EASTER MESSAGE
2006

His Eminence Guadencio B. Cardinal Rosales
Archbishop of Manila

The story of Easter brought to our memory the steps that Jesus took through his passion leading to his triumph.

Jesus pursued the good of everyone. He accompanied the people’s search for their knowledge of and their love for a compassionate God; He was with them in the pursuit of God’s image in the human person, especially in the poor. He led humankind back to God who loved them! This was the Lord’s commitment that denied him of personal comfort. He did not even appropriate privileges to himself. His pursuit of good for humans was unchanging, because he was bonded with what was true, what was good, and what was honest.

Committed to the charge of bringing humans back to God as persons freed from the slavery of sin and the vices that followed in its wake, Jesus accepted that the only way of proceeding towards that freedom is by self-giving, known today as sacrifice and discipline, in which no gain is achieved without pain.

The discipline of self, the taming of ambition, and the restraint on self as clinging to every hold on power and wealth are the Christian way to conquest and achievement. In the end, the risen Lord showed that the discipline of the Cross is the only path a Christian may follow, whether the issue is personal development or communal progress.

However, the Pasch always ended on the note of joy, or a day called Easter, only because Jesus had the humility of a God-Man in love, willing to pursue his goal to save humans at the cost of discipline and sacrifice.

Let all, from the highest leadership to the littlest villager, while keeping their ideals Christ-related and pure, be motivated by the life and example of Jesus, our Lord, who, through sacrifice and death, made Easter possible, and—with everyone cooperating in humility, understanding, sacrifice and forgiveness—can make every crisis an Easter we can all be happy about.

MULING MABUHAY ANG PANGINOON!

MABUHAY ANG ATIN BAYAN