Whether we admit it or not, we often tell ourselves “I can never change,” or “That will never happen.”We presume too much and believe too little.
In Jesus Christ, God renders all of our final conclusions premature and all of our talk of determinism as simply bad faith.
Through the Risen Jesus, God opens closed doors, brings about Resurrection, reveals possibilities, reclaims the lost, liberates the cursed and the possessed and changes the unchangeable.
Can you remember all the way back to Easter Week of 2020? None of us celebrated Easter in a church in 2020. On March 13, 2020 the President declared a national emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic. All churches were closed and all gatherings were limited to a few people.
But on Good Friday, 2020 Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, preached a sermon to Pope Francis and to the rest of the world:
“The pandemic of the Coronavirus has abruptly roused us from the greatest danger individuals and humanity have always been susceptible to: the delusion of omnipotence.
“It took merely the smallest and most formless element of nature, a virus, to remind us that we are mortal, that military power and technology are not sufficient to save us.
“God at times disrupts our projects and our calm to save us from the abyss we don’t see.
“The virus knows no borders. In an instant it has broken down all the barriers and distinctions of race, nation, religion, wealth, and power. We should not revert to that prior time when this moment has passed.
“As Pope Francis has exhorted us, we should not waste this opportunity. Let us not allow so much pain, so many deaths, and so much heroic engagement on the part of health workers to have been in vain. Returning to the way things were is the ‘recession’ of which we should have the most fear.
“Let us leave to the next generation a world poorer in goods and money, if need be, but richer in its humanity.”
Since he spoke these words in April, 2020, Father Cantalamessa was made a Cardinal in November, 2020 at the age of 85. Since April, 2020 we now have two major wars in Ukraine and Gaza going on and immigration issues worldwide. Over 64 countries are having major elections this year. Let us not forget “the delusion of omnipotence” Cantalamessa warned us about. Let us heed the words of Pope Francis that ”returning to the way things were is a ‘recession’ of which we should have the most fear.”
Because of Easter, you and I and the world – have a Risen Jesus and a God who opens closed doors, brings about Resurrection, reveals possibilities, reclaims the lost, liberates the cursed and changes the unchangeable.
Thanks to Motoki Tonn for the photo.
How have YOU in your daily life been opening closed doors, revealing possibilities and changing what seemed unchangeable up until now?
LOOKING UP TO JESUS PREVENTS US FROM LOOKING DOWN ON OTHERS!
Don’t let others forget the lessons of the pandemic: www.TreatsfortheSoul.org. Enjoy my Podcast as well.
