By His Grace Most Rev. Prakash Mallavarapu,
Archbishop of Visakhapatnam
As members of the believing community today, we have something important to reflect, pray, and contemplate: How connected are we with the Lord? How consistent and convincing is our relationship being maintained? Our present reality may not be exactly a parallel to the situation of the Apostles and disciples but a distancing of ourselves from our Lord Jesus Christ can happen: distancing in matters of our faith and hope in Him, a distancing from the sense of mission, from being disciples called to belong to Him and proclaim Him. We know, this does really happen in each of our lives as we strive to move forward in the journey of life. This distance from the Lord and loss of that connection with the Lord can be due to the loss of that warmth and love for Him. To remain in that continued state of faith and hope in Him is not being possible due to things that keep happening and over which we have no control.
In certain phases and situations of our life we perhaps have lost the capacity to be in control of things. For the Apostles and disciples, sadness and disappointment were due to the physical absence of their Lord and Master, and that too, happening in this unexpected way. The one whom they began to believe as the Messiah is “condemned and crucified on the Calvary along with two other criminals.” But, for us who are disciples of today, Jesus our Lord is not taken away from us. He is very much there, in His Word, in the Sacraments, and in the believing community, the Church we belong to. It is we who distance ourselves from Him due to our failures to live up to our discipleship, due to neglect, and even forgetfulness of His Word, His Sacramental presence, and His abiding presence in the living Christian community, the Church, the people of God. In the Holy season of Lent and at Easter celebrations an opportunity is offered to return to Him. The Risen Christ is there always and it is we who have to return, eliminating the distance between Him and us! The question is how deeply we are aware of the gap and what is causing this gap. How sorry do we feel for the situation and how anxious are we to remove this gap. It is about our readiness to reconcile with the Lord and with our neighbors in various aspects of our life!
In the name of Jesus, who died and rose from the dead: The apostles were the same persons who for the sake of Jesus who called them “left everything and followed,” left their families, occupation, and their plans. They were empty-handed and now the same at the time of Jesus’ death on the Cross with regard to riches and material possessions. But, now they are empowered in the Risen Christ and in the anointing in the Holy Spirit, feeling secure and confident, bold and courageous but humble and docile. They are transformed people and began to speak and work “in the name of Jesus” who was crucified” but “who has risen from the dead.” We know how this newly found confidence enabled them to fearlessly proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior! Here, we should be able to see how all this happened because of the Risen Christ, they had “passed over” all that was holding them back at the time of the crucifixion and death. For us too, the liturgical celebrations of the Holy Week and Paschal vigil, should help us to “Passover” whatever is holding us back from being in total communion with Jesus Christ. This is the fruit of the Lenten observance and Eater celebrations we should receive. We should Passover all that is making us live slavishly confined to sinful life and sinful situations! The Lord wants to lead us through this journey, like the People of Israel, from death to life, darkness to light! We have to allow ourselves to be led by the Lord into that New Life! This will be the true fruit we receive and therefore sing, “Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia! The Lord has truly risen!
Conclusion:
Let us wish and pray for one another that we may experience this liberation and freedom in Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior! Let us recall what we are called to be so that we can see what we are truly now at this point of time: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Rom 6: 2-5)