The Glory of Resurrection. Holy Week!

Source: Jornal de Brasília, March 31, 2015, Tuesday. | Updated in May 2022.

My Friends, Brothers, and Sisters, let us lift our Spirits with the splendid divine message of the Holy Week. I present you a page I wrote in my book Jesus, o Profeta Divino [Jesus, the Divine Prophet] (2011) about this touching date:

The Resurrection on spiritual and human merits

Jesus, the Supreme Ruler of our collective home, has power, and He divinely and prophetically exercises it, because He is the Faithful Witness (Apocalypse of Christ 1:5). He attests to the Heavenly Father among us, men, women, young people, children, and Spirits, Blessed Souls, which, as we conclude, based on the Word of the Celestial Friend, do not represent an abstraction: “My kingdom is not [yet] of this world [but of the Spiritual World].” Jesus (John 18:36)

Tela: Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937)

Title: The Pilgrims of Emmaus

For this reason, He expects us to testify Him on Earth, so that He can testify us in Heaven, or the Space, or the World of Truth, or the Realm of the Spirits, located in certain frequencies, which our physical senses and technological advances do not yet perceive.

“Whoever testifies me before others, I will also testify before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my Father in heaven (The Gospel according to Matthew 10:32 and 33).

I stress that the Divine Crucified resurrected on His own merits, because He was always aware of His Divinity, to which He had previously been entitled. Likewise, we will all be one with God as we grow spiritually. He said:

20 My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in me and I am in You. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent me.
22 I have given them the glory that You gave me, so that they may be one as we are One—

“23 I in them and You in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent me and have loved them even as You have loved me” (The Gospel according to John 17:20 to 23).

Tela: Corrado Giaquinto (1703-1766)

Title: The Raising of Lazarus

When we reach such Unity, there will be nothing we cannot accomplish for the good of all peoples.

The meaning of the blood that sets us free

The Good Shepherd was not risen by anyone else, as was the case of Lazarus and others that were risen according to both religious and secular accounts. In particular, those who His Apostles and Disciples likewise brought back to life. He is the Firstborn from the dead because He overcame death and became the One that Reigns over all the kings of the Earth, the Faithful Witness. He is the One who, for our satisfaction, loves us and whose blood has set us free from our sins.

Tela: José de Ribera (1591-1652)

Title: The Agony in the Garden

However, one might ask: “His blood?! But it has dried up a long time ago!”

His blood in this sense is the immortal lesson He bequeathed us—His example: an uncommon perseverance, a tireless determination to do Good. He was whipped, stoned, spat upon, flogged, crowned with thorns, crucified. He was beaten with a rod on the head and yet He did not desert His Father and our Father.

Through Jesus, social reform comes from the Spiritual Realm

Have you noticed where our strength comes from?

Now, whoever is with the Divine Master has nothing to fear, even in the worst moments of existence. He strengthens us in His Gospel according to John 14:18 and Matthew 28:20: “I will not leave you as orphans. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

To these faithful followers, the opportune teaching of Peter the Apostle (1 Peter 2:15) about the source of true strength and genuine power: “For it is the will of the Heavenly Father that by doing Good, you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.”

This is how Jesus behaved towards His opponents: firmly, unceasingly attesting to the Sublime Power, He did not fail to do Good, while preaching it along the path.

Now, that is Who He is and why He is “the Faithful Witness, the Firstborn from the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the Earth, who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His own blood (examples) (Apocalypse 1:5), showing us how to triumph in this world of setbacks. Persevering in Him and in the Father beyond the end, bringing heavenly benefit to all creatures, is the key to our survival. And this knowledge, above all, will allow the ultimate improvement of society. As I have been telling you for a long time, social reform comes from the Spiritual Realm. And that is how I ended one of the chapters of Jesus, the Divine Prophet (2011).

José de Paiva Netto is a writer, journalist, radio broadcaster, composer, and poet. He is the President of the Legion of Good Will (LGW), effective member of the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) and of the Brazilian International Press Association (ABI-Inter). Affiliated to the National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Union of Professional Journalists of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Writers of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Radio Broadcasters of Rio de Janeiro, and the Brazilian Union of Composers (UBC). He is also a member of the Academy of Letters of Central Brazil. He is an author of international reference in the concept and defense of the cause of Ecumenical Citizenship and Spirituality which, according to him, constitute “the cradle of the most generous values that are born of the Soul, the dwelling of the emotions and of the reasoning enlightened by intuition, the atmosphere that embraces everything that transcends the ordinary field of matter and comes from the elevated human sensitivity, such as Truth, Justice, Mercy, Ethics, Honesty, Generosity, and Fraternal Love.”