By Dr Jeanette Pinto –
Life is the most precious of all gifts that man has received, but does he know how to care for it? Does he know how to appreciate and live it well? One wonders when one sees how carelessly humankind deals with this gift. In one newspaper Asha read a shocking story. A duffel bag had been hurled from a speeding car on the freeway in a so called ‘smart city’. Inside was a baby girl – a nameless child who had died on impact just hours after birth. “Lord what kind of society have we become that someone could throw a baby out of the window like a cigarette butt?” She muttered.
In an article about prisons, it was reported that imprisoned mothers are forced to keep their baby children with them in the prison. Here’s a description of two-year old Irfan in prison. ‘He crawls along the dirty cement floor of a jail in India’s financial capital Bombay, wearing only a soiled and torn vest, covered with flies, his tiny arms and legs erupting with vicious red boils. He defecates near a stinking open sewage drain and begins to wail – maybe to be cleaned, possibly for food or just the warmth of an arm around him – but there is no one willing to listen’. Aren’t you horrified and deeply pained to learn of Irfan or any baby’s fate such as this? Where is the dignity for that little human person?
We have often heard that human life is priceless. How so? Indeed has anyone tried to measure the value or worth of human life? Let’s use the scales of justice to measure the value of human life. On one pan of the scale place human life; be it even the unborn babe, a child, a teen, an adult, or a senior; and on the other pan what will you place to evenly balance the scale or let it tip down? Is it Money! Property! Riches! Jewels or What??? You see you can find NOTHING to equate or which is more valuable and precious than human life.
How about death? Regardless of race, religion, caste, geographical area or time, everyone dies. This is one fact of life that unifies all human beings. The fact remains that death is the end of the precious gift of life. Once the breath of life is gone, that life is lost forever. Indeed, one can measure the quality of life using statistical data in terms of life expectancy, luxurious lifestyle, probability of crippling, fatal or non-fatal injuries or deadly illnesses and the like. But truly the value of any human life cannot be exaggerated.
Bhala aged 75, lived in a senior’s home. His son living in the US, eager to own the ancestral house coaxed his father to sign the documents. Bhala did not comply. Suddenly he got very sick, and was in the ICU. His daughter came down from UK to visit and be with him. On her return she secretly took with her the house keys and the property documents. Soon Bhala died. Though informed, neither of the children responded. Bhala’s corpse remained frozen in the morgue for almost a month till fortunately the daughter returned to perform the final rites. Did Bhala deserve such treatment in death? Are you shocked and wondering if this is really true? Yes indeed, it is!
If life and death are so very special what then is the Resurrection? Simply it is the concept of coming back to life after death. What! Is that possible? Yes, it is the central doctrine of Christianity that God raised Jesus from the dead after his crucifixion. The resurrection proves Jesus is God. Why is the resurrection so important? Because it validates who Jesus claimed to be, namely the Son of God and Messiah. Jesus’ resurrection was a ‘sign from heaven that authenticated his ministry (Mathew 16:1-4) The truth of the matter is that if Christ only died, but never came back to life, there would be no chance of salvation (1 Corinthians 15:14) If He didn’t rise again everything He said about being God, about being the Father’s Son would have been a lie, and His death would be nothing more than the death of a liar.
God’s plan of salvation culminates in the person of Jesus Christ who made known to us the true face of Abba Father and by His cross the Resurrection. Mankind is freed from slavery of sin and death to freedom as the children of God. There is new meaning in our human existence and we have found the answer that brings peace to the restless human heart. It is for this mystery of Christ that impels us Christians to become heralds of hope and salvation as well as witnesses of that love which heals this broken world, promotes human dignity and builds justice and peace.
Below the storms of life, restless anxiety and frenzied activity, below the worries and troubles of death that torment us, is a peaceful stillness that we need to anchor ourselves to Jesus who said, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me, though he may die, yet he shall live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11: 25-26 Yes! Then Rejoice!