This has been a strange spring. Much beautiful and dry weather with new life bursting everywhere – and the horrible sight of human creative talents concentrated on weapons that kill and maim and destroy. This beautiful island showing increasing signs of affluence – and terrible price that we pay for it in terms of crime, poverty and weakening social cohesion. What on earth could a man tortured to death on a Cross have to say to that sort of rapidly moving world? My own answer is simple. a) In a world where many worry about the future, the Gospel reminds us that “God so loved the world, that he sent his only Son” (Jn 3:16). The Lord of Creation is still in solidarity with his beautiful world and with every person in it – Belfast, Ballybunion, Boston, Baghdad. Each person – whatever our story or our history– can look in the mirror and say, “God loves me”. Many find it very hard to believe the enormous dignity of themselves or of every other person. b) Despite the terrible reality of sin, that Son came not to condemn the world but to save it. (Jn 3:17) Finally on the Cross, he took upon himself all the sin of the world – greed, violence, hard hearts, exploitation – and allowed it to crush him. (cf Isaiah 53:4-11 and 1 Peter 3:24) Because of this, he offers everyone the possibility of freedom from guilt, from the burden of the past, and from fear of the future. c) On Easter Sunday, he was raised from the dead. This was not to show off, or to impress his followers. I don’t understand what happened on that day. But I see it as a statement that grace is stronger than sin, that there is more good in the world than evil, that “nothing can separate us from the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus, Our Lord” (Romans 8:39). That is what I call Good News, for the here and well as for the hereafter, good for body as well as for soul. That is why, for the Easter people, Alleluia is our song. +Donal McKeown Easter 2003 ends |