The president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Oscar Ojea, issued this Saturday a reflection for the celebration of Easter Sunday in which he advised “to be at the service of the people”, which he claimed must be attended to, and ask the Lord “to be able to put above all else” the most urgent needs of others.
“Reading these days the Passion of Saint John, we can go through the different actors involved in the passion of Jesus and we can identify ourselves in some way with them; Peter’s denials, Peter’s cowardice, Pilate’s washing of hands, disloyalty, the betrayal of Judas, the Sadducees and Pharisees who are two adverse parties and who all join together to leave Jesus alone,” Ojea began his reflection.
And he continued: “The result is the abandonment of Jesus. Jesus remains alone of all his friends, there is no one left and yet there is someone who has been following him continuously and who responds to fidelity, it is the Virgin”.
The Bishop of the Diocese of San Isidro deepened: “In the heart of the Virgin awaits all the hope of the Church; When Jesus dies, the whole Church takes hold of Mary’s hand to ask her to sustain her in the faith.
“Mary’s faith anticipates the resurrection. I would like to propose to you this Easter that we entrust ourselves especially to our Mother, she is the mother of our hope, a virtue that we need so much, she has continuously accompanied her son on her feet, she has been faithful,” he continued.
“Let us ask the Lord to be able to put the needs of our people above all else, that we not be distracted by positions towards the future that distract us and take our attention away from fundamental needs”Monsignor Oscar Ojea
Then, the president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference expressed: “We are living through very difficult times in our country, we are witnessing a certain decomposition of the ties between social actors, deep distrust reigns, aggressive language is used, abuse is often mistreated; all this entertains in a sense and makes us lose sight of the fundamental problem: how to attend to the needs of our people, especially the most urgent needs”.
“We cannot deny that the issue of food has become a fundamental issue, like the issue of covering all primary needs. At the same time, we also have to say that for the creation of new sources of work, a lot of creativity and a lot of understanding are needed among the leadership,” he added.
Finally, Monsignor Ojea in his message for Easter Sunday said: “Let us ask the Lord to be able to put the needs of our people above all else, that we not get distracted by positioning ourselves towards the future that distract us and take our attention away from the needs fundamental”.
“We are at the service of our people and we have to attend to them. May the Virgin grant us to take care of the essentials, we are all responsible for each other, to a greater or lesser extent, and we cannot look the other way,” he said.
And to close, the Bishop said: “Very happy Easter from the hand of the Virgin who in some way anticipates it because she is the mother of hope. May God bless you.”
