Easter, the Spring of Hope

Dear Brothers,

We are in the Holy Week and our commemoration of the Paschal Mystery this time around is unprecedented in history that nowhere we are able to celebrate it as a community in the whole world due to COVID-19 pandemic. We are all in a situation of lockdown and we find ourselves entombed inside our houses not knowing how long it would prolong, at the same time, eagerly waiting for the day of free movement. All of us sit in helpless silence and prayer and watch the world around us in particular those brothers and sisters infected with this deadly virus, heroic service providers, those who have died and other affected poor and homeless people. However, we see the nature around us blooming with joy as usual in spring’s loving caresses spreading its fragrance in the air, bringing the good news of abundant fruits for the summer. This is the nature’s way of announcing the hope of Easter, that Jesus, the Morning Star (Rev 22:16) will dispel this darkness in which we grope now and soon usher in a time of comfort and peace.

I invite all of you to participate in these days, in a realistic and meaningful manner, in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, in full union with the suffering humanity. When Jesus was on the cross, he was in total solidarity with the entire humanity in pain and misery and poured down on them God’s love profusely that it became the solution for all maladies in the creation. Jesus was able to transform the loneliness and abandonment he felt on the cross into a silent union with the Father (Acts 2:25) and his pain in his tortured body into a bodily connectedness with the entire creation (Mt 27:51). The tomb found it impossible to contain his bubbling sacrificial love (“Love never ends” 1 Cor 13:8) and so it broke forth as Easter light penetrating into all nook and corner of the universe to sustain the creation. This love still reigns supreme on earth and we are all agents of this conquering love. As Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart, let us embrace the suffering humanity in these days in our hearts bubbling with the same conquering love and sanitise the world with its healing flow. Let us pray continuously so that the humanity may be saved from the grip of this plague, at the same time, taking care of our needy brothers and sisters in our surroundings.  Happy Easter!

Your Brother
V. Lawrence, CMF (Major Superior)