EASTER MESSAGE 2010

SR. ZETA CARIDAD RIVERO, SPC

My dear Sisters,

As we sing the Exultet on Easter Vigil, all of creation rejoices! “Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels!

Exult, all creation around God’s throne! Jesus Christ, our King, is risen! Sound the trumpet of salvation”!

In His resurrection, Jesus Christ is the center of a new vitality. His heart

beats with ultimate love and life for all of us. In His resurrection from the

dead, Tony Kelly CSsR says, “a new energy  is  at  work – a  limitless  love  that

nothing in creation can resist or diminish”.

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI says “The  gift  of  love  makes  us  glad  TO BE

ALIVE. Since we know Christ and since in Him we know God. It is good to

be alive, because we are loved, because truth itself is good.”

The Paschal candle is alight. Lumen Christi! The light of Christ lightens our

darkness. Christ has been raised from the dead. We rejoice and are glad. 

Jesus died for us that we may live. He poured out His blood for us so that we may find a new life.

To be grateful for this New Life given to us is humility indeed. Unworthy as we are, we are undeserving, yet, the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. He died for us to redeem us from sin. This is the greatest gift, ever, that we have received from Jesus Christ Himself – redemption from sin and be raised with Him in glory for all eternity.

This year 2010 is very important for our country, for our people, for all of us. Many events had taken place all over the world – all forms of disasters, earthquakes, violence, killings. Many are suffering from pain, hunger, loss of loved ones, illness of all sorts, separation from families, economic woes, betrayals, infidelities, etc. More so, here in the Philippines, we are anticipating a change in leadership, this being the election year.That’s why more than ever, the Easter story of our Lord is crucial, is very significant. And what is this Easter story about? It’s God’s radical assurance that He has conquered death and has risen. Resurrection is a message of hope and

rebirth. With Christ’s resurrection, the victory of grace over sin, evil, and death, is something we are sure of. This assurance tells us that in God’s own time, He wants us to know that when we have Him, when we trust in Him, when we love Him more than anything else, we have everything – we have all the rest.

One of the greatest longings of the human heart is to be assured. We are always looking for it; seeking it, especially during difficult times, and Easter is the ultimate act of God’s assurance for us. St Paul affirmed this in 1 Cor. 15:14, “If Christ had not been raised, then, our faith is useless.”

Indeed, we need not fear, need not doubt any longer, need not be discouraged. Whatever problem, conflict, or anything at all that bothers us, as individuals, as communities, or as a province, we can hold on to the assurance of the Easter story; we can draw extra ordinary strength from it. Jesus our Lord had assured Mary Magdalene, Peter and the apostles, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. How can He not assure us, His Easter people? 

 

With this assurance, comes the responsibility of being sent, of being set apart for a mission. When we drink the cup as Jesus drank it, Henri J.M. Nouwen says, “we are transformed into the one body of the living Christ, always dying and rising for the salvation of the world.” We are being sent, missioned to go and preach the Good News that the Lord is alive, and as St. Paul says, “Proclaim and live it with fresh audacity.”

To end, I would like to quote His Holiness Benedict XVI, “The gladness that comes from Christ is different, it is true happiness and it can co-exist with suffering. It gives us the capacity to share the suffering of others. Christians should therefore be people of peace, people who recognize and live the mystery of the cross as a mystery of reconciliation. Christ does not conquer through the sword, but through the cross. He wins by conquering hatred. He wins by the force of His greater love”.

My dear Sisters, together with the Provincial administration, I wish you a blessed Easter.