The victory of life

IT’S HOLY WEEK AND MANY people are looking forward to a few days of vacation with families and friends. It has been observed that many Filipinos associate Holy Week with the suffering and death of Jesus Christ without giving much emphasis to His Resurrection, which completes the Paschal Mystery.
While reading Gerard O’Collins’ book entitled Easter Faith, I was struck by his explanation that Holy Week is not simply about suffering and death but it is about the victory of life over pain, suffering and death. More than an occasional expression of piety, Holy Week challenges every Christian to a faithful discipleship that is marked by a continuous testimony to the Risen Jesus. O’Collins points out that the two women, Mary Magdalene and the ‘other’ Mary (Mt. 27:61) were the first witnesses of the resurrection and they had the “unique joy of meeting the Risen Jesus himself (Mt. 28: 8-10). The Jewish authorities that tried to cover up the truth of the resurrection “symbolize death, treachery, and lies, whereas the two faithful women receive and announce the amazing truth of his new life.” O’Collins is right when he points out that “the friends of God may feel themselves to be weak and helpless like the holy women before the apparently overwhelming might of a great political power” but God can and will be victorious over the powers of death.
The Holy Week is about a victorious life because Christ has conquered death by His redeeming love on the cross. I believe that as Christians we need to proclaim through our way of life the Angel’s proclamation: “He is Alive” (Luke 24:23). The language of life is the language of Holy Week. In fact, “life represents the permanent condition into which the resurrection has brought Jesus.” True life is not about being happy or living comfortably but it is living in the joy of Easter daily. To illustrate, a few years ago I was asked to assist in a parish for the Holy Week. After one of the holy week services, I was introduced to a woman in her fifties who was radiantly smiling with very serene eyes. She spoke about her family and about her beautiful orchids. I felt that she was a woman who was celebrating life in its fullness in the present moment of her life. I could not believe the news that she passed away a few weeks after I met her.
She was terminally ill with cancer. I realized that some people are not terminally ill but they live a kind of life that weighs them down, that puts them into the vicious cycle of unhappiness and un-fulfillment even amidst plenty, success, prestige and power. However, some people are terminally ill due to sickness and some are even doomed to die and suffer due to abject poverty but they are at peace because God is alive even in their pain and want.