Easter: spring of life

by Mario Carrera

There is a verse from the book of Sirach that often comes back to my ears because it shows me a fixed point to refer to in my mission: "I will remember the works of the Lord and I will describe what I have seen". On the occasion of Easter, a memory imprinted in my soul resurfaces and which supports the journey of my faith. Inside the tomb of Jerusalem my eyes imprinted an extraordinary attitude of faith. I must start by saying that among the great gifts that God has granted me there is a series of experiences that have made me discover the "holy land" like a bible written with light on that blessed land.

It was February. A frosty morning. The noisy streets of Jerusalem were still immersed in the darkness of the night. The Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher had opened a few minutes ago. Dead silence reigned. I entered the Holy Sepulcher and prayed. I was just kneeling in front of that cold stone, a centuries-old witness to the warm power of the Spirit that gave life back to Jesus, when an old woman dressed in black arrived; she knelt next to me. At that moment I seemed to see the prophetess Anna again, that elderly woman who had recognized Jesus at the presentation in the temple. Having finished his silent prayer, with the tips of the three fingers of his right hand he touched the stone and brought his fingers to his eyes, as if to store the splendor of light of the risen Christ. That gesture resonated within me like a bolt of lightning: I understood that my life had to be read in the light of the Resurrection, because in the explosion of Jesus' new life, God had completed creation. God's actions, which began on the first day of creation with light, ended on Easter day with the definitive passage onto the panorama of new heavens and lands where man's last enemy, death, died definitively. In the Apostolic Exhortation «Evangelii Gaudium» Pope Francis writes: «His resurrection is not something of the past; it contains a life force that has penetrated the world. Where it seems that everything is dead, the shoots of resurrection appear again on every side. It is a force without equal." We cannot deny that the weeds of evil spread, generating injustice, malice, indifference and rivalry. Sometimes we are tempted by doubt, softly and tremblingly we say: "Everything in this life seems to cry out to an absent God." However, we with the germ of resurrection in our souls continue to be the perennial spring of human history. We were born to experience immortality. Baptism regenerated us to communicate immortality and perennial resurrection. We are on a journey in a simple, minute, homely, personal, daily story to bring on our journey - which in any case will pass through the narrow passages of death - the fullness of the resurrection in creation. More than the effort to bring the death of Jesus, which matured in a suffering for love, the soul full of light brings the resurrection. The «Via crucis» ends on Calvary, the «Via lucis» starts from the empty tomb. Faith is an act of trust towards Jesus, the Son of God, who loves us despite our coldness and "is capable of intervening mysteriously - Pope Francis writes -, does not abandon us, draws good from evil with his power and with his infinite creativity." John Paul II said: «Do not be afraid» and Pope Francis urges us to trust, because Jesus is the victorious one, «he is the good seed that grows among the weeds and can always surprise us in a pleasant way... Let us not remain on the sidelines of this path of living hope!