date: 15.04.2022.
Dear parishioners of the parish of Medjugorje,
dear pilgrims, dear friends all over the world,
I wish to address you a few words on Easter, or rather on the occasion of Passover. This is important to emphasize because Easter is not just the moment of resurrection on Sunday morning but is associated with the death of the Lord - Good Friday, Good Saturday and Easter Sunday morning are one whole - Easter. That is this passing, the passing of Jesus, as the Jewish people passed through the Red Sea and came out of slavery into freedom. It is Jesus' passing through death into life. Of course, it is not only the passing of Jesus, but it should also be our passing, our Passover, our Easter.
We observe nature. We look at how in nature during the winter everything was as dead. There were no traces of life anywhere, and now we are already observing life in nature. Everything was waiting for the rain to fall and then it woke up. The rain fell, after the drought, and we notice everything waking up. In the meadows we see sprouts germinating, the trees sprouting… Flowers are coming, flowers are waking up. The sun is warming, the heat of the sun and all these are the conditions for a new life to emerge. So, it is with us.
Dear friends, there are buds and sprouts in us that existed in those trees during the winter and in the meadows, but which sprouted only when the conditions for that were created. By his resurrection, Christ creates the conditions for these seeds of life, seeds of hope, seeds of faith, seeds of love to grow in us now.
Even when we feel darkness on Good Friday, there are moments of darkness in us, moments of hopelessness, moments of despair, moments of ambiguity, disappointment, when we think there is no way out, no solution, no light, nothing positive … These moments are normal in our lives, and they exist, but Easter and Christ's Passover give us hope. It is the foundation of our faith - that life has the last word, that the Lord has the last word, that we are in His hand, that we are His beloved beings, that He has not forsaken us, that He wants us to live with Him forever…
Easter gives us that hope! Therefore, may these days of Christ's Passover, Christ's Easter, be the days when these seeds of faith, hope and love will come to life in us. From the bottom of my heart, I wish you a happy and blessed Easter.
Fr. Marinko Šakota
