Easter: What’s the Significance?

Every year, thousands of Filipinos whip themselves to a bloody mess in the name of penitence, and this always comes at around this time: Easter! Many others elsewhere go without food and engage in prayer instead, overburdened by their sin. This is a Christian act that is repeated year in, year out, but then the world has not changed; the world has not become better, instead we keep sinking deeper and deeper into the miasma of deceit, corruption and ruthlessness that has now approximated hitherto unprecedented levels. Where is the world headed? I smell doom all around me despite the fact that more than half of the world’s population pretends to be Christian. Children are dying, women are being raped, men are being maimed, the environment is more than all gone, and yet we expect to live on it for longer!

If Jesus died for our sins, why would we be content sinning all the year round, season in, season out only to weep and stage dramas at Easter in the name of penitence? Many of our leaders purport to be Christians, but little do they seem to be doing in improving the world. They would rather create more chaos, more destruction, and more uncertainty for the poor and downtrodden. I was shocked the other day by news that the admirable US president Barrack Obama has decided to increase expenditure on the war in Ira should be doing the opposite, and that the only reason for eliminating nuclear weapons seems to lie in the danger of everyone else having the same technology! What pretence? Nuclear arsenals are dangerous irrespective of who wields them, and in fact, we need not be spending billions of dollars on war machines when people are dying.

However much we whip ourselves, however much we forego food, sex and the best we enjoy in life, the four annual days that mark Ester will make no difference in the world. We need fresh commitment in changing the state of world affairs. Our leaders need to move away from war and create peace instead; they need speak in one voice and say no to environmental destruction, they need to say no to discrimination based on race, gender, tribe or ideology. We need unity more than ever before, and that is where the true sense of Christianity would be found. Suspicions against our Muslim, Buddhist and atheist brothers should stop. I gave up on religion long time ago, and this has been due to its impotence in building a better place, improving the world for the better. Instead, it has been the source of most of the suffering we witness. Its time the church was revolutionized by putting words into action, its time we changed the world and not merely staging theatrics in the name of penitence or whatever we may want to call it. I call for true repentance with a view to not going back to the dark ages, I call for a true change in how we deal with our neighbors, there is need for us to show a little more love. Jesus must be extremely ashamed of our actions if he is currently watching us.

Commemorating Easter is vain without a commitment towards changing the world for the better. Don’t give meat, sex, and alcohol only to drown in them on the Tuesday that follows. Don’t whip yourself to a bloody pulp if you will end up committing the same sins days after, don’t offer yourself up on the cross if the significance of this crucifixion is only skin deep. Lets wake up, lets change the world, lets do something positive everyday, not just this time, not just during Easter. Its possible, it can be done!