2022 PASTOR'S EASTER MESSAGE
THE PASSION AND RESURRECTION; THE STORY
OF INTEGRITY
Dearly Beloved in Christ,
I welcome you to our 2022 edition of The
Paschal Mystery; our Parish bulletin from Passion Sunday to the Saturday within
the Octave of Easter.
It is a Season of Thanksgiving, and
indeed there are many things to thank God for; the gift of life and health,
family and friends, the work of our hands and our country Nigeria, despite her
precarious state. The biggest reason to thank God, however, is the season we
celebrate.
We celebrate the event of the Paschal
Mystery of Jesus Christ, the importance of which the Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church (#112) states: “The Paschal Mystery of Jesus, which comprises his passion,
death, resurrection, and glorification, stands at the center of the Christian
faith because God's saving plan was accomplished once for all by the redemptive
death of his Son Jesus Christâ€.
The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus
for me, is a story of integrity. I have intentionally chosen to see it
from this perspective, as we continue to reflect on our 2022 Parish Personal
Commitment Statement: “I am Baptised, I Have a Corresponding Responsibility To
Be Present In Integrityâ€
We have defined
integrity as consistently doing the right thing always, whether convenient or
inconvenient based on certain moral principles or religious beliefs. It thus
behoves us as baptized persons to be men and women of integrity. It is a
responsibility that corresponds to our status as Christians just as a married
person has a corresponding responsibility by virtue of being married, to his or
her spouse, parents to their children and vice versa, teachers to their
students, students to the school and politicians to the electorate, etc.
There is no doubt that
integrity can be summed up in two words; fidelity (faithfulness) and
sacrifice. These are qualities central
to the Paschal Mystery Story; Jesus though God, did not count equality with the
Father, He humbled Himself, took the form of a servant and died the shameful
death of the cross (cf. Philippians 2:6-8). After
He was baptized, he went into the wilderness for forty days, where he was
tempted by the devil. Jesus showed amazing, perfect integrity to the Word of
God and to His character! Though He was genuinely hungry and had the power to
turn those stones to bread, Jesus quoted the Old Testament to stay strong, and
showed faithfulness to his mission as the Son of God (cf. Luke 4:1-14). Being fully human (yet Divine), He experienced hunger,
pain and fear and though He prayed that the bitter cup of the Passion be taken
away from He, He yet still desired that not His will but the will of the Father
be done (cf. Matthew 26:39). He knew His
passion and death awaited Him in Jerusalem, yet He resolutely went on to
Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). He did not allow the words of Peter and the other
apostles turn His mind from the passion (cf. Matthew 16:21-23). In all these we
see the Integrity of the Son who was obedient to the Father and suffered unto
death (cf. Hebrews 5:8). It is a reflection of the Integrity of the Father who
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (cf. John 3:16) so as to
reconcile us to Himself at a time when we were still enstranged from Him by
virtue of our sins (cf. Romans 5:8) and faithfully glorified His Son as He
requested through His Resurrection and Ascension (Cf. John 17:1).
It is this integrity we
are all called to as baptized persons to imitate. This is the story of the
Paschal Mystery. The word “paschal†is drawn from the Greek ‘pascha,’ which is translated as Easter in
English. It however has its root from the Hebrew word, ‘pesach’ or Passover.
The Feast of Passover celebrates the freedom of the Hebrews from slavery and
exile. Christians also celebrate liberation from the bondage of sin through the
death and resurrection of Jesus, our “paschal lamb.
It is thus this saving plan of God we
celebrate. We celebrate the life of Jesus made present so that what took place
in him takes place in us. Though we celebrate the Paschal Mystery in a special
way this season, it is actually what we celebrate all year round in the liturgy
of the Church. Thus this event is not
just a historical once and for all event, but it is eternal.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
(CCC 1085) teaches us that “in the liturgy of the Church, it is principally his
own Paschal mystery that Christ signifies and makes present. During his earthly
life Jesus announced his Paschal mystery by his teaching and anticipated it by
his actions. When his Hour comes, he lives out the unique event of history
which does not pass away: Jesus dies, is buried, rises from the dead, and is
seated at the right hand of the Father “once for all.†His Paschal mystery is a
real event that occurred in our history, but it is unique: all other historical
events happen once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past. The
Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past, because
by his death he destroyed death, and all that Christ is – all that he did and
suffered for all men – participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends
all times while being made present in them all. The event of the Cross and
Resurrection abides and draws everything toward life.â€
Again, the Catechism of the Church
teaches that “the Holy Spirit Recalls the saving Events from the Life of Jesus
in each sacrament through the Liturgy of the Word (CCC 1099) – when the Gospel
is read. CCC 1103 tells us: In the Liturgy of the Word the Holy Spirit
“recalls†to the assembly all that God has done for us. This is called the
Anamnesis, which means to recall or remember. It is the opposite of Amnesia –
to forget.†Still from the Catechism of the Church, we are taught that the Mass
and the Sacraments “not only recalls the events that saved us but…makes them
present.†The victory of Jesus “is celebrated, not repeated. It is the
celebrations that are repeated, and in each celebration, there is an outpouring
of the Holy Spirit that makes the unique mystery present. “ (CCC 1104).
Beloved, as we celebrate the Season, as
we celebrate the Story of Integrity, let us call on the Holy Spirit, ever
present to us in word and sacrament, to grant us the strength needed to be men
and women of integrity.
May the Paschal Mystery find meaning in
our lives. More than ever before, our world and particularly our nation seek
men and women of integrity. Christ is calling us to that embrace of the Good
News, repentance from our sins, conversion and witnessing as evangelizers.
May the Spirit that raised Jesus from
the dead, be at work in our mortal bodies and indeed give life and transform
our mortal bodies to be able to transform our world.
Amen
