Happy Easter! Jesus has risen!
This great feast, center of the liturgical year and of our entire Christian faith, invites us to seek Jesus among the living. Let us stop looking for him among the dead, in everything that destroys and oppresses, where there can be no green shoots of hope!
Jesus, alive among the living, is not to be found in violence, which only generates more violence, and blindness, and death, discouragement, and sadness.
Jesus, living among the living, is not to be found in contempt, in situations where some look with disdain at others because of their race, their social status, their gender, their orientation, their past...
Jesus, alive among the living, is not to be found in those contexts of privilege and inequality where a few enjoy the goods that belong to all.
Jesus, alive among the living, is not to be found in the indifference that kills, in the indifference because of which the pain of those living on the margins of society becomes invisible, as if it did not exist… as if they did not exist!
We must look for Jesus, alive among us, in the gestures of peace and reconciliation of those who have understood that war, brute force, insult and slander are never the way.
We must look for Jesus, alive among us, in those who welcome everyone with open arms, whoever they are, wherever they live, however they love...
We must look for Jesus, alive among us, in the efforts of so many people to build groups and communities of the Gospel, where fraternity is not an empty word, where synodality and walking together is the formula to learn to listen to each other and value the richness of plurality.
We must look for Jesus, alive among us, in the sensitive hearts that are moved, over and over again, with the pain of the poorest, the Father's favorites.
The followers of Jesus, in short, are people who strive, always, and sometimes with a stubbornness bordering on obstinacy, to look for signs of new life in the world, aware that the strength of the Risen One always ends up making itself present wherever there are human beings open to the life-giving, liberating and renewing Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the tomb.
Let's celebrate Easter by finding Jesus… Alive in our midst!
