CHRIST’S passion, agony and death have always been the defining moments of his earthly life, no doubt made worthy by what he did in serving as His Father’s Son. Throughout all of more than 2,000 years since Bethlehem, into Nazareth, then Jerusalem to meet his Calvary, his has always been a life of mission, made more luminous by its brevity.
Teacher, redeemer, savior — his was a life consecrated to rid the world of man’s sinfulness. By the vile thoughts for others, more so when done in insolent abandon, and with each other in wars waged and adversities inflicted. Life with Jesus, as his apostles attest in the Good Book, revealed a Man inculcating a revolution of the heart, a transformation of the soul, and a recasting of the mind.
It is in his resurrection that Jesus wrought greater impact to Christians all over, from the early years of the emerging Christendom all through the centuries of strife.
It is Death that by His sufferance, we learn of the Life in the hereafter, the Life in everlasting bliss, liberated from man’s scourge — the greed, the avarice, the self-fulness rather than the selflessness. That kingdom shall surely come, as lessons for the worthy, the sinless, the forgiven.
Across time, his teachings resonate in greater clarity and needful relevance. Stripped on the oft-repeated verbiage, these simply convey a singular meaning: Man is inherently good; others make him less so. Man is capable of greatness; those around him make him less so.
Narrated in the context of our own situation, right here and now, we contend with the same storyline of rebirth, resurrection, and redemption. The circumstances of today may be of decidedly lesser imperative — how can Calvary can ever be any notches lower than the cross we carry ourselves?
Concededly, Baguio can never be in equal measure to Jerusalem, despite the afflicting crosses on our back. But the imperatives are in the same mold, the same essence, and the same import.
Rebirth comes from having gone through the pitfalls of devastation, including death itself. Resurrection comes from rising anew on one’s feet and gloriously standing in equal measure, this time surer than ever, bolder than before, determined than the last gasp of breath.
Finally, redemption — the uplifting clarion call to surrendering ourselves for the goodness of man, for the greatness we can measure up to, for a life consecrated for the public good — not just being good, but being right, being just. Less than that is assuredly less of being worthy.
Let’s face it. Baguio’s journey in past decades has been anything but decadent. Governance has been anything but ill-done, mostly about being served, than serving.
It takes admittedly not just a few good men and women to make the city get past the many crosses we bear — a degraded environment, service that takes time to get rooted in, congestion in many places for growth and renewal, and a work force of supposed servants endeavoring for what serves the greatest good for the greater many.
For that many to be worthy of rebirth, resurrection and redemption, it will take the full force of many to be in covenant of governing and governed, for governance to come our way — with passion, zeal, and a single-minded focus that the early Christians of yore had in great measure.
May the shining light of rebirth and redemption finally gets sprayed on our tiny speck in the universe of Christian fervor. Happy Easter everyone!
