Easter which celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead marks the event that ushered in a great transformation and change in the life of Jesus of Nazareth himself. He had vanquished the power of sin and its wages which is death and acquired a glory that never fades and a Light that never dims. Easter thus reveals the power and the impact that was hidden in Jesus of Nazareth whom many knew as the carpenter’sson from Galilee. The Light of Easter that shone in the face of the glorious Christ completely dispelled the darkness and despair that overtook his disciples on Good Friday when Pontius Pilate the Roman governor approved his crucifixion.
It was a day that devastated the followers of this teacher who taught with authority, healed the sick, forgave sins and drove out the demons. Once the Risen Lord appeared, all these memories flashed back rekindling courage and faith in the disciples and people who flocked to hear him and be cured of deceases and above all when some dead were raised. They found their lost enthusiasm and bravely went into the crowds to announce that Jesus who was crucified is very much alive and that he is the Messiah, the Deliverer.
The memory of the dramatic events that witnessed Jesus’s silencing of the evil spirits, healing of the lepers by touching them, feeding the crowds, came back to them with even greater compelling force. The Roman centurion who pierced his side while on the cross with the lance, himself, exclaimed that indeed this was no criminal but the Son of God. There were the stunning phenomena of thunder, lightning, darkening of the skies and torrential rain at the death of Jesus never seen before at any other earlier crucifixion. Nature itself rebelled at the heinous injustice meted out to one who came to proclaim the truth, bringing true freedom and liberation.
Paths of transformation
Easter marked the birth of a new world born of the Resurrection, wherein all that led to the rejection, condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus were reversed and overturned ushering in an era devoid of anxiety and fear and registering instead an era of truth, justice, fraternity and peace. With the Risen Lord, empowerment came over the disciples and they boldly went out to proclaim the crucified Jesus of Calvary as the Savior in a world ruled by the Caesars of Rome known for violence, pillage and immorality. They challenged the villages and cities of the mighty empire to begin walking the paths of wholesome morality, give up idolatry, seek peaceful co-existence, break down walls of ethnic and religious tensions and discover unity and reconciliation.
The earliest Christian preachers had to contend with the pagan philosophies of Athens, the might of pagan Rome as well as the racial differences between the Jews and the gentiles. Christianity became a cultural catalyst that defended the human dignity of all including those who were considered slaves. It could gather together both the new converts from Judaism and those who were exposed to Greek influence. Whatever impeded people of different social classes coming together, Christianity rejected such as the rite of circumcision for gentile non-Jewish converts.
All that was expected was keeping away from idolatry and immorality and live according to the new faith in Jesus Christ. Once entering the Christian communities these barriers, racial, religious and cultural, would no more hold water. With the teachings and life story of Jesus Christ reaching Rome, the capital of the Empire and its territories, social thinking and mind-sets, behavior patterns and ethics changed rapidly.
The process was intensified diffusing wider with Emperor Constantine’s conversion in the fourth century AD and with the edict of Milan (313 AD) giving legal status to Christianity. European history saw the first gallant strides towards a new social transformation and revolutionary moral revolution that seeped into the middle-ages and renaissance periods.
With Christian colonial powers gaining ground in the larger world of their colonies, Christianity spread fast across nations, cultures and continents. Notably it was the case in Asia with the Portuguese, in Latin America with Spain and Germany and in Africa with the French. The North American continent had eventually a massive flow of Irish immigrants that brought in the Christian culture.
Today, while across the western world and generally in the northern hemisphere, Christianity is challenging the spirit of secularism that in principle marginalises religion extolling rationalism and scientism, in the third-world countries of the southern hemisphere Christian communities are adopting the local cultures, languages and customs, thus making itself at home among the people in their socio-cultural milieu and gradually shedding any trace of a foreign image.
Challenges of the present
We are well aware that science and technology, mass and social media, information technology and industrial innovations not to mention attempts to enhance nuclear capability and exploration of space and its planets as well as AI have become the frontline interests of the secular world as it tries to create a newer future. Yet there is a poisonous spirit of divisiveness and competitive spirit that alienate nations destroying the urgently needed bridges of understanding and cooperation. Today we stand almost on the edge of a possible nuclear war which if triggered, would simply mean a near cataclysmic annihilation of the planet of the humans! Christianity has had a very salutary and positive impact in the western world as seen in the buildings, architecture, the paintings, the sculpture and the music that we find which express so well its soul.
One can think also of the Byzantine traditions, music of Beethoven and Bach, the sculpture of Michelangelo, Bernini, paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and the literary geniuses of Shakespeare and Wordsworth. There were the pioneer scientists of yore who were strong religious believers such as Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei, Blaise Pascal, Gregor Mendel, Louis Pasteur, Robert Boyle and Teilhard de Chardin. Their main objective was to explain the universe in religious terms including the evolution of life and the material world whilst letting music orchestrate and resonate with the rhythm and beauty of creation. How can we forget great novelists such as G.K. Chestertonand Charles Dickens as well as poets Dante Alighieri, Eliot and Robert Frost.
Easter hails the social revolution ushered by the One who conquered death by his glorious Risen life. This is the ultimate victory that humanity can hope for. It teaches us that earthly sojourn is a temporary phase of the mystery of life and though impermanent it does form an important stage in the pilgrimage life: one marked with an eternal destiny. Christianity is well at home with all religious beliefs and teachings that insist on a life needing to be led in accordance with truth, love and beauty.
Temporary values have a worth only in the light of the eternal and abiding truths that rule life. Though Christianity in its historical forms in terms of its institutions and forms of leadership may have faltered many a time as for example their negative impact on the indigenous peoples and lack of respect for peoples’ traditional religious beliefs and cultures, taken in its global perspective however, exhibits an immense quantum of good and service offered to human civilization.
Today, Christian values are proving to be powerful catalysts of transformation and change. Christian identification with the struggles of the poor, the oppressed and the marginalised, the involvement in the work for social justice, peace-making, human rights, the dignity of labor and decent working conditions etc. prove that Christianity has become the salt and leaven at the heart of society capable of accompanying change and renewal.
In addition to emphatically focusing the world’s attention on the ongoing serious global crisis of climate change and on the crucial need to preserve the environment, Christian churches also are equally sensitive and aware of having to contend with a “cultural climate change” crisis which is precipitating a catastrophic loss of values.
Even as Christianity brought social transformation and greater humanising of civilisation in the earliest times, it continues impacting the highly secular civilisation of today characterized by scientific discoveries and technological developments. It speaks about harmonising capital and labor in the field of economics and production, championing the dignity of work, fair wage, sharing of profits and decent working conditions in the labor market and right to trade unionism.
Vision and commitments
In matters of social justice Christianity refutes all forms of oppression that marginalise people and open the door to exploitation of the most vulnerable and marginalised sectors in society as well as trends that threaten to curtail basic democratic freedoms. With the emergence of the dignity of women and safeguarding of the environment becoming matters of serious contemporary concern, Christianity and Christian communities with their churches have come in defense and promotion of these modern issues that affect humanity globally.
The demand for human rights and global disarmament crucial for peace is being echoed. Christianity considers creation as mankind’s responsibility putting science and technology under pressure to deal with environmental issues for preserving its integrity and avoid pillaging the natural resources so essential for human survival.
In its vision and commitments, Christianity therefore is a religion down to earth considering even our common home as an abode needing to be salutary in the pilgrim journey of civilisation through its history. With Easter dawns the springtime of a culture of life and a civilisation of love that can transform humanity and its world.
