During
the Holy Week we will once again be reflecting on Christ’s suffering, death and
resurrection. Our thoughts often focus primarily on how he suffered and died.
It was a painful death. It showed how he was falsely accused, unjustly
condemned, betrayed and meted capital punishment and abandoned by his
disciples. Why did he suffer and die? It is not enough to say: “because of our
sins.” His passion was the consequence of his prophetic mission – of announcing
the Good News of the reign of God – a good news of liberation, of justice, of
peace. This mission also involved speaking out against evil in all its
manifestation. For this, those in power reacted violently. His crucifixion
symbolized the reign of sin and evil manifested in the culture of death. It was
an apparent victory of darkness – of evil. Yet ultimately the cross became the
symbol of self-sacrificing love that overcomes sin and darkness. Good Friday
was not the end of the story. It was followed by Easter Sunday – his rising
from the dead, the triumph of light over darkness, of good over evil. His
resurrection was the inauguration of the reign of God that grows steadily
through the centuries in spite the apparent persistence of evil. His
resurrection is an assurance that evil will not reign for ever and ever. This
what we believe, this is the source of our hope. This is what we celebrate this
Holy Week.
We
Filipinos can easily identify with the suffering and death of Jesus. This is
why we continue to observe Holy Week at a time when darkness and evil seem to
reign, when the poor continue to suffer because of poverty, when thousands of
people have been murdered extrajudicially, when those in power perpetuate the
culture of death and mock God and religion, with the support of a multitude
lacking in conscience and ignorant of what they are doing.
In
face of these, when we feel helpless and hopeless, full of despair and anguish,
let us always remember the message of Holy Week. There is an end to evil. Light
overcomes darkness. Let us continue to hope and to struggle against evil and
darkness. We will overcome.
