The Christian life is anchored in the Good News of Jesus Christ rising from the dead, and this faith and hope enables us to “rise above our trials and difficulties and inspires us to keep pressing forward,” said our beloved Pope Francis (Spes non Confundit, 25). At least, that is the way it is supposed to be. Admittedly, sometimes that faith and hope can seem a bit too abstract, something we learn about and pray for at Mass, but too distant from our personal experiences.
God understands; so sometimes, in the darkest of hours when all seems lost, the Risen Lord who makes all things new sends us a sign – a foretaste of the jubilation of life in the Resurrection, where there will be no more mourning or weeping or pain (Revelation 21:4) – a sign that brings alive the words of the Psalm, “You have changed my mourning into dancing” (Psalm 30:12), and Jesus’ own words, “Your sorrow will turn into joy” (John 16:20).
One of those signs came to us in the form of white smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and from the excited anticipation of the diverse, multicultural crowds in Saint Peter’s Square and around the world who just a few days before were sad, grieving the death of our Holy Father Francis. It came in the words “Habemus Papam” and the announcement of former-Cardinal Robert Prevost as our new Pope Leo XIV, whose ancestry is a mixture of Italian, French, Spanish, Louisiana Creole, and Haitian descent.
From Chiclayo, Peru, to Chicago, Illinois, and all across the globe, men, women, and children rejoiced at the gift of a new shepherd and new life in the Church. The videos of seminarians and others in Peru jumping up and down and cheering are a particular delight to watch.
Personally, I am very pleased that the Holy Spirit led the cardinals to elect a missionary pope. True, Pope Paul VI and succeeding pontiffs traveled to the ends of the earth to spread the Gospel during their papacies. But Pope Leo became a missionary shortly after he was ordained as a priest. I remember the religious missionaries who came to El Salvador and Guatemala from the United States when I was growing up and was impressed by their love for people, as well as their dedication to the point of many of them being martyred for the faith during the wars of that time. In his own missionary work in Peru, then-Father and later Bishop Prevost also spoke out against injustice and the violence there.
It was natural then that Pope Leo’s first words were “Peace be with you,” which was the first greeting of the Risen Christ, and then he added, “a peace that comes from God, the God who loves us all, without any limits or conditions.”
I don’t need to tell you how much we all need this happiness and peace. Last month, I wrote about a “war of fear and terror” against members of the immigrant and refugee communities and noted how they and too many others have been enduring the Passion of Jesus in a very real way in their own lives. This month, I am overjoyed to say that, by their communion with our Redeemer, they also participate in His rising from death – not only in the end times, but in a tangible way in this life.
Thanks be to God, we have people in these oppressed communities who are very hopeful, a hope born of the Resurrection. Yes, they are expressing fear and anxiety and don’t know what is going to happen to them, but they do not grieve like those who do not know Jesus and thus have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). One of the beautiful things we are seeing is that they trust in the Lord. They are an Easter people.
We have an added reason for rejoicing and for being hopeful: the election of a pope who has presented himself as an immigrant and the son of immigrants and therefore as one who understands their struggles. Speaking to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, Pope Leo said: “My own story is that of a citizen, the descendant of immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate. All of us, in the course of our lives, can find ourselves healthy or sick, employed or unemployed, living in our native land or in a foreign country, yet our dignity always remains unchanged: it is the dignity of a creature willed and loved by God.”
I also understand that not everyone is able to fully realize this hope and joy amidst these hardships. To them, I share the encouraging words of Pope Leo, who says, “we must ask for the grace to see the certainty of Easter in every trial of life and not to lose heart.”
But this is also why we all need to walk with people, particularly those who are marginalized and oppressed, and make sure they know that we are with them and they are not alone. This is why I say, again, that we need more people speaking out to government officials and saying, “No more!”
As our new Holy Father says, “Those who make history are the peacemakers, not those who sow seeds of suffering. Our neighbors are not first our enemies, but our fellow human beings; not criminals to be hated, but other men and women.” Moreover, whether one is from the United States or Peru, like Pope Leo, from Argentina, like Pope Francis, or my native El Salvador – or anywhere else in North, Central or South America – we are all creatures willed and loved by God.
Easter is supposed to be a time of rejoicing and a time to share the peace and love of the Risen Christ, so it pains me that some still fail to see this, and that dark and disturbing actions in violation of human rights and dignity are still happening. Especially to government officials and agents, I plead for you to take the opportunity of these days of renewal to make your own hearts new – a heart capable of receiving the joy and grace of Easter, a heart that rejoices in the diversity of the human family – and choose a better way, a way that respects true justice and human dignity. Not only for the good of others, but for your own sake.
The salvation of Easter is of no benefit to those who continue to be hard-hearted and unjust. So, I say to you: Come and embrace the Good News! Come share in the peace of the Risen Christ! “Let us move forward, without fear, together, hand in hand with God and with one another other,” as Pope Leo has invited us to do. “Help us, one and all, to build bridges through dialogue and encounter, joining together as one people, always at peace.”
(Bishop Evelio Menjivar serves as an auxiliary bishop in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.)
