“Be of good cheer: I have conquered the world”

Dr. Michel E. Abs

Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches

Holy Week, the week of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, is a unique event and a distinguished time of unparalleled significance in the history of humanity.

Holy Week summarizes human suffering with betrayal, tyranny, persecution, injustice and hatred.

During the current present week, full of events and teachings, the Lord summarizes for us the history of humankind soaked with hypocrisy, rooted in hatred and stained with blood, the blood of the innocent who are used as fuel in a hell made by tyrants they legitimize in order to heal their thirst for hatred.

During this week, unprecedented in the history of humanity, the Lord showed us that the Son of Man, the Son of Light, has no place among the sons of darkness.

The pain is great during this week; the pain of humanity is condensed.

Treachery, submission, flogging, trial, mockery, hypocrisy, carrying the cross, going on the path of Calvary and Crucifixion, drinking vinegar and being pricked with a spear, all this is too much for a normal person to tolerate and forgive to those who perpetrated it.

Even in the most critical moments and the most painful times, the Incarnate remains compassionate to the human race whom he came to redeem, forgiving them for what their hands have committed. He knows with certainty, the ignorance of the descendants of Adam and their weakness as they are faced by the strong and their tyranny as they face the weak.

How painful are the hearts of those who love the Incarnate when they see him as prey to all this moral and physical violence, while they are unable to save Him from the painful fate. Had they written the Gospel at the time, would they have hidden Him between the pages of his holy book?

How helpless do the brothers of the Incarnate feel when they see all that which He suffered as He extends His hand to those He wanted to lead to the light, as He sees their hands extended over Him to send Him into darkness.

How great as well as painful, are those moments, when the Son of Man surrendered His soul while asking his Father for forgiveness to those who oppressed Him, and treated Him with arbitrary cruelty!

How painful is the moment when the crucified was laid down from the Cross, wrapped in a shroud and placed where He would leave on the third day, victorious over the annihilation, marking a new era for humanity!

Between "Receive me today as a partner for your secret supper, O Son of God" and the "Myrrhbearers" who found the stone rolled, three days that summarize an eternal time, episodes from the history of the human race that is overlaid with the wounds of the ego and the objectification of the other.

What is the lesson to be learnt out of all this?

Love!

Love that, after two millennia, humanity could not find salvation for itself except through it. Love that removes the barriers between human beings, the confusion in front of the onlookers, and the hardness of hearts.

Love triumphs, with forgiveness and understanding, good triumphs over evil and closes the gates of hell in our daily life as well as in our eternity.

Love works miracles.

Victory is not the triumph of one man over the other, but the victory of both over the evil that kills us in our daily lives.

This is how the Lord conquered the world!