The election, the pope’s visit and Easter happened one after the other in quick succession. Was it an unfortunate coincidence? Or is it another example of God writing straight on the crooked lines devised by those who planned the pope’s visit so close to the election, eliminating all possibility of healthy preparation?
On second thoughts, perhaps ironically, the preparation was the electoral campaign with its alienations, fake news, blatant abuse of the power of incumbency, promising everything to everyone, disregard of the common good, the glorification of Mammon, etc. Perhaps the preparation was the migrants’ desperate struggle at sea on the eve of the visit and the hard-hearted reaction of Malta.
God’s writing on crooked lines can be deciphered only if we understand the profound message of the Easter Triduum – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter.
Sadly enough, most people’s appreciation is limited to fasting and abstinence from meat, the Sebgħa Visti, Good Friday processions, il-ġirja tal-Irxoxt and figolli. While for others, the Easter Triduum has been reduced to an occasion for individualist spirituality.
The Easter Triduum is light years distant from this restrictive interpretation which evidences a belief in a disincarnate religion and ignores its profound socio-political dimension.
Maundy Thursday proposes a society where authority and power are a means of altruistic service, not egoistic domination. Good Friday is proof of the evil of the corruption and injustices perpetrated for lust of money.
It illustrates the terrible consequences which befall society when institutions do not function properly, a society which prefers the washing of hands than the taking of stands.
Good Friday is also the candid realisation that evil still surrounds us. Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, the disgustingly unjust distribution of wealth, the exploitation of migrants are just a few examples. The Evil One tries to kill hope by instilling a defeatist attitude, saying that we can do nothing to counter evil.
The realisation of the evil structures that surround us is a realistic starting point. In his song We are Alive, Bruce Springsteen starts with this realisation in the line “there is a cross up yonder, up on Calvary hill”.
In line with Pauline theology, he gives political examples of how we consummate in our bodies the suffering of Christ. But then he affirms the Resurrection as the natural consequence of the struggle for the triumph of truth and justice in society.
“We are alive oh, and our souls will rise to carry the fire and light the spark to fight shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart.”
Good Friday is proof of the evil of the corruption and injustices perpetrated for lust of money- Fr Joe Borg
Another man who lived through and courageously fought against the political injustices of the Passion of the Salvadoran people was Archbishop St Oscar Romero. But Easter gave him the strength to move on, describing it thus:
“Easter is a shout of victory! No one can extinguish that life that Christ resurrected. Not even death and hatred against Him and against His Church will be able to overcome it. He is the victor!”
His Good Friday happened on the altar in March 1980 just before consecration during Mass. Canonised in 2018, he now lives the resurrection.
The pope who canonised him, some say despite opposition, was Pope Francis. He visited us in the heart of Lent. He outlined for us a political programme based on the social doctrine of the Church. Among many other things, he urged us to cultivate legality and transparency, which will enable the eradication of corruption and criminality.
He asked us to keep the environment safe from rapacious greed, from avarice and from construction speculation. He warned of a false prosperity based on profits and exhorted us not to consider migrants as a virus.
He encouraged us to defend life from its beginning to its natural end but also to protect it at every moment from being cast aside and deprived of care and concern.
This Easter should energise us to execute the political programme he outlined.
This will only happen if, after profoundly experiencing the Easter Triduum, we follow up by taking seriously our vocation as Christians as admirably expounded by the French philosopher Jacques Ellul:
“Christians were never meant to be normal. We’ve always been holy troublemakers, we’ve always been creators of uncertainty, agents of dimension that’s incompatible with the status quo; we do not accept the world as it is but we insist on the world becoming the way that God wants it to be. And the Kingdom of God is different from the patterns of this world.”