Memories of the Life of Jesus — Beyond Easter..

The East is the cradle of revelation and inspiration and the birthplace of apostles and prophets. From it burst forth the light of truth, illuminating the world, and by its light the lost were guided; from it spread the first spiritual message, heralding to the world love, mercy, and hope.

In these days the Christian world turns back in memory one thousand nine hundred and fifty-two years, recalling the life of Jesus, his death, and his resurrection. Jesus lived on earth, and his life was a chain whose links were love, mercy, and sacrifice. He heard the moan of the poor, the cry of the oppressed, and the sigh of the sick; he saw the misery of the widow and the wretchedness of the orphan, and his heart went out to them in their affliction. He healed the sick and the blind, cleansed the lepers, and raised the dead. The crowds followed him and called to him, and he answered their call and had compassion on them, teaching them and guiding them to the path of truth and righteousness.

For twenty generations the world has worshiped weakness in the person of Jesus, because they do not understand true strength. Yet if we look closely at his life, his sayings, and his deeds, we see that he lived in revolt against injustice, in rebellion against the selfish hypocrites, calling for justice to be set in its rightful place, saying to them: "O scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you are like whitewashed tombs," and going on to say: "Woe to you, you blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel," and addressing the crowds in these words: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat. All their works they do before men: they display their phylacteries and love the first places at table and the chief seats in the synagogues, and they have left undone the weightiest matters of the law — justice, mercy, and faith." He said this without fearing his persecutors or dreading his enemies; rather he was bold against injustice, mighty in the face of tyranny.

His message was love, truth, and hope. The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest witness to the loftiness of his message, which he taught his disciples and wished them to carry as a light to the world. How often we ask ourselves: why did Jesus come into the world? Jesus came into the world to teach men truth, mercy, and love, and to make life rest upon this heavenly triangle. He came to sanctify man, so that his soul might become a temple and his heart an altar. He came to breathe a new spirit into the world, to level the thrones built upon injustice and to tear down the palaces raised upon the bodies of the poor. He came to lay the foundations of true peace in a world living on war, and to wipe out selfishness, greed, and avarice, so that there should be

on earth no oppressor and no oppressed, no cheater and no cheated, no man in luxury and no man in misery, but brothers governed by love and ruled by equality. These are the teachings for which Jesus was crucified, of his own free choice. And at the Last Supper he said to his disciples, "One of you will betray me," and when they were troubled he said to them: "Let not your hearts be troubled, neither be afraid. You believe in the Father; believe also in me. My peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you. I am the truth, the resurrection, and the life."

On the Friday which they ignorantly call "the Sorrowful Friday," Christians stand in reverence, beating their breasts and praying, their eyes turned toward the cross, where they see a figure crowned with thorns, his palms nailed to the wood of the cross, his eyes closed, gazing from behind the veil of death into the depths of life.

The soldiers stood around him mocking him, and the priests blasphemed him in derision; then his voice is heard saying: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!"

The sun darkens, the earth quakes, and the veil of the temple is rent! Jesus is dead!! And at daybreak on Sunday morning the Marys go to the tomb, and they find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty, and a man in white garments sitting there, who said to them: "Jesus is risen." Risen is the mighty one who conquered death and prevailed over the generations by spirit and by truth, and filled the earth with his glory and his majesty. And on such a day as this, for twenty centuries now, the church bells have rung the whole night long, their peals echoed by the mountains and the valleys, proclaiming the victory of life over death... People come out in their holiday clothes, congratulating one another with the words "Christ is risen — he is risen indeed." And how many times have I asked myself: are these inherited traditions, words we repeat by force of habit, or do we believe in the truth of what we say, and do we carry out the message Jesus entrusted to us — the message of truth, love, and hope — a trust laid upon our necks?..

In a humble, mean quarter of Rome, on a deserted street, stands a building — an old and lowly church. Whoever enters it finds himself wrapped in a faint darkness and an awesome silence. Tourists do not visit it as they visit the churches of Saints Peter and Paul and Clement, where they behold the wonders of art and grandeur and marvel at what the mind of man has created. This is an old, abandoned church, bare of all art, worn away by the long passage of time; but it is full of the memory of struggle and martyrdom. And there one sees a piece

of brass, its inscription scarcely legible after the long passing of the years, engraved with these words: Quo Vadis — that is, "Whither goest thou?"

This is the church in which Paul the Apostle took refuge, fleeing from his pursuers in the days of the rule of Nero, who persecuted the Christians most grievously; their punishment for practicing their religion was death by torture, by burning, and by combat with lions. Paul entered and hid within it, and in the night, while he slept, Jesus appeared to him in an awesome vision and said to him: "Whither goest thou?" Then his courage, his strength, and his faith in his mission came back to him, and he returned to the fight for the message of Jesus; he was a hero in his steadfastness, and he was martyred a saint in the streets of Rome.

And on this anniversary, amid the ringing of the bells of joy, while people make merry in throngs in their holiday clothes, racing to the savory tables and clinking their glasses, should not each one ask himself: "Am I fulfilling the duty of the message I have received?" As for the answer, one glance at today's civilized world reveals it. We see selfishness, avarice, greed, upheavals, and the license of war hanging like drawn swords over our heads... Everyone thinks of how much he can gather, not of how much good he can do. Where is the sacred message — the message of truth, mercy, and hope, which we received as a trust upon our necks and a treasure in our consciences? Where is it? Do we find so much as its shadow among the Christian nations? Or in the democracies? Or in the temples? Or in the towering palaces? Or in the houses of precious furnishings? Around us and among us thousands of the poor and the homeless suffer torment — their children and their women, their old and their young — dying victims of hunger, cold, and disease. Here, abject poverty, homelessness, and assassination! There, upheavals, revolutions, and ruin! The innocent lose their lives, children are orphaned, women are widowed, and humanity is tormented — all the fruit of avarice, selfishness, and greed! Is this the message the world received from Jesus, who came to teach truth and justice and give the world peace? Where, then, is peace? Show me one spot on the face of this earth where there is peace!! Have we forgotten, or pretended to forget, that death is near us — nearer than the eyelid to the eye? Have we heard his voice saying to us, "Whither goest thou?" Or have we stopped our ears so as not to hear, and shut our eyes so as not to see?

I am no preacher and no guide, and my words today, on this glorious anniversary, are memories of the life of Jesus and of the apostles who were martyred for the principles of the spiritual and human message which the Teacher of Nazareth left as a trust in our hands. Today, thank God, no religious persecution pursues us; we enjoy the fullest freedom of worship. But, sadly, we have neglected the message, carelessly and of our own choosing, and we have forgotten why we are called Christians! We live a pagan life, with no mercy in our hearts, no justice in our souls, no truth in our consciences... The road of truth, justice, and love from which we have strayed still lies open before us, and we must return to it, to carry out the message we received from Jesus — the message of truth, peace, love, and hope — that we may remain worthy of our kinship to that faithful "heavenly" Teacher.