Daring Hope

Parish Letter Easter Sunday A 2008 He is risen Alleluia!!
I saw a large poster once, outside the precincts of a great city, which was placed so as to catch the attention of every comer and goer. It read ‘Christ is the Answer.’ The cynic in me retorted inwardly, ‘What is the question?’ I am sure many people are tempted to ask the same question when they see bold proclamations like ‘Christ is the Answer!’ In a world full of many unanswered questions, it is little wonder that such a hunger for answers exists. People like me can easily miss out on the reality of the unanswered questions that we live with daily, because of our fleeting cynicism. When I got myself to take that poster more seriously, I did go through an endless list of unanswered questions. Some of them are my own.
I was fascinated most by those that tended to have a theological bent to them. Why do we die? Why do people die young? Why is there so much suffering around? Why do people have to suffer long illnesses when they are going to die anyway? Why do some people seem untouched by pain and suffering at all in their life, while for some pain and suffering is their daily bread? Is God aware of human suffering? Does God care that we suffer? Is God interested in human suffering? Does God allow human suffering? Can God stop or end human suffering? Will God use pain and suffering in the next world? Do we suffer in proportion to our sinfulness? Is there any point in suffering? What is the meaning of suffering? The list of questions invoked by human suffering can go on and on.
Some of the questions are generic and others are specific to time, place and person. There is a host of unanswered questions specific to our time, to our country and our nation. We are living in this country with some questions that are very difficult to answer. As a nation we have become accustomed to have these questions unanswered and keep on going. Some of these questions query God’s goodness, presence among us, and for care us. As a priest I often bear the brunt of the of a questioning nation. The faithful, too, are put on the bar because our unanswered national questions challenge the heart of our Christian faith. We enter into the celebration of Jesus resurrection with these questions. Our hope as a nation is that the resurrection may shed a light on our plight and, perchance, help us to find answers for the hard questions that have become or daily bread in recent years.
Jesus is the answer to these questions. In his obedience to the Father, Jesus became a human being. He did not become a human being the way that actors become a historic person in a play. Jesus became fully and truly a human being. He was open to all human experience; its joys and delights, its sorrows and pains. He was like us in everything, except sin. So he became in every sense part of suffering humanity, party of questioning humanity. He lived with our frailty and vulnerability. He experienced the ambiguity of our condition – prone to both happiness and sadness.
Jesus brought to humanity the ability to remain steadfast despite suffering. Through his teaching, preaching, healing, celebrating life, enduring the realities of life, Jesus showed us the way to be faithful, straightforward, committed, happy, compassionate and caring in spite of the human condition. He showed us that being a human being is not an excuse for not loving, not caring, not being happy and not being compassionate. In a much more profound way, Jesus showed us that it is possible to remain a good human being even when all odds are against you. His passion and death on the cross, and how faithfully obedient to the Father he remained, just proved his teaching and practice about the ability of human being to triumph despite suffering. In his humanity Jesus transformed the experiences that inspire the most dread in human being namely suffering and death. By his stripes and wounds, we are healed. By his dying we are brought to a life that does not end. The resurrection is this triumph. It is Jesus’ triumph and it is our triumph too, for we are his followers. We celebrate the resurrection today and remind ourselves that if we are faithful and obedient to God, nothing, absolutely nothing, can stop us. Even death cannot stop us! Jesus is indeed the answer! In the risen Jesus Christ, humanity has the answer to all its most perplexing questions.
Wishing you all a very happy Easter Fr. William Guri, C.Ss.R.