Justice Kurien Joseph (Rtd)

I have vivid childhood memories of Easter. We started Easter with what we call the Ash Wednesday and everybody knew that we were not going to have non-veg in kitchen. We started be with the countdown to Holy Week. Then there was the big celebration of the Holy Week. On Maundy Thursday there would be adoration during the day and throughout the night. In the early morning of Good Friday there would be Way of the Cross followed by the veneration of the Holy Cross and the Passion Narrative. Then on Holy Saturday there would not any liturgy in the Church. At 3 AM on Sunday the resurrection liturgy starts.

Parents told us Jesus had to undergo great pain and the tribulation of suffering and crucifixion because He loved us. It is here that my parents used to turn towards the cross and tell me, “It is for you that Jesus has died.” His death thus became very personal. We were told to follow Him, venerate Him who was an innocent and just man and we should love Him, respect Him, pray to Him. As I grew up, I knew that the Lenten season was a preparation for Easter and what that preparation was and why we prepared for it. I knew it was a time for preparation, because you are actually commemorating what you call the supreme sacrifice of a person. It was the commemoration of the unique sacrifice of the crucifixion. It was something personal for me to know somebody had laid down His life for me. As my faith grew, Jesus for me became life giver. I had the realization that what we call the mystery of salvation becomes a history of salvation. My history had to be made in His footsteps. In a personal way, I found my history of salvation in His life and death. His way of life had to become my way of life. It was hard and difficult; I had to pay the price of faith – the cost of discipleship. I lived in His story. I connect myself to this history of salvation which unfolds in the mystery of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. My faith based on this history of the salvation ended up in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It did not end up sadly with the crucifixion, because beyond it there was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The whole of my faith is based on the hope that all the sufferings in this world will be crowned by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. St Paul also said, unless Jesus Christ has not risen, your faith could have been futile. My faith depends on what you call the mystery of faith, which is the Christ event. A true follower of Jesus lives in the path of witness to Christ and pays the price of faith. Just as Jesus went through history I too have to go down in history as a witness to the truth, which ultimately becomes victorious. This victory of truth unfolds in the history of Christ, which is the revelation of the mystery of Christ.