Happy Easter! Now Christ has risen, alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise the Lord!
Actually, Easter cannot be understood and appreciated
without reflecting back Paschal Triduum.
Paschal Triduum is the concluding part of Lenten journey. It means that Lent is a necessary condition
to appreciate what Easter is about. Therefore, it
is important to view Eastertide on the same one continuum with Lent, as a
journey of our faith development.
Of course, what guides us on this critical journey of growth
in faith is the Holy Spirit, which guides us (John 16: 13), shepherding us as
Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10:14), as David sung in Psalm 23:1, about
1,000 years before the time of Jesus.
As we move from on this journey on the Lent-Eastertide
continuum from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost, we first cleanse ourselves,
especially our heart, as symbolized by Jesus’ action of washing his disciple’s
feet during the Last Supper (John 13:1-15). Then, we
witness the Lord’s Passion (suffering) and death on the Cross during the
Paschal Triduum, to realize a consequence of our sins, in light of the prophecy
in Isaiah 52 – 53. In this, Jesus is symbolized as the rejected cornerstone but
not simply so as he was made into the cornerstone (Psalm 118:22; Matthew 21:42;
Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7) of the Kingdom of God, through the Resurrection. The context of Matthew 21 also illustrates how
our sins disfigured the world that God had given us before, through Jesus’
parable of the vineyard, as Jesus clearly juxtaposes himself, as the rejected
stone, to the vineyard in this parable, also in light of the Song of Vineyard
in Isaiah 5:1-7.
The vineyard parable of Jesus (Matthew 21:33-46) and the
Song of Vineyard (Isaiah 5:1-7) remind us of very grave consequences of our
unrepentant sins. Vineyard is a metaphor
of the world that God provides for us. We are entrusted to take a good care of
it with our stewardship. We are to put our best efforts in the vineyard that
God provides for us to produce good fruit and wine. Alas, we have let our
narcissistic ego dictate our behaviors in the vineyard and hijacked the world.
Perhaps, this is a result of misunderstanding what God said in Genesis 1:28-30,
because of our narcissistic ego and greed.
Our unrepentant sins have turned this world into a place of
abomination to God. The filth of our sins corrupted the vineyard. When Jesus came to Jerusalem to spend the
very last week of his life, corresponding to the Holy Week, the Temple of
Jerusalem was morally corrupted. So, he had to cleansed it (Matthew
21:12-17//Mark11:15-18//Luke 19:45-47) and dropped a verbal bomb against the
religious leaders, who corrupted the Temple, citing Psalm 8:2 in Matthew 21:16,
to remind them that God will avenge for their sinful act as children and
infants, whom they did not care, will be appointed to silence them. These strong prophetic words of Jesus against
the religious leaders, who corrupted the Temple, as the vineyard of God was
corrupted by our unrepentant sins, are also echoed in another strong words of
Jesus, “Destroy this temple, and I will
raise it again in three days”(John 2:19).
In regard to the corrupted Temple to be destroyed in order
to be raised anew in three days in John 2:18, Jesus was referring it to his
death and resurrection. Through this, Jesus prophesized to the religious
leaders, who were to exercise leadership in good stewardship of God’s Temple
but corrupted as the tenant vineyard workers corrupted the vineyard of God, the
Temple they corrupted will be taken away, just as the corrupted vineyard is so,
so that God can give new one to those who are faithful to Him.
In response to this verbal bomb, leaded with Jesus’
prophetic words, against them, the corrupt and narcissistic religious leaders
of the time were raged against Jesus and became determined to kill him. This is reflected on the Monday of the Holy
Week.
Now, note that Jesus cited Psalm 118:22-23, saying to the
religious leaders, “ Have you never read
in the Scriptures:’ The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you
that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who
will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces,
but he on whom it falls will be crushed”(Matthew 21:42-44).
Those leaders, though entrusted by God for their stewardship
leadership, refuse to repent and change their heart, are the builders who
rejected the stone (Psalm 118:22; Matthew 21:42). They are like the wicked
tenant vineyard workers Matthew 21:33-41. They also correspond to the subjects
of God’s judgement (Isaiah 5:4-7) in the Song of Vineyard. They are the ones who falls on the stone that
they rejected and will be crushed as the stone falls on in Matthew 21:44. Thus,
Isaiah 5:4-7 and Matthew 21:43-44 carry essentially the same prophetic message,
referring to those who refuse to repent and convert their heart to God,
symbolized with the builders who rejected the stone – who turned the vineyard a
place of abomination – who corrupted the Temple.
