Life in Jesus

After 40 days of Lenten observance of prayer, fasting and abstinence the Christians all over the world are celebrating Easter on April 11 th...

After 40 days of Lenten observance of prayer, fasting and abstinence the Christians all over the world are celebrating Easter on April 11 this year. It is the commemoration of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the foundational belief of Christianity. It is significant to note that Christianity began with a person who apparently was a failure. Spurned by his own people and rejected by the powers that be, he was delivered to his enemies and died a criminal’s death.

But this was just the beginning of another powerful story of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Jesus himself had foretold, he rose from among the dead and appeared to his disciples, and their account is recorded in the Gospels. The disciples’ description of the Risen Lord Jesus was the basis on which Christianity began to spread. They went about proclaiming the news of their experience of the Risen Lord Jesus, something that gave a new possibility to human beings who constantly wrestle with the question of suffering and death. With the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it became apparent, primarily to his own disciples, and then to others that human beings need no longer be slaves to suffering and death, but they can be conquered as Jesus did.

Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life” (John.10.10). During his earthly sojourn he went about giving life to people. Jesus taught people, cured the sick, cleansed the lepers, accepted sinners, fed the hungry, consoled the grief-stricken and raised the dead to life. But the greatest act of giving life to others was his death and resurrection. By his rising to life he assured all human beings that death is no longer the end of life, it is only the gateway to a new form of life.

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Easter celebrations, therefore, bring hope to human beings, particularly in a world that is being influenced by certain cynical ideologies and attitudes. And such destructive ideologies have taken a heavy toll on the well-being and progress of human beings. It is important, therefore, to meet these tendencies with values that will sustain life. A life devoid of hope is like insipid food that is at best tolerated. On the contrary, a life full of hope in it has much to celebrate and rejoice. Hope is the best motivating factor in the life of people; it prompts them to give of their best to others. Christians believe that the Risen Lord Jesus is the giver of this abiding hope, a quality that sustains each one of us through the thick and thin of our life.

The writer is spokesperson, the Catholic Bishops’Conference of India

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