Power to heal and renew

Apr 24, 2010, 12.00am IST

CHRISTOPHER MENDONCA.


The Sacred Tridium of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter has its roots in the celebration of the Passover by the Israelites 12 centuries before Christ.

Memorial for the Hebrew means making present in the “now” the event that took place years ago, not merely in the sense of remembering it, but believing that what happened then happens even now, in our very midst with the same intensity with which it first occurred. The ‘symbols’ of yesteryear become the ‘reality’ of today, albeit in a different setting.

Deliverance from slavery, passing over from one form of existence to another, crossing over and making it to the other side against all odds, are all a reminder of the presence of the same power that allows the event to be repeated. For Christians, these days are a celebration of deliverance from enslavement to the ego, passing over from the ‘death of the self’ to the new life of the true Self. The journey to the Promised Land that took 40 years is a symbol of the lifelong resistance we face as we make the journey in our own lives. But Easter is the assurance that we will make it to the other side.

In Hebrew thought and culture the individual and nature are meant to be in harmony in the Original Plan of God. Easter comes to us as God’s gift in the person of Jesus who exercises the fullness of Divine Power by healing at all levels – cosmic, physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. Christians believe that Resurrection of Jesus makes us partakers of that very power. We are called to share this gift with each other to participate actively in this process of renewal and re-creation, first of all by healing ourselves and then making this the starting point of healing all around us.

We do not ourselves heal others. Rather we allow ourselves to become channels of the healing power of God with us and in us, enabling it to be effective at all levels. But it is given to us in freedom. The power of the Risen Lord, real as it is, does not take away our freedom to reject it.

Why are we so often unable to heal our sicknesses? Why is it that new form of diseases surface and hold to ransom large sections of the population even as we have made staggering advances in the field of medical science? Why are we so often incapable of healing broken relationships? Why does peace so often elude us? All our efforts at building a better world, of establishing a society free of violence and war, of living together in peace and justice and love will come to naught if they are not at the same time linked to our own progressive “Passing Over” from the Ego to the True Self.

The celebration of Easter is more than a Christian Festival; the Passover goes beyond the boundaries of Judaism. It is an invitation to every individual to delve deep into his own contemplative tradition and encounter there the power that raised Jesus from the dead, the power within us that is the source of healing and renewal. Precisely because of Easter, together with us ‘the whole of creation still retains the hope of being freed like us from its slavery to decadence, to enjoy the same freedom and glory as the children of God’.