Easter symbolises NEW LIFE.
For Christians, Easter is a time for contemplating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus came into the world as the living manifestation of the God of Love. Love was experienced in all that Jesus did even unto death. He walked and ‘stayed’ with people in their circumstances, spoke and dined with those whom others shunned, healed all with whom he came into contact and forgave even the ‘one’ friend at the table of the Last Supper, who would betray him into the hands of evil. He loved unto Death and forgave those who had treated him with great distain and violence. This, in any language, translates to powerful witness and lived reality of great sacrificial love. For believers, Jesus conquered death through the power of the Holy Spirit, so that all may have eternal life emersed in love.
Hence, the ‘Egg’ containing new life within, has been adopted as the Easter symbol.
You may not be a Christian; you may have a very different life philosophy, but the circle is drawn around you and you are ‘in’. We are the human family, connected to each other through the very nature of who we are as creatures placed together on this planet.
Within our common heritage, let us embrace this Easter time to look at our own lives anew. To reflect on how ‘I’ as an individual, contribute to bring comfort and support to others by my daily sacrifices and death to self. How my choice to forgive rather than to hate and bear grudges brings life to myself and others.
I pray that this time of renewed hope enables us to respond to social injustices, humanitarian crises, abandoned and mistreated young people, those suffering domestic violence, those seeking homes, support and someone to ‘stay’ beside them—someone to clean or repair their room, to serve their food, to wash their clothes, to support them to make a worthwhile life deserved by each human being.
Jesus said ‘I come that you may have life, life in abundance’ to show you what love really is, to lay down your life for another by placing your gifts, talents, forgiveness, compassion and support at the disposal of another.
Let us ensure that Easter is not just about hot cross buns and Easter chocolate eggs but a lived reality in our own lives as we share this special time with our families and all those we support.
Happy Easter everyone.
Shanelle Bennett
Director, Mission Integration
