The Farmville Herald And Farmer Leader

Easter Message

By Father Cornelius Fenton.
Priest Of St. Therese Catholic Church

"Unless the grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it remains alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit." (Jn. 12:24) The agony and death of Jesus Christ on Good Friday was the seed out of which the Redemption and the Resurrection grew establishing the at-one-ment of mankind and the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Christ is God. He is the all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful Supreme Being.

If, then, He is God, He has taught us truth, and we are foolish to turn our backs on what He has told us. If we do not listen to Him, we are like a man in a strange land who rejects the help and directions of a wise guide. Such a man sets out for himself. He wanders. He loses himself. He becomes confused. He finally destroys himself. That is what happens to an individual, or a nation, who defies the wise directions of Christ.

We are living in a world of doubt and uncertainty. War is a constant threat. Corruption and crime everywhere threaten to undermine our country, even our whole civilization. Personal peace seems increasingly difficult to maintain. At the bottom of it all is a refusal to follow the wise directions of Christ and to accept His helps. Greed, ignorance of the true nature of man, ignorance of our proper relationship to God, neglect of the means that God has given us to help us lead good lives, a dishonest shell of respectful living, a changing morality based upon utility and comfort, a debasing chase after sense gratification are at the roots of our predicament.

But rather than quit the offered hand of God which would cure the roots of our diseases, we make frenzied efforts to keep chopping off the tops of the malignancy. Our troubles are deep-seated, and therefore demand a root cure. We shall never heal the wounds of our society until we apply the radical cure the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The noted English writer Evelyn Waugh in one of his books puts these words in the mouth of one of his characters: "Wars don't start nowadays because people want them. We long for peace, and fill our newspapers with conferences about disarmament and arbitration but there is a radical instability in our whole world order and soon we shall be walking into the jaws of destruction again protesting our pacific intentions."

This is another way of saying what Thomas Kempis said. "All men desire peace but not the things that lead to peace."

Easter is a feast of hope and the promise of peace. It reminds us of our own future resurrection in glory with the eternal peace of heaven. But it is a peace and a glory that depend upon our heeding the teachings of Christ. Because of the loving-kindness of our God, wherein the Orient from on high has visited us, to shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace (Lk. 1:78-79).