The Oregon statesman., April 21, 1975, Page 52, Image 52

Mtiraster
ro
fTH1 I
n '
f v f ...
In, Easter comes with hopeful meaning. This holy
feast goes back 1,900 years to another moment of
utter despair and to a world situation similar to our
own. The Roman colossus sent its army of occupation
into one satellite country after another; Life was
cheap; people were treated brutally. Jesus was
hanged on a cross.
Nevertheless, Easter brought assurance that the
forces of evil and death could not overcome the forces
of life. The knowledge that Jesus had risen from the
dead gave the early Christians a toughness of fiber,
and a confidence in the future that no adversity
could shake. From those days, full of the hope and Joy
of Easter, we inherit three firm beliefs that can
strengthen us for whatever hardships we may face.
rrioDAT, too, every religious person can say, "Nothing
can separate me from the love of God."
- Circumstances can do Strang things to a person's
fortune. He may lose his economic security, his op
portunity for advancement, even his very Job. Anx
iety over such loss can cause- hypertension, insanity,
and death. The world is full of people who have
either been beaten by their loss of economic security
THIS JOYOUS FEAST GIVES US TH
or escaped from it by falling into a neurosis. Crip
pling Illness can isolate a person from the world of
reality. War may claim loved ones.
Yet the religious person knows that no hardship
or tragedy can separate him from the love of God.
The one fixed star in his life beyond every circum
stance is the Almighty who" helps him realize and
bring to expression the very best within him. -
Easter reminds us that God enabled Jesus to en
dure, crucifixion and death and then resurrected
Him to life. In like manner, God is waiting by every
bed of pain, by every chair of sorrow, by every
place of agony, to help His creatures. As one of the
early Christians, with the Easter meaning in mind,
put it triumphantly, "In all of these things we are more
IV. ClAtlNCI SIIOINSriNNIR
Pimm ; ;
- .'''.- '.r-i Vv i
J