Let the message of Easter cast light on last year’s tragedy
Remembering Easter Sunday 2019: The blood splattered statue of the Risen Christ at St. Sebastian’s Church Katuwapitiya. Pic by Amila Gamage
‘No one truly dies until they are completely forgotten’
By that measure the innocent victims of the Easter bombings of 2019, will never be forgotten. Their death at the hands of a terrorist organization will be remembered, at the dawning of every Easter Sunday for decades to come. The killers chose the most sacred day in the Christian calendar, to unleash their unspeakable cruelty on innocent worshippers and those who were doubly innocent on account of being children. There were others, who had gathered happily at hotels to enjoy breakfast, an Easter celebration.
A tragedy of such magnitude is unbearable, but when it arises out of human depravity and malevolence, it is gut wrenching and evil. To strike on the holiest of Sundays, with detailed precision and a pre-meditated motive, to kill and maim countless people is criminal intent of the highest degree. What makes it even more heinous, is that many of the victims were at prayer, to celebrate the festival of Easter that claims victory over death.
Truth
The Easter bombing was the antithesis of the peace professed by Christianity. The followers of Christ aspire to live their lives to reflect God’s love and to mirror His kingdom on earth. The act of carnage was contrary to the true nature of Almighty God. At the dawn of creation, God spoke His word and brought forth order and light out of a formless void of darkness and chaos. He made man in his own image and instilled His absolute truth at the centre of His created order. If this was not so the functioning of our natural world and our scientific discoveries will not stand up to empirical testing and the sun would fail to rise and set each day.
When we move away from absolute truth as ordained by God and replace it with falsehoods that masquerade as relative truth, we justify our acts of wickedness, deceit, violence, hatred, prejudice, greed, avarice, jealousy and selfishness using a measure alien to God ordained absolute truth. This leads to atrocities such as the Easter bombing, by men who claim their entrance into paradise, whilst creating hell on earth for their victims.
One year on since the Easter bombings there has been no clearer understanding as to how this atrocity went undetected. As to why the terrorists chose to attack Christians, foreigners and locals at hotels remains unclear. An official inquiry into the events of the Easter bombing so that lessons can be learnt and to provide answers, accept responsibility and seek justice for those who lost lives and continue to suffer injury, appears to raise more questions. Absolute truth was sacrificed together with the victims of the attack.
Triumph
‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ His message was achieved not by the efforts of sinful man but through the sacrificial death of His son Jesus Christ.
On Easter Sunday Jesus Christ, the son of God rose victorious over sin, the devil and death. The message of redemption through the death of Christ has the power to reconcile sinful man to Almighty God. Jesus proclaimed a message of love, peace, redemption and forgiveness which has transformed human hearts down the ages. His followers seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, reciting the prayer that Jesus taught “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven …. Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom…’ The absence of violence by Christians following the attack encouraged by the Catholic, Christian priests and pastors, demonstrates the power of the Christian message to overcome evil with good.
Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Light.” Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who presided over the trial of Jesus asked the question ‘what is truth’ and concluded with the answer ‘eke Homo’ (behold the man). At His crucifixion Jesus prayed for His enemies ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’. He gave hope to the penitent robber who was dying alongside Him saying, ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’. His encouragement to His disciples was - ‘let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God believe also in me.’ He told His followers to pray for their enemies, turn the other cheek and go the extra mile for them. After the resurrection He appeared before His disciples saying ‘My peace I leave with you, my peace I give you’ and ‘Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world’. He then ascended into heaven leaving His disciples to carry His message of love, peace and forgiveness to the ends of the earth.
Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday grants us transformed hearts and minds and the promise of eternal life. Christians the world over can experience God’s forgiveness for genuine contrition, hope in place of despair, love in spite of hatred and an enduring peace that passes all understanding. Easter reminds us that the Living Eternal God of the universe became man to live, die and rise again so that goodness can triumph over evil and eternal life rise victorious over death.
May the souls of all who died last Easter rest in peace and rise in glory.