the light of the Paschal Mystery. The final solution for the perennial battle between life and death is found on the cross. Here is the blossoming of a newness that touches every experience and transfigures it.
Sadness arises as we face the inevitability of death, but it is only so that life may explode. It is the necessary pains of childbirth that announce the coming of new life. It is the Easter event that returns in our today, in our suffering. Trying to stop the seed from rotting in the ground, trying to omit this phase in order to reap the mature grain without it, is foolish and detrimental. There is no birth that is not preceded by a lengthy time of waiting and by the pangs of childbirth. And there is no sunset that does not announce the triumph of a new sunrise.
Christian joy is rooted in this certainty. What’s more, it is precisely the joy that arises from hope which renders the announcement of the Resurrection credible and reaches a humanity resigned to a destiny of death. It is life. It is this triumph that Christ asks us to sing and to spread around us in joy, full joy, lasting joy.
Sadness arises as we face the inevitability of death, but it is only so that life may explode. It is the necessary pains of childbirth that announce the coming of new life. It is the Easter event that returns in our today, in our suffering. Trying to stop the seed from rotting in the ground, trying to omit this phase in order to reap the mature grain without it, is foolish and detrimental. There is no birth that is not preceded by a lengthy time of waiting and by the pangs of childbirth. And there is no sunset that does not announce the triumph of a new sunrise.
Christian joy is rooted in this certainty. What’s more, it is precisely the joy that arises from hope which renders the announcement of the Resurrection credible and reaches a humanity resigned to a destiny of death. It is life. It is this triumph that Christ asks us to sing and to spread around us in joy, full joy, lasting joy.
(From Friends and Servants of the Word)
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