Provincial Superior’s Easter Message, 2017
“He is not Here . . . He is Risen”: Are we Risen with Him?
Fellow confreres in the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, under the Patronage of the Pure Heart of Mary. We, the witnesses to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the whole-wide-world, must take seriously every single act and action of the Holy Spirit in the world, and relate it to our existential reality in every age and generation. It is Easter again, it is the celebration of the Resurrection. The question is: “Are we risen with Christ”?
“He is not Here”
One of my most memorable lines of the resurrection saga is this: “He is not Here . . . He is Risen.” This line speaks to me because, growing up in rural Gidan-Waya, Kaduna State, Nigeria, I was one of the little village soccer stars, nothing compared with J.J. Okocha or Messi or Ronaldo, but I was hired to play village soccer/football matches. If you looked for me at home, my parents would have said, “He is not here.” However, for the purposes of this Easter Message, what is important is the fact that I was rarely at home for chores, preparation for dinner/supper. I was missing in the family action, my contribution was missing and lacking. What was true is that I still ate, when I returned home from playing football/soccer! Even when my Father will tell my Mother that I must not be given food, she will hide food for me in the kitchen, which I will eat and clean my mouth properly, so that that my Father wouldn’t know that I had eaten. In fact, I tried to look very dismal and dejected, so that my Father will eventually say to me: “stupid boy, go and eat you food; if I ever catch you playing football again, when you should be helping to get supper ready, I will punish you severely.” Eventually, I ate a second round of dinner: lucky me, I used to think; but not anymore.
First, I connect and relate the angels’ message to the women, “He is not here,” to my absences at home during the preparation of meals because they argue to the effect that I was alive, but I was not where my parents wanted me to be: I was not at home helping the family, as its member. I had my own agenda – footballing, which did not yield much, anyway, because nobody paid me for playing football, even if professional footballers make millions of dollars today. Those absences of mine affected my later life because I had to live off the cooking skills of my confreres.
Second, now that I am a member of the Spiritan Family, I ask myself where am I, when there is a call to duty? For instance, how do I contribute towards the payment of the tuition of my younger confreres in different levels of Initial and On-Going Formation? Where am I, when it comes to financial contributions and the investments of my ideas and talents, so as to build a vibrant and dynamic Province of Nigeria North-West? Where am I, in the search and prayer for the safe return of Fr. Oyaka? Where am I, when there is the need to visit the families of confreres on mission and those who have returned to the House of the Father? Where am I regarding the pressing needs to build a future for ourselves through educational and profit yielding projects? Will I be there as we build self-reliance projects?
“He is Risen”
Here is my consolation – “He is risen”! Indeed, just as Jesus was no longer in the tomb because he had risen, so do I believe that you and I can overcome our mistakes and start life afresh; that I can be more present than absent. The absence of Jesus in the tomb was a proof that life is to be lived beyond the grave and beyond the horrors and agonies of Gethsemane and Golgotha. This is the message of Easter, I think; and this is the message I want to share with you: that we each need to live beyond our grave, Gethsemane and Golgotha – everyone of us that still bears the scares of neglect and betrayal; each one of us going through a difficult appointment and poverty stricken mission!
“He is Risen” is the good news that despite the fact that we sometimes fail to live up to expectations – expectations of moral rectitude and fidelity to our vows and commitments to the Spiritan Family; that the resurrection of Christ is a sign of hope that we can and will do better in the future. Although sometimes life appears bleak and uncertain, in spite of our efforts to do what is right – these moments of the “tomb” or “grave,” when we seem helpless – are resurrection moments; it is precisely in those times that we need to look beyond the bleakness our failures and relish the resurrection Jesus won for us at Easter. Even when we find ourselves like Jesus in Golgotha abandoned by friends and neighbors, by the Congregation we love and cherish; those periods when we needed the Congregation the most, but no one was there for us – these moments of Gethsemane, when no one could keep watch one hour with us – we need to raise up our gazes from them to the resurrection of Jesus Christ as we hope for our own resurrection. In fact, sometimes we feel written off by the group, our visions disoriented, and our opinions and ideas not considered and misconstrued: the good news is that Jesus went through those before us and went passed them to the resurrection, and so shall we!
“He is not Here . . . He is Risen”
The statement “He is not Here” sends us to where he is “He is risen.” It is the resurrection appearances and post-resurrection miracles that prove the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The empty tomb points to the fact that human beings are the witnesses to the resurrection of Christ – their experiences of his apparitions and fellowships with them. The tomb points away from itself to a living reality and experience. The tomb is a place of inactivity and inertia, but to be alive is to be active, measured by activity and achievements! Peter and John and others were the witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ not the empty tomb. The impact of the power of the resurrected Christ was leading them to accomplish great feats because the one thought to be dead and buried lives with, eats, and works with them.
The resurrection is the message of the power of transformation that comes from friendship with Jesus Christ. It is a testimony to the triumph of good over evil. It is the experience of joy that does not come from wealth or poverty, sex or celibacy, autonomy or slavish obedience: it comes from freedom from every humanly contrived encumbrances; it is the setting free and loose from the shackles of all that is temporal and ephemeral; rather, it is the attachment to all that is eternal, celestial and immaterial. Yes, the resurrected Jesus walks through locked doors, yet when touched by Thomas, he had flesh and blood, and the holes made by the nails were still there. The resurrection is the voice of consolation and companionship with pilgrims and travelers, just as Jesus walks up to despondent disciples on their way to Emmaus. Resurrection is the ability to receive many strokes of the lash, insults, spittle and still rejoice on account of the ignominy received and endured. To “be risen” with Christ is to accept the testimonies and experiences of women and nobodies and the so-called inferiors of every rank and file because they too are sons and daughters of God. Indeed, wherever there is virtue and the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit, there is resurrection, there is life!
Hic et Nunc: Are we Risen with Him?
“We shall overcome” should be our mantra and chorus at Easter. “Overcomers” are those who refuse to live in the past of Gethsemane and Golgotha, but choose to live in the present, in the euphoria of the resurrection. “Overcomers” are those whose past experiences have been borne with and for Christ, and so they are resurrected with him, with new dynamism and vigor, determined to forgive and forget. “Overcomers” are those who have realized that the cross, Gethsemane and the tomb are necessary evils on the road to the resurrection. Yes, “Overcomers” are those ready to trust again, fall in love anew with God and humanity, to believe that evil will never triumph over good; as Fulton Sheen will put it, they are the ones who see the “day” of God instead of the “hour” of the Devil!
May the Spirit of the resurrected Christ help us to entomb our grudges and grievances, if any. May the spirit of solidarity and fraternal love be rekindled, through concrete gestures of love and sacrifice!
Happy Easter to one and all!
Ayodele Ayeni, C.S.Sp.