Of course, it has never been different. The expression of good and evil only changes superficially. Conditions were the same at the Crucifixion. What we always have to remember is that there is no victory of the Alleluia without the Passion and Death of Jesus. The Pascal Mystery connects Good Friday and the glorious Easter morning. Jesus surrendered to the Father’s will. In this submission, Jesus entered into and shared all human suffering and injustice, all hatred and death. When Jesus prayed in the Garden that this cup may pass, the Father’s will was that God would share totally and absolutely in the consequences of evil with all people and for all times. Whether it is a senseless death of a child in a car accident or the slow death of a senior in nursing home, or the madness of the Russian missiles in Ukraine or those dying by a drive by shooting, death is universal. It happens in an incredible variety of ways and degrees of suffering. The Pascal Mystery reveals that Jesus chose to share this evil with all humankind.
When Jesus pitched his tent among us, he entered the presence of darkness, violence, hatred and division and all other utterances of evil leading to death. The moment of the Incarnation led directly to the death on the Cross.
In light of today’s headlines telling us the omnipresent story of evil, the narrative remains the same. Likewise, the pull of despair and hopelessness exposes a tremendous challenge for the human heart.
The Pascal Mystery includes both the sufferings and death of Jesus and God’s response in the resurrection. It is God’s supreme message of love. This divine gift is without conditions or limits. It encloses us in mercy and forgiveness. It tells us a story of the triumph of love. In the Alleluia, a word almost too profound to explain, we have a symbol of the ultimate victory over evil and the triumph of God’s love. In the divine confrontation against the evil in our midst, God has spoken and the word is Alleluia. This last word of God was not division but a call into a loving community. The last word was not violence but a healing peace and a call to celebrate the human potential for good in all situations. God will not let hopelessness and despair prevail, but in the resurrection, God offers the always possible victory in the conflict with human degradation. God has spoken in the Risen Christ and we ask, Death where is your sting? In Christ, we now have the opening to life in its fullness encompassed in love.
Love is the answer because true love is of God. It will set us free in spite of the constant onslaught of evil. God has not abandoned us. That same God of Easter morning is present with us on our Good Fridays when we encounter evil in our daily experience. The Alleluia is ever-present to us in our difficulties.
We need to grasp the utter beauty and richness of the Alleluia. It calls us to hope and love each and every day. We may not be able to solve the horror and senseless brutality taking place in Ukraine. We can, however, bring the love rooted in the Alleluia to that little bit of the world we live in. This love is not just our human effort, but the grace and power of an ever-loving God using our broken and limited human efforts.
Our daily world is where God’s presence is uncovered by our relationships and responsibilities. When we respond in love, we both proclaim and live the victory of the Alleluia. When we live in love, we are truly and concretely an instrument of God’s peace.
The answer to the expression of evil that engulfs our world will never be in despair and hopelessness. It will never be in a withdrawal to a circumscribed world where we try to achieve a a false security in our illusions and fantasies.
The true answer will always be to embrace life in all its limitations and messiness. We need to act where it is possible in our situation. We can work for reconciliation and healing. Maybe we cannot create racial harmony or eliminate poverty and injustice, but we can reconcile with a testy mother-in-law or difficult neighbors. We can serve and celebrate the good in the context of our relationships and responsibilities. We do not need to travel very far to offer a helping hand or to make our neighborhood a safer place. In this way, we break the bonds of feeling helpless. There will constantly be an opening to begin at home and move to beyond to accept God’s call in the gospel to expand our horizons for love and service.
The Alleluia will never ring hollow nor lose its wonder and beauty as long as our heart stays open to the love of God present in the Crucified and Risen Christ and knocking at the door of our heart in the needs of our neighbor.
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