Easter message of the Provincial of the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina, Fr. Miljenko Šteko

date: 15.04.2022.

Lately, it has become evident how practically powerless we are in this world.  Witnessing many devastating images, we wonder if it is possible that something like this is happening in our world.  Our souls are in constant spasm and fear of questioning what will happen, where is the end of it?

And when we gather a little, it is this experience of powerlessness that helps us realize that we need to rely on His omnipotence.  "Without me you can do nothing," says Jesus (Jn 15:5).  With Him we are omnipotent.  All our strength is in our helplessness, because then we are left with the fact that "I can do all things through him who gives me strength" (Phil 4:13).  By his power we can, at any convenient or inconvenient time, sow the word of God, endure suffering, do the work of preaching the Good News and fulfil our duty to the end (cf. 2 Tim 4: 2,5).

And today's world necessarily needs news of the most important event that heaven has given to mankind: the Son of God was born on this planet two thousand years ago, who lived for men, worked and suffered for men, prayed for men and died and rose again. Whatever the world does, whatever it may be, it cannot quench the hunger for real life, the thirst for true joy, the need for true peace and for life.  And who can give the world more life, more joy and more peace than the one who said for himself "I am life"!?  (Jn 14: 6)

Man will always remain capable of starving for God, because God himself has taken care to plant in the human heart a blissful restlessness, an insatiable longing for the Creator.  Talking to people about ideals is never in vain because the source of ideals is a burning thirst for eternity, a longing for God.  Or, as Friedrich Schlegel once said – the noblest in our nature.  There you have enough space for our activities today!

Yet if life has made us tired, Jesus tells us (Mt 11: 28-30): “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me because I am meek and humble of heart.  That is how you will find peace with your souls.  My yoke is sweet and my burden is light.”  Is there a nicer calling than this?  No vocation in humanity can match this.  The Lord offers us everything, it is ours only to respond and come.  It is especially beneficial when we are pressed by fatigue and stress.  It is a call to you who are bothered by everyday things, to you who may be in the hospital waiting for the news to receive, to you who are struggling every day to guide your child on the right path, to you who are burdened with existential issues, to you who are searching for meaning, who are completely lost and attached to the wrong ideals, to you who fear the daily threats made from small and large screens, to you who walk in difficult days of pain and darkness.  In fact, all of us, without exception, can find ourselves in Jesus' words of fatigue and burden.

Under the rays of the Easter sun, Jesus, together with His own, breaks our burdensome tombstones and introduces us to a new life.  He breaks what is weak and tired in our life, what is stuck in it, what is in it without life and love.  He breaks the tombstones of our loneliness and guilt and introduces us into the breadth of his Easter love.

In the spirit of this and such love of Christ and His immeasurable mercy, I wish all of us a happy and saving Easter!

Fr. Miljenko Šteko