The Easter desire of the director of : let us not dwell on the situations of death that are presented to us; let us also look there for the signs of life that Christ places in history. It is Easter that is translated into the concrete realities of our days. And it is his irreducible hope that we want to tell everyone, every day.
Dear readers and friends of :
You may be surprised to find this image of the body of Jesus taken down from the cross instead of a glorious Christ accompanying our Easter greeting.
It is a choice that stems from a personal experience. I recently had the opportunity to visit the Vatican Museums, where I appreciated the astonishing beauty and the ability to communicate faith with the power of art – just think of the paintings in the Sistine Chapel. And above all, I am always struck by this image of Christ taken down from the cross, by Caravaggio: a scene that could describe with extreme drama the harshness of death. And yet, the artist, precisely in this painting, manages to tell us that death has not won. He does it with signs that could escape the distracted gaze, because the reality of Jesus’ victory must not be imposed on man, but must always leave room for his freedom.
We see the arm of Christ dangling, as if he were dead, but with the veins pulsing with blood, and the hand with the fingers in victory, pointing to the stone of the sepulcher on the edge, which seems to come out of the painting. It is a detail that says: Jesus is alive and shows the cornerstone as the place where he can always be found. Thus, the painter teaches us to look at life, history, the world, without dwelling on the situations of death that we encounter, but always looking for those signs of life that Christ places in history; he tells us that there is always a cornerstone to lean on to start over, there is always the hand of Jesus that tells us where to look to find the way forward. This is Easter translated into the concrete reality of our days.
In recent weeks we have witnessed the sudden closure of several US banks, and increasing tension in the markets, in a short time. The specter of another possible financial and economic crisis is frightening at a time when the war in Ukraine shows no signs of stopping, other forgotten conflicts are wearing down entire peoples and countries, and the recent earthquake in Syria and Turkey has left behind massive damage and deaths. We might be tempted to say that Christ died in vain. However, the signs that Caravaggio immortalized in this work are still valid today, because the life of Jesus, his victory over death, are always available to us. It is up to us to live with an attentive and trained look to recognize the signs of his action and his presence.
In this days, tells many of these stories marked by an irreducible hope that springs from those throbbing veins of Christ. So Happy Easter to you, dear friend, continue to accompany us missionaries in our task of announcing and discovering the signs of the Risen One in the world.
