Easter - An Appointment with God
Reverend Luiz Fernando Pereira Garupe
EMAÚS MCC
São Paulo, BRASIL
translated from the Portuguese by Geraldine Wright
"See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land." (Song 2:12)
Passover is the festival of Spring, nature finds itself in the height of blooming and budding. And every year, when Spring arrives in the Northern Hemisphere, Christians and Jews celebrate the festival of Easter/Passover. Both of the celebrations coincide in the liberating appreciation of the fact which they commemorate and in their contemporary validity.
The Christian Easter is, moreover, tied in its origins to the Jewish Passover. In the atmosphere of Passover the saving events which constitute our Easter took place: the death and resurrection of Jesus, his transition (Passover) from the human existence to the Eternal. Even better, Easter arises from the actual Jewish Passover because the referenced events had their origins with the celebration of this festival by Jesus and his followers, or in its context.
There is an interesting and important aspect of the celebration of the Seder by Christians: the possibility of drawing near, through it, to Jews and of feeling ourselves their brothers and sisters through the words, rites, and gestures lived and felt by Jesus, the Jew. Or perhaps it's better to say that the one to whom we truly draw near by means of this celebration, in which He is present (Matt. 18:20), is Jesus Himself.
The MCC in Brazil celebrates the Seder of Passover in the coming days, or on Good Friday, like it was celebrated at the beginning of our era and like Jesus Himself celebrated it. The experience of some years confirms that this celebration makes us feel closer to Jesus, in repeating, as much as is possible, His gestures and His words of that night, as they were repeated by the communities of Christians, and afterward were remembered in the Gospels. At the same time, the Seder prepares the inner environment for the ceremonies which compose our celebration of the Pascal mystery.
The comprehension of the Great Easter will make us live, in another way, the Easter of every Sunday, whose significance and ultimate motive we have begun to understand.
Jews and Christians, in remembering together the past fact which is part of the respective traditions: the liberation of Israel from the slavery of Egypt through the mighty hand of the Eternal, our God, we make this liberation our own. And, at the same time, we express that it is an urgent task to achieve true freedom for every man and every woman, along the only roads through which this freedom is reached. In other words, following the route and the course that the Eternal shows us.Christians, for their part, understand the reinterpretation made by Jesus of this historical/liturgical act and the human/cosmic dimensions which He bestows on it. Passover/Easter is not just the physical liberation of a people suffering from slavery in a foreign land, but the liberation from other slaveries more profound which affect men and women in every age: homophobia, sexism, racism, xenophobia. Consequently, it is also the liberation and enlightenment of the entire creation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through Passover/Easter, Jews and Christians see themselves committed to a common task and in a common strength. For both, Passover/Easter is the festival of freedom.
But Jews as well as Christians know, through a long history and through sad experiences, that we haven't succeeded here in reaching either a full freedom, nor a full joy, nor a complete peace, gifts of the Kingdom which remain to be seen. Therefore, Jews and Christians are also united in the common hope: that of the messianic time, of the reign of God. In this way the festival of Passover/Easter makes us examine our deep past, in which it has its origins, and drives us to live its profound sense and its demands in our today, obliging us as well to construct the tomorrow that we await. Therefore, Passover/Easter is equally a festival of hope and a confirmation of our faith in justice, in brotherhood, in peace between people, and in the action of God in history.
Different expressions of devotion from people of different faiths, opening the soul to the Eternal, each in his/her own manner, nevertheless, sharing the spirit of faith which is common to all. In celebrating the Seder of Passover, we become aware that holiness is not a monopoly of a specific religion, denomination or tradition. In participating in this dialogue, between Jews and Christians, we glimpse the world dreamed of by all of us: a place where prejudice and oppresion don't exist, where universal brotherhood reigns and the human family - the union of all the sons and daughters of God - live in peace, with all the riches of diversity.
The author of this material is Reverend Luiz Fernando Pereira Garupe, pastor of Emaús Metropolitan Community Church in São Paulo, Brasil.
