We are celebrating the Resurrection at this very special time when we are facing our limits and where we have no visibility into the future, even near. Our way of life had dismissed uncertainty as a condition of our existence, and maintained the illusion that we were able to foresee everything, to protect ourselves, to cope, to master situations. A microscopic virus upsets our plans and plunges us into insecurity, even darkness. We are at the heart of the Easter mystery.
We celebrate the Passover of Jesus, his passage from death to life, from darkness to light, victory over evil and death. Easter morning does not erase the Cross: the Risen One is the Crucified One. The new life received on Easter morning is the delivered life of Good Friday. The Saturday which joins these two moments is a day of great silence, a time of mourning which is already giving birth to a renaissance. We must assume this silence, this lack, this absence to receive and live the unexpected.
It is still dark when the first witnesses discover the empty tomb. Well, not really empty, since the angel of the resurrection announces to them: “You are looking for Jesus, the crucified; He is not here, he is risen … “Our hope is born from the bottom of the tomb which becomes the cradle of a new life.
The Passover of Jesus is light on our way. We are faced with suffering and death, the sky seems to be silent, and in the midst of the ordeal and of this silence life resurfaces. The social distancing that we must impose on ourselves highlights the ties that unite us. We are rediscovering all that a man can do when he gives the best of himself. We are of course thinking of the caregivers that we must continue to support and encourage for all that we owe them. There are also all the “little hands” who discover or rediscover their capacity to put themselves at the service, to take care of the most fragile.
We will have much to share when the containment is completed. May we not forget the riches we live and the treasures we discover in the ordeal we live. We will need it when we have to rebuild. May our prayer and our attentions inscribe in our relationships that life is stronger than death: “Christ is risen, he is truly risen! “
P. Yves Boivineau