Easter is usually a cheerful occasion. This is in no doubt due partly to the eggs, bunnies, and Hallmark cards, but for Christians the true cause for celebration is Jesus' resurrection, coming after the terrifying darkness of Good Friday. On Easter, God conquers the greatest evil: the death of God's beloved child at the hands of imperial authority.
But we live in a moment of great darkness. In a world awash with social and political violence, Jesus is being crucified all around us. And for American Christians, the tables are turned; the "greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" is still our own government, just as Martin Luther King publicly acknowledged almost forty years ago.
That our aspiring Caesar calls himself a born-again Christian is an offense, quite literally, against all that is holy. That the overwhelming majority of those who worship weekly voted to re-elect him is a sign of a cancer upon what scripture teaches is to be the living body of Christ: the church.
But today, five months after that re-election and three years after the invasion of Iraq, with few signs of hope on the horizon, we are jarred by an unlikely reality: Christ is risen!
That reality has sustained generations of Christians through times of great torment and trial -- most far worse than our own -- and led many to bravely follow the gospel, even at the cost of their own lives. Among these was King, who was fond of saying that "the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice." But today, my mind turns to another -- Archbishop Óscar Romero, and the words he preached the day before he died:
Easter is itself now the cry of victory. No one can quench the life that Christ has resurrected. Neither death nor all the banners of death and hatred raised against him and against his church can prevail. He is the victorious one! Just as he will thrive in an unending Easter, so we must accompany him in a Lent and a Holy Week of cross, sacrifice, and martyrdom. As he said, blessed are they who are not scandalized by his cross. Lent, thus, is a call to celebrate our redemption in that difficult combination of cross and victory. Our people are well prepared to do so these days: all that surrounds us proclaims the cross. But those who have Christian faith and hope know that behind this Calvary of El Salvador lies our Easter, our resurrection. That is the Christian people's hope.
Amen.
Posted by Michael at March 27, 2005 05:54 AM | TrackBack