"That's right. The Lord is risen. He appeared to Simon" Lk24, 34.
Dear Brothers and Friends!
I am writing these few lines to you as a brother to share with you some convictions and to encourage you to stand firm in the midst of this confinement.
Resurrection: It is not an object of study, it is not a magical fact, it is not something past. It is an experience of encounter. It is to this encounter that the Gospels of the Resurrection refer us: With Mary Magdalene, the disciples of Emmaus, the Eleven, Thomas, Peter and his companions, etc., the Gospels of the Resurrection refer us. In faith, they recognize him and live his presence in a new way. To celebrate the resurrection is to live a personal encounter with Christ in faith. How does this encounter take place? It takes place only in a total openness to the Spirit. It is the Spirit who makes us recognize that this Jesus who was crucified, God made him Lord and Saviour. He is indeed the Risen One. It is therefore the Spirit who opens the eyes of those who encounter the Risen One. It is the Spirit who gives strength and missionary courage to the Apostles to go out into the world to proclaim this Good News. Faced with the resurrection, some "refused to believe", some "returned to proclaim it to others, who did not believe them either". Jesus rebuked them for their unbelief and hardening because they had not believed those who had seen him resurrected. The meeting does not come about through reasoning or doubts, or proofs or pious intentions. It is impalpable. This kind of encounter is truer and deeper. It is an encounter whose absence refers to a real, sacramental and living presence, capable of changing an entire life and making it a mission ad gentes and ad vitam: "They set out to proclaim that Christ is risen. We have seen him". This is how the encounter with the Risen One goes. It takes place when the eyes of faith are opened to a different, more transforming and more resplendent presence. Easter 2020 against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic: Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, this year many will not be able to gather to celebrate Holy Week and the feast of Easter. Some find it difficult to accept this decision of the church. But this decision is pastoral and not doctrinal. Indeed, in the face of a situation of objective risks, concrete measures must be taken to protect the lives of the faithful and the people. Everyone is susceptible to contracting this highly contagious disease in a thousand ways. That is why I beg you to spare no effort in taking preventive measures to protect yourselves from this pandemic, beginning with simple gestures: hand washing, barrier gestures, distancing, reducing interaction with the outside world, and full confinement. Let each community persevere in strict adherence to these measures to protect themselves and others.
Community Life in Times of Confinement: Confinement, whether imposed or voluntary, forces us to reorganize our life within our communities. Let us ensure that these times are not times filled with emptiness, boredom or isolation, depression or idleness, unlimited sleepiness or virtual escapes without criteria. On the contrary, let us take the opportunity to deepen:
- Our intimacy with God by giving time to prayer, both personal and communal.
- Our relationship with the confreres by giving time to the sharing of life not only on the chronicles of painful events but also on what we perceive to be good, true and good that can help us to grasp the signs of God's presence and action in the world, and this through people who give themselves to saving human lives and recreating solidarity.
- Our relationship with ourselves. We are sent back to ourselves through confinement, sent back to the awareness that we are fundamentally mortal. This time should help us to reflect on how to remove from our lives all that is superficial, superfluous, derisory, all that is not compatible with our fundamental choice, in order to return to the essential and to find our true priorities, those for which we are Comboni missionaries. Hence the question: how can I furnish my life with that which gives it meaning, healthy joy and true happiness?
- Our relationship with the mission by reflecting on the quality of our missionary presence and service: In what way is my missionary presence a gift of God for my parish, my community, the people I meet, my family and friends?
At this time, let us avoid panic: The alarming news in the media can create, if not filtered, great fear and anguish of death, which can trigger new reactions and attitudes to the point of seeing death everywhere. Thus, a small malaise, a normal cough, typhoid fever or a bout of malaria that lies dormant in us is quickly interpreted, often without the doctor's advice, as a Covid-19 contagion. The current epidemic does not suppress other diseases but meets and dialogues with them. Fear could have a stronger impact than the virus itself. It can create very real symptoms such as insomnia, depression, health insecurity in oneself and in others, flight into social networks as compensation for a void, isolation, aggressiveness, anxiety, dissatisfaction, difficulty in bearing an almost total collapse of normal life, difficulty in being in contact with oneself and in facing one's inner demons. This situation of panic is aggravated by the ill-founded opinions expressed by incompetent experts, reproduced by social media. So, I invite you to discern all information before swallowing or sharing it: "Examine all things and hold on to what is good" ITh5, 21. Please, let us avoid panic because it leads to self-destruction and consequently to psychosis in the community. Let us be vigilant in the face of the disease but also avoid panic. Fear will not solve anything. On the contrary, it can generate other reactions that take away our inner peace.
Happy Holy Week: Basically, confinement refers us to what we're going to experience this holy week where fear, death and joy and life will be intimately linked. Fear of Jesus in the face of the death that awaits him, fear of the disciples in the face of hatred and violence, infamous death and glorious resurrection. Death and life go hand in hand. But in Jesus, life will triumph over death. This confinement is therefore a means of rediscovering the deep meaning of our life, of reconsidering our true priorities in life. I urge you not to despair of the situation, but to enter Holy Week by meditating on God's silence. We can imitate it by contemplating Christ who kept silent in the face of betrayal and denial, in the face of unjust condemnation and mockery, in the face of assault and battery, and finally in the face of the supreme humiliation of death. It was from this ultimate silence, in the face of the whys and wherefores of his disciples, that the voice of the Angel was heard: "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He has risen from the dead". The gift of Easter is the Spirit of love, the Spirit of life, the Spirit that the post-confinement society will need to recreate a new world: more just, more humane because it respects man, more ecological because it respects the planet, our common home, and more respectful of God. Happy Holy Week and Happy Easter to each one of you!
Fr. Leonard NDJADI NDJATE
Your Brother
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