Easter

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TG123

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Hi everyone,

This is a very special weekend. Tomorrow, we will be celebrating Good Friday. The day that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was put to death. Anyone who has watched The Passion should have a good idea of what a crucifixion was like. The convict was beaten, with rods and sticks and whips. After being hit and savagely mutilated with these weapons, he was forced to walk to the place where nails were driven through his hands. He would be hoisted up, and left to die a horrid death. Each time the victim tried to pull himself up, he would feel the nails tearing at his impaled hands and feet. If he tried to relax, as his chest fell he would begin to suffocate.

Jesus suffered all of this and more, He carried the sins of all people on His shoulders. As the Son of God, He came down from Heaven to live among us. He was born in a stable, not a palace. He was homeless, and wandered ancient Palestine, ministering and healing and faithfully followed by people who were desperate and hungry and sick. He raised the dead. He preached about the Kingdom of God. He taught about the only way we can enter Heaven- by believing in Him. He taught love for enemies. Love and sacrifice for the poor, whom He said He is incarnated in- whatever we do for them, we do for Him. He was accepted by the desperately and lonely and sinners who knew they were sinners and screwups- and rejected by those who believed they had it all together.

He was arrested, beaten, tortured and nailed to the cross. He died for you. He died for me. He died so that our sins could be washed away by His blood, that by believing in Him we could be saved. He died so that by believing in Him and putting your faith in Him you can have everlasting life.

As the saying goes, it wasn't the nails that held Jesus to the cross. It was His love for us. We need to accept His love. And to extend it to others.


We live in a world where tens of millions of people are victims of poverty and injustice. Children die of starvation and preventable diseases every single day. Millions of people live in slums and drink dirty water, some are forced to pay for it by private and often multinational companies who claim even this resource and demand payment for it. Everyday, parents see their children being torn apart by bombs, shot by soldiers, gunned down by gangs and blown up by armed opposition groups. Every single day, innocent people are being beaten and executed and tortured. People are forced out of their homes by natural disasters such as floods and man made disasters such as economic injustice.
While we sleep tonight in our beds, millions will be bedding down on pavement, having no place to go for the night. While we stress about family and work issues, others are feverishly waiting for relatives to come home who have been "detained" at checkpoints. While we worship at church tomorrow and on Sunday (and for our Catholic brothers and sisters, also on Saturday and today and Monday), other of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being persecuted for their faith.

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ said "WHATEVER YOU DO FOR THE LEAST OF THESE YOU DO UNTO ME". Being a faithful follower of Jesus needs to involve worshipping Him. It needs to involve praising Him. It needs to involve going to a church and being in fellowship with other Christians. It needs to involve preaching the Gospel.

It also needs to involve serving Jesus- and we do that by serving the poor. We need to be His hands and feet. We need to be clothing the naked. We need to be feeding the hungry. We need to be the voice calling for the rights of the widows and orphans. We need to be the voice calling for peace. Calling for what is right- and not only calling but also hungering and thirsting for it- and being willing to suffer for it if necessary.

Jesus died on the cross for us over 2,000 years ago. But He is also present with us in the face of every homeless Palestinian child. In the refugee camps across Darfur. He grieves with the families of Filipino and Colombian union leaders and human rights advocates who have been assasinated or have been "disappeared". He hungers with Swazi children orphaned by the AIDS crisis, taking care of siblings because their parents have died. He is imprisoned with the political dissidents in Russia, beaten and humiliated for daring to demand human rights. In Guantanamo Bay with "terror suspects" who have been arrested and abused and tortured for years based on false information. With criminals "doing life" or on death row for very real crimes they committed, often in response to lives that were full of desperation and poverty and abuse. He is lying in cancer wards and hospices. He shelters among displaced Cambodians, kicked out of their homes to make way for a shopping complex. Among Afghan families afraid to go about their normal life, not knowing when the next suicide bomber will strike or where the next NATO fighter pilot will choose to bomb.

What we do to them, we do to Him.

Let us never forget what He did for us on the cross. And our obligation to serve Him by serving the people whom often the world rejects- as it rejected Him.


Cristo Vive!
- TG123
 
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