FINDING ANSWERS
Easter is the centerpiece of the Christian faith. It's the most essential festival of the year for more than two billion people all over the world professing Christianity, with Catholics numbering around 1.38 billion.
It commemorates the time two millenniums ago when the begotten Son of God, from whom Christianity takes its name, triumphed over death after making the sacrifice of crucifixion to redeem humanity of its sins.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is definite proof of eternal life. Without the Risen Christ, there would be no Christianity, the world’s largest religion. So important is the physical resurrection that the apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.”
“Easter is the time to open our eyes to Jesus who is alive. Easter is the time to renew our faith in Him. He is not a figure or a character from the past. He is with us as He was with the apostles and His early followers. He lives and walks with us. He calls us to follow Him. He invites us to turn away from our sinful lives and walk the path to life and eternity,” Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula said in his Easter message.
The path to eternal life is clearly stated in John 3:16 in the Holy Bible: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” In such reassuring message of eternal life lies the most awesome and significant news of all time!
But how can one have eternal life? Jesus himself gave the answer: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39)
Thus, on the two greatest commandments lie the key to salvation. As I’ve often said, to truly love God and our neighbor as ourselves, we need to utilize our time, talent, and treasure to serve others especially as we perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
“Easter is a moment to accept the new life that Jesus is giving to everyone. He conquered sin and death. And he is assuring us that we can do the same. He is offering us a chance to live again and rise from our afflictions and failures,” Cardinal Advincula explained.
Pope Francis, in his 2024 Easter message Urbi et Orbi to the city of Rome and to the world, spoke of the significance of the great stone that sealed Jesus’ tomb before the resurrection.
“Today too, great stones, heavy stones, block the hopes of humanity: the stone of war, the stone of humanitarian crises, the stone of human rights violations, the stone of human trafficking, and other stones as well,” the Pope lamented.
“This is the amazing discovery of that Easter morning: The stone, the immense stone, was rolled away. The astonishment of the women is our astonishment as well: The tomb of Jesus is open, and it is empty! From this, everything begins anew! A new path leads through that empty tomb: The path that none of us, but God alone, could open: the path of life in the midst of death, the path of peace in the midst of war, the path of reconciliation in the midst of hatred, the path of fraternity in the midst of hostility,” he said.
In his message on Easter Sunday, Pope Francis said: “On this day when we celebrate the life given us in the resurrection of the Son, let us remember the infinite love of God for each of us: a love that overcomes every limit and every weakness. And yet how much the precious gift of life is despised! How many children cannot even be born? How many die of hunger and are deprived of essential care or are victims of abuse and violence?”
Children deprived of essential care and dying of hunger is certainly an issue of grave concern. In the Philippines, the scourge of hunger and chronic malnutrition affecting the very young is appalling.
“Ninety-five Filipino children die each day from malnutrition, 27 out of every 1,000 children don’t get past their fifth birthday, one-third of Filipino children are stunted or short for their age, and stunting after age two can be permanent, irreversible and even fatal,” a UNICEF Philippines report revealed.
Even unborn Filipino children are at risk. The first 1,000 days from conception to birth until age two is a period of immense vulnerability when the impact of poor nutrition especially on brain development can be profound, long-lasting, or even irreversible.
Such vulnerability has prompted the creation of the Children’s First One Thousand Days Coalition (CFDC), to help, in tandem with national and local government efforts, our Filipino mothers and babies get nourished and cared for during pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and post-pregnancy stages.
We at CFDC, where I serve as national project chairman, hope that the message of Easter would bring about renewed vigor in caring for our vulnerable brethren. ([email protected])