I am reaching the age when bishops must retire. It will soon be 50 years that I am a priest. I have served as bishop for the last 30 years, including 20 of those years in the Outaouais. This year, as Easter draws near, many contrasting images come to mind and the question rises within me: what does this particular time in our liturgy evoke, year after year, in my own life?

The events experienced in the sharing of joys and sorrows of so many individuals, families and communities spring from the depths of my memory. I see these celebrations of confirmation or funerals, these major gatherings in the life of local communities: common bereavement, joys shared together. Also the setbacks so difficult to forget come to mind.  And in recent years, the images are often darker, marked by tensions and misunderstandings of all sorts that emanate from the profound transformations that we go through not only in the Church but also in society. And I remember those days of wandering, of searching, of pain, of joys, of deceptions, of difficulties facing criticism, of solitude, of prayer, of listening to the Word; a time of bearing the concerns of all parishes …

For thirty years, I have presided with the priests of the diocese this unique annual mass that we call the “Chrism Mass”. That is when the oils are consecrated so they may be used for various sacraments (baptism, confirmations, ordinations). It is celebrated the Wednesday before Easter. These are great moments of meeting delegates from all parishes of the diocese. It gives me the opportunity to experience the solidarity so often camouflaged in the dull routine of everyday life but that is expressed in the joy of a shared faith.

Then, on Holy Thursday, we are reminded of the gift of the Eucharistic Bread and the act of Jesus washing the feet of his friends. The bread reminds me of all those people suffering from hunger and it challenges my willingness to share. Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, as would have done a slave, shows me every time the path to serving others and the gift of my life every day so that others may live more fully.

Good Friday with its Way of the Cross often walked in the streets and its service so touching always upset me. Here, I renew every year my firm belief that all these persons, all those people whose lives are made of terrible suffering, abandonment, slavery and often horrific death in wars and genocides are not only cries that rise to God but also to my heart. I discover every year that there are still doors of my life to open to others, people to free, places waiting for a gesture of hope.

From reading the description of Cain killing Abel in the Bible, and also from observing the often violent life on our planet, I know well and am sometimes tempted by this pessimistic attitude that always denotes all sins. But this Holy Week makes me especially familiar with the equally biblical vision of hope. And I do not just focus on eternal life but also on the enhancement of life on earth, as hoped by Abraham, Moses, David and also Jesus when he was healing the sick and sharing the bread. A social commitment lived in faith is a gesture of hope. And those who oppose justice offend God because they prevent Him from realizing his dream for humanity according to his heart.

For I perceive that the historical roots of the feast of Easter reach deep into the suffering of the Jewish people oppressed in Egypt. And Scripture tells me that it was God who was offended! It hurt Him as a Father and equally, as a Mother suffering with her disgraced child. And it is this suffering that reveals the extreme love that Jesus bore even to the cross.

I particularly like the various signs used in these celebrations: the oil, the bread and the wine, the wood, the water, the fire, the rising sun. They remind me that life is stronger than death, that trust is stronger than all the disappointments; that the future will prevail over the weight of the past, that it is love that has the last word: a word of solidarity, of sharing and of mutual support in a fraternal friendship, while following Jesus. Easter regenerates me: after each winter comes spring!

Happy Eastertide 2009!

† Roger Ébacher
Archbishop of Gatineau
April 7, 2009