The Holy Week is the celebration of the suffering, resurrection and ascension. It started on Palm Sunday when Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem and was welcomed with carpets and palms among others to show the warm welcome that people accorded him. The following days were characterized with loyalty checks and betrayal. It was succeeded with Christ’s suffering, resurrection and ascension or life after death.
The famous Biblical verse John 3:16, For God so love that world that he gave his only begotten son and whosoever believes in him shall not perish but will have eternal life always comes to the fore to remind us to use the Holy Week to reflect on the way we have lived our lives.
People in the different parts of the global village have their own unique ways of commemorating the suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. What is ironic about what is happening in this world is that we always learn to repent when it is time to do so but when we go back to our normal lives, we tend to forget everything and go back to our old ways by committing sins after sins. It is also hurting to hear people say that they commit sins because the Almighty Father will always be there to forgive what they have done, thus, they are excused to commit other sins that tend to affect their overall image as a person.
The old saying repentance always comes last always comes to the fore in our everyday life. People tend to make life as a testing ground for whatever actions they want to make to advance their own aggrandizement but they tend to repent on what they have done if they will suffer the consequences of their deeds.
|The mere fact that Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead and ascended to heaven showed that his task on earth to save people from their sins was an accomplished fact. Sin was defeated by Christ’s death that is why it is the obligation of man to live life the way Christ did. While it is true that life on earth is not that perfect, let us try to live life close to perfection and be examples of people should live life. The reason that life is not perfect is a shallow one. Surely, it is just an alibi of people to justify their mistakes and continue doing the wrong things in life.
It is the observation of our religious leaders that people attending church-related activities have tremendously declined through the years because most of us have become materialistic wherein we tend to prioritize our clamor for materials things over and above our religious obligations which deserve to be given a second or third look for us to reflect on whether we are following the right direction in life. Let us not be persuaded by people who seem to prefer being involved in material activities because it is not the right way. We need to discipline ourselves for us to follow the right path because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
Let us use the Holy Week to awaken ourselves into reality that we need to go back to the folds of strictly adhering to the teachings of our Almighty Father. Let us not deviate from the teachings that we have been constantly reminded by our religious workers. Much have been said about personal and social sins because what is important is that we do not complicate things to the worst.
Personal sin when tolerated by the community or group of people becomes social sin that is why let us not be tempted into tolerating the personal sins of others so that we will not be included as culprits to such sins. Let us learn to pray for those who commit personal sins and seek the guidance of the Almighty Father so that we will not tolerate the personal sins of others by providing us the power to resist such sins and instead repeat on what have been done.
We must continue to inculcate to the younger generations of people the importance of embracing Jesus Christ as our mighty savior so that they will learn to appreciate the way he gave up his life for us. If there should be games that will be developed to training our children to be religious, it should be done so that it will become one of the popular games in our mobile phones and computers that could be played just to help inculcate into the minds of the younger generations the importance of living a decent life on earth pursuant to the desire of our Almighty Father. Let us not wait for the worst case scenario to happen. We had been witnesses to numerous individuals who seem not to be convinced to attend church activities when they were strong but when they got sick and become weak, they started praying for the forgiveness of their sins which is not too late but it seems to be just for their comfort
Let us learn to practice the way Jesus lived on earth and become the messiah of the youth to put God over our desire for material things.