At wake of the Holy Week, we have so much about service and humility, the way of our master, Jesus Christ. Today, as we celebrate Easter, we meditate on what happened to Jesus our Master this past week. It is good that we all partook of the Holy Week as it was a necessary journey towards Easter, marking the history of our salvation.

Holy week started on the day we processed on the streets with our palms, also known as Passion Sunday., signalling a double faced reaction, hosanna today, crucify Him tomorrow. The good we celebrate today as Easter Sunday, started on Palm Sunday and through the week, we witnessed series of activities which led us to the celebration of today. It is difficult to understand without faith because it does not appeal to reason that an innocent man was killed for the sins of others.

Jesus Christ came for this purpose, to suffer, to die and to rise again. When we look at the events of the past week, on Sunday, we had the palm Sunday celebration, on Thursday in the morning, we had the mass of Holy Chrism where the oils were blessed and consecrated and in the evening, the mass of the Lord’s supper, commemorating the institution of the Eucharist. On Friday, the celebration was so solemn as we commemorated the stations of the cross; how Jesus walked up to Golgotha where He was killed. It is a good memory for us because we need to know what happened before we can understand and to appreciate what Christ did for us.

This also deepens our faith and makes us believe that He is really alive today. It is a prove that He actually suffered and died and rose again.

Jesus Christ, on his own part knew what was going to happen, yet, so many still do not believe or know despite the reading of the bible. We tell stories sometimes without believing in it. What we do today, celebrating the risen Christ has been foretold long ago but not many actually knew the beginning of it.

Unfortunately, people celebrate what they do not know. We celebrate today, mass of the Holy Eucharist which we celebrate everyday but today is special as we celebrate Him, risen body and soul. Another unusual thing is that we celebrate his risen body and soul after celebrating his death and resurrection, today we unite everything as we celebrate His victory over sin and death.

Jesus is an example for us to know, to follow and to imitate. Imitation of Christ is our true way of life. We know we cannot die on the cross but we must remember the last things He did, he left for us so many good things; how to love, bear sufferings, how to drop hate, love those who hate us and how to pray for those who are killing us. Jesus left all these for us to imitate. Approaching the crucifix which we venerated on Good Friday, we feel how he died. We moved beyond this as we celebrate today His resurrection which is the true things that happened. He was condemned by those who crucified Him but His resurrection has changed the meaning of the cross to a sign of blessing.

The cross used to be a mode of killing criminals but Jesus has changed it to a sign of blessing which is why anytime we make the sign of the cross, we are blessing ourselves. Those who fail to make the sign of the cross deny themselves of personal blessings.

Easter is a thing of joy to every one of us. God gave us Christ that we may imitate Him and the climax of His actions was the resurrection. If Christ had not risen, what would have been the fate of you and I? What shall we celebrate? Who shall we imitate? What way shall we follow? What history shall we tell? But then, He gave us all of these openly that we may remember and teach it to others and we have to do this in perpetuity, to the end of life. In all of these, we must preserve when it is difficult and when it is nice, let us glorify God.

The bottom line of this is that we must learn to forgive one another and unless there is perseverance and forgiveness, what we are celebrating is meaningless. Let us keep this act alive, His resurrection by doing exactly what He did, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”.

It is important to know that we cannot escape hatred and all animosity around us. It is part of human life but as followers of Christ, we must awaken the spirit of Christ in us from time to time to forgive, to persevere when it is difficult and when it is tough, to call on him; He can still help us to carry our crosses. He still helps us to carry our crosses, in fact.

Today, let us be kind to one another even though there are problems of all kinds in the world already. Problems such as hunger, diseases, joblessness, killings, kidnapping, banditry and so on and so forth. We may ask that if any of those involved in these are caught, can we still forgive them? Of course, Yes.

Yet, we must give them a kind of treatment that will make them stop what they are doing., to treat them in such a way that they will not go back to it again. In any case, our case is different in Nigeria and may be in Burkina Faso and so other parts of Africa and the world and this makes the practice of Christianity very difficult, how to forgive those who are kidnapping, killing, snatching our bags, stealing our money and shooting us to take our money. How do we forgive them? We need to put on the jacket of forgiveness and beckon on Christ to be with us and abide with us, encourage and fortify us, that we may act like himself, in imitation of Christ.

Let us not forget today, that when we adore Christ, we are saying that we are imitating Him. Remember that when we go through the stations of the cross, we say that “we adore you O Christ and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.” Indeed, Christ redeemed the world through His holy cross. Are we going to imitate him in this way? Of course, Yes, because to make our belief truthful and our activities real, we must imitate Him. There is an old book by Thomas A’kempis titled “Imitation of Christ”. It contains a lot of truths and guidance. And of course, when we read the bible, let us not read the portions that say, kill him, maimed him, destroy him in the old Testament, let us read the Acts of Apostles, the New Testament where we see forgiveness, unity, togetherness. Let us eat together and pray together. Let us be brothers and sisters again and again. And as we celebrate Easter today, may the name of the Lord be blessed both now and forever. 

I urge all Nigerians to preserve in this difficult times, forgive one another and of course, be charitable. This is important because it is not easy to say I forgive you and I can’t give you the basics of life, that’s not forgiveness. Let us be generous with what we have and come together as brothers and sisters and try to drive away the devil himself. He will have no chance in our lives when we are united, forgiving and generous. May the Lord be kind to us, forgive us our sins, strengthen us to do good, follow Christ’s steps in perseverance and forgiveness so that we may rise with Him on the last day, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Happy Easter to you all!!! May the Almighty God bless you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen