The Lord has risen! Alleluia!
If you have been following the liturgical readings in the season of Lent
leading to the great Easter Vigil, you can but be amazed how these readings and
prophecies have fall into place. I am not a bible scholar and this attempt is
not in any way to proclaim that this is how you should see these events but
here is my take and I hope you can pick up something from them.
In the Garden of Eden, the first man - Adam enjoyed the company of God. He
has been given the tree of life which we now know has become the tree of death
because of his disobedience. In the Garden
of Gethsemane, God revealed to Jesus (the second Adam) that he will be given
the tree of death (the cross); this tree of death, has become for us the tree
of life and Jesus by his obedience to the Father has restored our relationship
with God, we being his children again.
Abraham was told to go to a mountain to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Of
course we know the story how Isaac came about and because of this, how much
Abraham have loved his only son. Isaac carried the wood that will be used to
burn the sacrifice offering on his back and kept on asking his father where was
the lamb they will use for the sacrifice?. Abraham kept on telling his son -
God himself will provide the sacrifice. As we know, an Angel stopped Abraham
and prevented that he be offered as a sacrifice. In turn, Abraham found a ram
whose head were caught by thorns in the bushes and used it instead as a
sacrificial offering. Abraham called that mountain and to this date the
mountain is called - "It shall provided." In contrast, the only son
of God carries on his back the wood that will be altar of his own sacrifice and
look, his head is covered with thorns. God has provided the ultimate sacrifice.
Moses led the Israel people out of slavery in the ultimate exodus of all
time. Through him the Passover is celebrated up to this time as God's
intervention on the cry of his people - that God answers prayers. He gave us
the vision of the manna in the dessert and Jesus is the ultimate bread of life.
The bread that you eat and you will not get hungry again. Moses raised the
image of the bronze serpent and promised people that they will be saved upon
looking on it. It you remember, the
serpent is the image God used in the garden of Eden who deceived Adam and Eve
and it could be the image of sin itself. And Jesus who knows no sin has become
sin himself when he redeemed us and the image of Jesus being lifted on the
cross as if proclaiming, here I am look at me I have become your sins.
When we read the passion and the resurrection story, it is always easy to
overlook these things because we know how the story ends. We can skip the
details and proceed with the ending. However, for people in Jesus' time, it is
not the case. Imagine Blessed Mary standing at the foot of the cross, alone
(almost) could have been beating her chest and uttering the prayers, Oh God, o
God why have you allowed this horrible thing to happen to your son. And this is
the true reality of life, there are moments we feel abandoned, betrayed, left alone,
ignored and our prayers have not been answered. Many don't find the value of
pain, suffering, hardship and many more negative life's circumstances. So we
choose the easy way out or we blame God and accuse him of not loving us.
God waited for this day to raise his son back life. A. This Easter, God has
proven all of us wrong. We may be suffering and we may suffer for the rest of
our lives. We may be sick and lo and behold, regardless how many prayers offered
for us, we will not be healed. God may have ordained us for this kind of life.
But like his son - there is resurrection, there is life after death and our
glory is not in this lifetime. So for now we live our life with faith...that
someday, we will receive our glory and at the gate Jesus himself will welcome
us - Come enter the place I have prepared for you my faithful servant.
May Jesus' resurrection give us the power to live our life faithfully and
then yes we can celebrate Easter in our lives every day.
Happy Easter!
