Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I wish you all a Happy Easter! Some of you have already left Kuwait to return to your country to celebrate this feast with your family. But most of you are here. Wherever you are, I pray that you may never forget the love with which God loves us. He never abandons us, He is always with us.
At Easter, we celebrate the gift of life that Jesus gave us. He took upon Himself our sins and presented us to God the Father as “washed” and “clean”. He, though innocent, was treated as a sinner and therefore killed, and we, sinners, have been made innocent. This is not because we deserve it; we have done nothing to obtain His love.
Take the instance of Lazarus. It is written several times in chapter 11 of the Gospel of St. John, that Jesus loved Lazarus, and was his friend: Lord, the man you love is ill (v. 4),
Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus (v. 5),
Our friend is at rest (v. 11), Jesus wept, and the Jews said: See how much he loved him (v. 36). But there is nothing written about what Lazarus had done to deserve the strong and precious friendship of Jesus. In the Gospel of St. John the only mention made of Lazarus is that, after being raised from the dead, he participated one day in a banquet with Jesus: Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there; Martha waited on them and Lazarus was among those at table (Jn 12,1-2).
We are like Lazarus, we have done nothing to deserve Jesus’ friendship. But, Jesus loves each one of us as He loved Lazarus. Jesus is our friend, unconditionally.
Dear brothers and sisters, my wish, this Easter, is for you to discover a deeper friendship with the Lord Jesus and this can only be possible if we spare a few minutes daily for personal prayer, to be in communion with Him. In return, He will give us true consolation and inner peace. Thus, if you choose to be in His divine presence for even a few minutes daily, I can assure you that you will never be alone, wherever you may be.
Courage! Happy Easter to each of you and to your families.
Your Bishop,
+ Camillo Ballin, mccj
Picture of the Resurrection (courtesy): http://www.cyberhymnal.org.
