The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ offers a “glimmer of hope” amid the current situation of “darkness” from various spheres of life, a Catholic Bishop in South Africa has said.
In his 2023 Easter Message shared with ACI Africa, the Bishop of South Africa’s Mthatha Diocese who doubles as the President of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) says, “Believers are excited about Easter because it gives a glimmer of hope in the social, economic and political darkness surrounding us.”
“The risen Christ gives believers the zest and the courage both at personal and at the social and political levels to do what needs to be done to change the situation of the darkness into a situation of light, to change death-dealing situations into life-giving situations and to turn chaos into a life of order,” Bishop Sithembele Anton Sipuka adds.
The South African Catholic Bishop says that the resurrection of Jesus Christ “offers hope to existential concerns that are part and parcel of our life.”
“These existential concerns include complex relationships in our circles and our families, incurable diseases, tragedies that befall us, emotional effects of neglect and abuse, deep-seated anger, guilt feelings, depression, betrayal, rejection, disappointment, unfulfilled dreams, emotional imbalance, addictions, aging, and the prospect of death,” the Bishop of Mthatha says in his message shared with ACI Africa Thursday, April 6.
He goes on to highlight different forms of “darkness” that characterize “our time” that the Risen Lord can “conquer”.
“All sorts of darkness seem to prevail in our time, the darkness of greed and corruption compounded by lack of leadership to deal with it, the darkness of addiction that is holding our children and youth in ransom and causing much pain in families, the darkness of crime that makes us feel unsafe in a country that is supposed to be free, the darkness of unemployment that eats away the dignity and confidence of our young people,” Bishop Sipuka says.
In the celebration of the Easter Vigil on Saturday night, he goes on to say, “a candle is lit in a dark Church to symbolize Christ as the light that dispels the darkness.”
“The risen Christ is leading us to conquer it,” the South African Catholic Bishop says in reference to darkness, and adds, “With the conviction of the risen Christ among us, believers are invited to roll up their sleeves and deal with darkness instead of wallowing in despair.”
Making reference to the story of creation recounted in the Book of Genesis, Bishop Sipuka says, “The first book of the Bible tells us that in the beginning, there was chaos, and God’s Spirit breathed over the chaos and brought order and purposeful creation.”
He finds regrettable that the order God brought about at creation “remained only for a while, and sin brought back the disorder.”
“The message of Easter is that with the rising of Christ, God is restoring that order,” Bishop Sipuka emphasizes, and continues, “While it is not known exactly how and when, the message of the resurrection is that the situation will not remain the same. With the resurrection of Christ, God is creating the world and its order anew.”
The Catholic Bishop who will turn 63 on April 27 and who has been at the helm of Mthatha Diocese since his Episcopal Consecration in May 2008 notes that the Risen Christ “guides and empowers us in dealing with (challenges of life) and gives us the strength and peace to live with those conditions we cannot change.”
“The joy of believers about Easter is the knowledge that while difficult situations of their life continue to attain, they can be happy and peaceful because their Risen Lord is journeying with them, loving them, supporting them and assuring them that they are not alone because He has Risen,” Bishop Sipuka says.