These are the projection of our stubborn sinfulness – our
persistent clinging to sins, reflections of our narcissistic ego. In John 2:19, this sinfulness of ours is
projected into the body of Jesus that is to be killed, symbolized with the
Temple to be destroyed. In other words, the corrupted vineyard, which is
subject to displacement in Isaiah 5:1-7 and Matthew 21:33-46, itself is
juxtaposed to the Temple to be displaced – the body of Jesus to be killed.
Furthermore, this is also projected further into the rejected stone in Psalm
118:22 and Matthew 21:42.
Jesus has made it clear in Matthew 21:42-44 that those who
refuse to repent and turn to God will be subject to the Judgement (Revelation
20:11-15), while those who follow Christ and convert their heart to God through
Christ will be shepherded into the Kingdom of God, which is eschatologically
envisioned in Revelation 21-22, as God raises the rejected stone, which is
crucified and killed Jesus, to be made the cornerstone of the Kingdom. And, this is an important message from Easter
Sunday. That is why we joyfully sing, “This
is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it!”(Psalm 118:24) for
our Responsorial Psalm at Easter Sunday Mass.
Easter Sunday is the joyful day when the Lord has made the
rejected stone into the cornerstone of the Kingdom of God! Though this joyful
day of the Resurrection seems like a day of culmination on our faith journey
from Ash Wednesday of penance, it is not an end of the journey. It is not the
purpose of our faith journey, either, although Easter characterizes our
hope-generating faith. Easter is a point of powerful affirmation of all we have
prepared for during Lent to further inspire us to grow strong in faith. For
this reason, starting Easter Sunday, on the same continuum of Lenten journey,
we find ourselves in the unfolding impacts of Easter leap of faith during
Eastertide and beyond.
During Eastertide, the 50 days of celebratory time of the
Lord’s Resurrection, we deepen our understanding of Jesus’ teaching, while our
faith continues to grow in our purified heart. This is to prepare ourselves for
Pentecost, receiving the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8), to become
charismatized. This is to make our faith firm, reflecting the Sacrament of
Confirmation. But, for this, we need to increase hindsight as to what Jesus has
meant by all his teaching. That is why
the Eastertide Sunday Masses have the First Readings from the Acts of the
Apostles to see the effects of Easter and Pentecost, while the Gospel Readings
to reflect back how the disciples came to terms with the Resurrection and the
teaching of Jesus. This pattern in the
Liturgy of the Word during Eastertide Sundays reflects the way we spend
Eastertide is, characterized by these words of Søren Kierkegaard,
“life can only be understood backward;
but it must be lived forwards”.
While First Readings from Acts of the Apostles inspires us to continue
on going forward with increasing faith, the Gospel Readings helps us cultivate
deeper insights on the teaching of Jesus.
Feeling not really ready to embark on Eastertide journey,
because something in you is holding back to Lent? Still afraid of not having pure heart? No
worry! Because Eastertide is also when we are reminded of the Divine Mercy, as
the Sunday after the Easter Sunday is the Dine Mercy Sunday. All we have to do to deal with this kind of
uneasy feeling is to trust the merit of the Divine Mercy, with our desire to
attain clean heart and to increase our faith, saying, “Jesus, I trust in you! Jesus, I trust in you! , Jesus, I trust in you!’This
is like Japanese Shin Buddhists say, “Namuamidabutsu,
Namuamidabutsh, Namuamidabutsu” , meaning, “Amitabha Buddha, I trust in you
and put everything to your care and mercy”.
With our Buddhist’s like humility – like Buddhists’ “Namuamidabutsu” chanting, we cry, “Jesus, I trust in you! Jesus, I trust in
you! , Jesus, I trust in you!”, and submit our total self to the care of
his Divine Mercy to attain the merit of Eastertide.
Pope Francis writes:
Maybe someone among us here is thinking, My sin is so great, I am as far from God as
the younger son in the parable; my unbelief is like that of Thomas. I don’t
have the courage to go back, to believe that God can welcome me and that he is
waiting for me, of all people. But God is indeed waiting for you; he asks
of you only the courage to go to him. How many times in my pastoral ministry
have I heart it said, “Father, I have many sins”? And I have always pleaded,
“Don’t be afraid, go to him, he is waiting for you, he will take care of
everything”. We have many offers from the world around us; but let us take up
God’s offer instead: his is a caress of love. For God, we are not numbers, we
are important; indeed we are the most important thing to him. Even if we are
sinners, we are what is closest to his heart.
Eastertide is also a time for those who are still in a
Lenten mode or those who not yet even come to Ash Wednesday to take courage to
go to God to be embraced by His Divine Mercy.
The wound that Jesus has from his Crucifixion is a powerful
reminder that his death and resurrection are to shower all of us with the
Divine Mercy.
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