Easter Sunday

Stepping Forward Proudly towards a New Day

First Reading : ( Acts 10: 34,37-43 ) : Peter witnessed Jesus' resurrection
Second Reading : ( Col 3:1-4 ) : Seek the things that are above
Gospel : ( Jn 20:1-9 ) : The tomb was already empty
Chinese Classics
“I passed through the battlefield in the dead of night, The cold moon shone upon the bones of the dead.” (1)
“Not having endured the bone-chilling winter, how can you smell the fragrance of the plum flowers?” (2)

‘We were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.’ (Acts 10:41)

The feast of Easter does not only commemorate Christ's resurrection, It also witnesses to our faith in our own resurrection, in the resurrection of all human beings and of all creation. Today I want to share with you the events of two ethnic groups, the Chinese and of the Israelites.

The Chinese race is a great race but it is also to be pitied. We are great because of our long, continuous civilization. We have in our history the Han and Tang dynasties, the wisdom of Confucius and hundreds of memorable scholars. Among our ancestors is Qu Yuan, the world's first great poet. . We have four great inventions : printing, papermaking, compass and gunpowder. In the past our silk and porcelain have been sought throughout the world..

However, we are also very pitiful. The Chinese people have often suffered hardships. In times of chaos and upheaval on Chinese soil, there was “no life within a million miles.” Du Fu wrote in his poem, “Campaign in The North”: “I passed through the battlefield in the dead of night, The cold moon shone upon the bones of the dead.”(1) The poem makes us feel so sad and desolate. The end of the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the invasion of the Five Northern Tribes were the dark ages in Chinese history.

In more recent times the Chinese people could not stand up before other nations. Even Christian missioners imbued with Christian principles sometimes sided with the imperialists. Many Chinese felt disgraced, painful and humiliated.

The time of the Nationalists have been described by Mr Qien Mu as the most “stupid” and chaotic of times. Then when the Peoples' Republic of China was established, independence and equality among the world's nations were well maintained, but internally prosperity and unity in our homeland were still not stabilized. The ‘May 4 incident’ promoted ideas of ‘Mr De’ and ‘Mr Sai’ (i.e. Democracy and Science) but even today they still are not widespread throughout the country nor do we know the final outcome.

When will the Chinese nation have its Passover, when will it have its resurrection ?

Let us look at another nation – the tribe in the Bible.

About 3000 years ago there was a foreign tribe living in Egypt. Because of their hard work and diligence, they had accumulated great wealth and property. But it was this very wealth and property that caused them disaster. The King Pharaoh and the Egyptians put the Israelites into slavery. This tribe who had wandered abroad and sought coverage from others, now found that their strong physical build had weakened, their spirits were desolate. But then within this inhuman existence, an ideal gradually arose, a desire for peace and freedom.

Compared to the reality, the ideal was much brighter and attractive.

Eventually the ideal to strive for liberty took on great strength and motivated this tribe of slaves to take a very difficult journey. From hope to pursuit, from ideal to realization, demanded enormous energy. Behind this energy was the One whom the Israelites called “Mighty God,” “the Lord of Mercy,” “Yahweh who Saves.”.

But on leaving the land of slavery the Israelites could not immediately enter the land of freedom. After leaving Egypt, immediately they faced a vast desert – large stretches of wilderness, no food or water, temperatures of over 100 degrees in the day and down to under 0 degrees in the freezing night, the glaring sun, heavy downpours, whirling sand and rocks. The choice before them was to return to the land of slavery, where at least there would be a ‘tomb for them upon death,’ or to pursue their ideal, their search for freedom.

The Israelites decided on the second. For forty years they wandered as nomads in the desert. Forty years represent a large part of a person’s lifetime. They struggled, wandered and suffered until after a whole generation had passed away, eventually they discovered a homeland of their own.

Going into the desert and discovering are exactly what the Israelites and we Christians have been originally called to. It is this mystery we celebrate today at the time of Passover and Easter. What we proclaim is a kind of challenge to life and a spirit to seek freedom. Under whatever circumstance we must persevere with unremitting courage to harbor an undistinguishable, eternal hope.

To raise up our heads and leave the land of slavery, to break down the bonds of sin, to pass through the baptism of the desert and go towards the land of freedom God has promised, is not in any way comfortable.

A student immersed in television programs must become involved in h is studies, a housewife addictive to gambling must once again give her time to her children, spouse and family duties, a man who only wants sexual pleasure, idleness and gambling must return to a more sober lifestyle. None of these changes is easy. But this is the meaning of conversion, baptism, Passover.

Today is Easter. We not only celebrate Christ's resurrection, but we also must be witness to his resurrection. We are the people who have ‘eaten and drunk’ with Christ,, just as the Acts of the Apostles records., that after Christ rose from the dead, he ate with the Apostles. We have experienced Christ, received him, embraced him. We have slumbered and rested in the heart of Christ. We also have experienced all the graces Christ has bestowed on us. Let us take our hope to our neighbors, to the whole world and to all the people of the Chinese race.

The Israelites went through four hundred years of slavery but eventually regained their freedom. “But not having endured the bone-chilling winter, how can you smell the fragrance of the plum flower(2) We believe that in the end all peoples and nations of the earth, all humankind, having passed through suffering, will eventually obtain Christ's salvation and the fullness of the life of bliss that Christ offers us.

(1)夜深經戰場，寒月照白骨。
(2)不經一番寒徹骨，那得梅花樸鼻香？