Good Friday Wishes

A"64,000 dollar" question haunts many people in the world. And the profound question: Just what is this religion we call Christianity, that has fascinated the world for the past 2,000 years and still battered and bashed today, commands the allegiance of 2/3 of our planet's population.

Mind boggling, hair splitting arguments have been posited in defence of Christianity. Some, over the course of history have argued that it is essentially a vast system of doctrines to be believed without questioning. If you know the dogmas and believe them, you are a Christian. Others have said no, Christianity is a way of life, like a philosophy. It's living a Christian culture. Both these descriptions are incomplete.

The real meaning of Christianity will be known only when one enters into a relationship with a living person. It is a relationship of trust, of faith, forgiveness and love - in all the ways that one person is bound to another.

A child in my school wished me once, saying, "Father, happy Good Friday". I am sure that the child, innocent as she looked, had a silent explanation for the entire drama of the Holy Week leading up to Easter. Holy Week, as we Christians call it (i.e. beginning with the Sunday before Easter and culminating on Easter Sunday) is a joyful, happy time.

Although the entire episode might sound tragic, it has a happy ending. Jesus Christ's passion and suffering does not begin at the end of his life; it grows from the human experience, which he shares with all of us. Jesus' suffering begins with the farewell to Nazareth. He outgrows childhood and becomes increasingly aware of his wider surroundings, of the hardships and sufferings of the people. He sees injustice and cruelty and the helplessness of the poor. Is this the world as God wanted it?

From his deep-rooted spiritual experience, he knows that God wants a different world. He realises that God's love, his forgiveness, his mercy, will overcome the narrowness, the intolerance, and the selfishness which dominates the world. The vision of new humanity, of brotherhood and love, takes shape in him.

He envisions a "new world order'. He renounces any shortcuts to easy and shortlived success. He never flattered people but opens their eyes to a new vision of life and to a new world, where God's love flows through all the channels of human relations in a communion of brotherhood and freedom.

There was this fascinating power in his preaching, when he said the poor will be blessed and the hungry will be fed, and where the simple people who have no power or influence will possess the land (The Sermon on the Mount). There was an inner freedom and strength vibrating in his challenges to those who looked down on others in hypocritical, self-righteousness, against the ruling class of those who hold power and social status.

It is difficult to imagine a happier, richer life, not in the sense in which most people think of happiness - in terms of comfort and social prestige, but of a man who lives his/ her life fully.

In a world of change, there must be gain and loss. And someone should have the courage to take the first step to take the risk. The ego judges gain to be good and loss to be bad, but nature doesn't make such distinctions. The cycle of birth and death becomes a matter of fear and struggle when it becomes personal. After a lifetime of negating and fighting to prevent loss, the ego sees dying as the ultimate defeat. But for the man named Jesus, death was the outcome of selfless, sacrificial, total living.