Fr. Carlo Di Sopra, sx
EASTER SUNDAY
It takes me six hours to reach Yiffin from Makeni. This time is more than enough to observe how a few hours of rain have made the bush, previously blackened by the fire, become green again. The change is a real surprise. From one week to another, the colours are so different on the road! Life is coming back again with strength, with joy, with beauty.
My mind goes back to the image of the grain of wheat that dies in the ground and then sprouts up full of new life and new fruits.
I meet the small, neglected but tenacious community at Yiffin. From one week to another I can see how joy is coming back with songs and renewed commitment. There are only four people baptised at Easter, but the number doesn’t matter: the joy comes from the fact that the community feels alive!
Even the building seems to come alive and to participate in this new life. Mr. Kelleh, in fact, has redecorated, with fresh and lively drawings, all its walls. On the sides the stations of the cross, and behind the altar, Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.
Yes, water again, that water that renews nature renews also our life and enables us to spend ourselves in service to others. I remember again: ‘if you lose your life, you gain it again; if you want it for yourself, you lose it’. ‘As I did, you too do the same...’
It is a real revolution, all the values are upside down. The greatest is the servant! The first the last! It is the RESURRECTION. It is a deep joy in the heart of Christians.
But I look around and I can think: too small, too few... the majority are still striving and fighting to dominate the others and oppress the poor.
I feel consoled by the words of Pope Francis who invites the Church not to rely on statistics and numbers behind which the temptation of power is hidden, rather than the processes of the RESURRECTION.
So I feel fulfilled with my six hours of bad road to go and six to come back from Yiffin every week until EASTER. It is great joy to see this small farm turn green again, renewed by the power of the new life of EASTER.
MAY YOUR EASTER BE REALLY HAPPY TOO!
EASTER SUNDAY
It takes me six hours to reach Yiffin from Makeni. This time is more than enough to observe how a few hours of rain have made the bush, previously blackened by the fire, become green again. The change is a real surprise. From one week to another, the colours are so different on the road! Life is coming back again with strength, with joy, with beauty.
My mind goes back to the image of the grain of wheat that dies in the ground and then sprouts up full of new life and new fruits.
I meet the small, neglected but tenacious community at Yiffin. From one week to another I can see how joy is coming back with songs and renewed commitment. There are only four people baptised at Easter, but the number doesn’t matter: the joy comes from the fact that the community feels alive!
Even the building seems to come alive and to participate in this new life. Mr. Kelleh, in fact, has redecorated, with fresh and lively drawings, all its walls. On the sides the stations of the cross, and behind the altar, Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.
Yes, water again, that water that renews nature renews also our life and enables us to spend ourselves in service to others. I remember again: ‘if you lose your life, you gain it again; if you want it for yourself, you lose it’. ‘As I did, you too do the same...’
It is a real revolution, all the values are upside down. The greatest is the servant! The first the last! It is the RESURRECTION. It is a deep joy in the heart of Christians.
But I look around and I can think: too small, too few... the majority are still striving and fighting to dominate the others and oppress the poor.
I feel consoled by the words of Pope Francis who invites the Church not to rely on statistics and numbers behind which the temptation of power is hidden, rather than the processes of the RESURRECTION.
So I feel fulfilled with my six hours of bad road to go and six to come back from Yiffin every week until EASTER. It is great joy to see this small farm turn green again, renewed by the power of the new life of EASTER.
MAY YOUR EASTER BE REALLY HAPPY TOO!