Easter mystery no more

Everybody is looking forward to the arrival of Easter time with much anxiety and anticipation. Weeks or even months before the day comes, hectic preparations are already underway to make the occasion a happy one indeed. But do we really know the cause for celebrating it?

The answer usually lies in our activities and preoccupations during the "Holy Week" leading to Easter. This week is the transition period during which we build up the celebratory mood that will culminate in Easter.And by the looks of it there is ample ground to doubt whether most of us know why we should be happy at eastertime.

Holy week in this part of the world comprises one of the longest holidays. This is good enough reason for a good number of our people to spend it by having a grand time at some exotic place where the living is easy and days are spent in carefree fun and frolic.Hongkong, Bangkok or Boracay for those who can afford it. Baguio or Tagaytay or some less expensive local tourist spots for others.

Taking advantage of these long holidays for family get  togethers is not a bad idea. Except that there is a danger of losing the proper perspective of Easter by developing the attitude of skipping the observance of Good Friday. The emerging pattern is to focus our thoughts solely on the Easter merriment by seeking in the meantime some other earthly forms of enjoyment until the day comes.Before the easter egg hunt is the grand vacation of rest and recreation and fun. There is here an alarming tendency to forget that Easter Sunday comes  only after Good Friday; that there can be no Easter Sunday without Good Friday.This is one whole package comprising the Paschal Mystery.

The Paschal mystery or the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ remains a mystery mainly because human imperfections and weaknesses limit the human mind and obstruct the human heart from fully fathoming or completely absorbing the truth that no one goes through his earthly life without undergoing hardships, set backs and trials. Man’s innate cravings for luxury and comfort, his inherent tendency to follow the line of least resistance and to seek the easy way out render him fearful of any form of sufferings and pains, of  willingly taking up the "crosses"in life and of bravely facing the reality of death. Hence the Paschal or Easter mystery  continues to be incomprehensible to man  because he shuns its most important ingredients of passion and death.The Easter he celebrates will continue to be mired in mystery for as long as it is devoid of the experience of Good Friday.

Observing Lent and Good Friday however does not mean putting up a sad face or simulating an aura of gloom or engaging in physical self-flagellation or wishing hardships to fall upon us. Rather,it is a time of "fasting from unrelentless pressures and feasting on unceasing prayers; fasting on self concern and feasting on compassion for others;fasting from discontent and feasting on gratitude;fasting from anger and feasting on patience; and fasting from the shadows of sorrow and feasting on the sunlight of serenity". Making a penitential pilgrimage to Antipolo is definitely more in keeping with the times than going on a trip to Baguio to escape the summer heat.

Unveiling the Paschal mystery and making it more comprehensible in our lives is mainly a special and personal grace from God. To our family, Easter has become less of a mystery this year because of our daughter Joyce.She had shown us from her sickbed that kind of "passion" or suffering referred to in the paschal mystery and how to accept them with serenity and joy in total resignation to the Divine Will. Our reinvigorated faith somehow tells us that this Easter marks her "passover" into eternal life,her resurrection or her "pagtawid sa muling pagkabuhay" especially because it happily coincides with  the 40th day after her death.

The seemingly inexplicable paschal mystery thus becomes comprehensible if we willingly embrace the trials and setbacks coming our way as part and parcel of life leading to a holy death that is so necessary for a glorious resurrection.

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