Christians all over the world mark today as Easter to celebrate and commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death after three days in the grave some 2000 years ago in Jerusalem, following his crucifixion by Roman authorities at the prompting of Jewish leaders, his kinsmen, who felt uncomfortable and threatened by his revolutionary teachings about how true worship of God and the miraculous manifestations of his three-year human ministry.Easter, also called Resurrection Sunday, is the culmination of the 40-day Lenten period, Christendom’s holiest month, during which adherents of Christianity uplift their spiritual life by praying, fasting and almsgiving. It is a time they reflect on their vertical and horizontal relationships and sought to repair such relationships, where ever it had suffered some ruptures – with God and their fellow human being. With the death of Jesus on the cross on Good Friday, all Christians awaited his promised resurrection with hopeful expectation. For it is that resurrection that established Christ’s victory over death and guaranteed salvation for the faithful.During the period leading up to Easter, different Christian expressions, both orthodox and the Pentecostal congregations, prepare for it with different activities, all geared towards encouraging and guiding members to undertake an introspection of their life and come to spiritual rebirth. It is a sober and solemn period for Christendom.But today is a day of celebration, a day of spiritual fulfillment underpinned by the knowledge that Christ has risen from the dead and their hope of salvation is assured. Easter, without argument, is the most important Christian festival.
This Easter season is like no other in living memory due to an invisible organism that has held mankind by the scruff of the neck. For over three months, and particularly the last one month, the world has been in the vice-like grip of a coronavirus pandemic that started in Wuhan, China, in late December and has spread throughout the whole world, killing few people at the outset but now causing deaths in thousands daily across the world. At the last count, over 1.75 million people have been afflicted by the virus and over 107,000 deaths, with the US, UK, Spain, Italy, China, France and Germany the worst hit. For Nigeria, it is over 300 infections and seven deaths.The disease has literally caused a seizure to the world community, paralyzing most countries as authorities reel out a raft of safety drills to try and halt the contagion from continuing its rampaging escalation across the world, key among them being social distancing and hand and oral hygiene. Many governments, both national and subnational, have put their areas of jurisdiction on lockdown to keep people apart in order to halt the viral transmissions.As a result, religious, business and social centres have been shut down for weeks now across the five continents. This has gravely affected the Lenten and Easter season in a massive way, with Christians forced to stay at home rather than congregating to mark the events. For those who have been forced to follow the events on television and through the social media, seeing Pope Francis lead the faithful in front of an empty Basilica in Rome, a place that ten thousand faithful usually gathered to worship and receive papal blessings, exemplifies the gravity of the situation. It is the same in other churches. Some churches and groups which tried to breach the stay-at-home order have had their gatherings dispersed and some of those present arrested and prosecuted.President Muhammadu Buhari, in his Easter message to Nigerians, expressed regret that a majority of Christians had found themselves marking Easter in a subdued manner, away from the usual congregation in churches, a development he described as unfortunate and unprecedented in living memory.In the message he personally signed, the president urged Nigerian Christians to remain hopeful, patient and be ready to make sacrifices, as Christ did, by adhering strictly to the safety protocols towards curbing the spread of the virus in the country, including remaining indoors and washing hands regularly with soap under running water among other COVID-19 containment measures.He enjoined Christians to rekindle their faith in Christ who overcame persecution, sufferings and displayed endurance, steadfastness and, above all, piety in the face of persecution and trial.
He added that this Easter celebration was an opportunity for Christians in particular, and Nigerians in general, to remain faithful and hopeful that, with intensified prayers and following the required safety drills, the country and the entire world would triumph over this global scourge just as Jesus Christ overcame his trial and triumphed on the cross, which is the reason for the season.As a newspaper, we wish Christians and all Nigerians a safe and disease-free Easter celebration. We also urge them to remain steadfast for this COVID-19 trial will soon pass, but not without their cooperating with government’s directives.
This Easter season is like no other in living memory due to an invisible organism that has held mankind by the scruff of the neck. For over three months, and particularly the last one month, the world has been in the vice-like grip of a coronavirus pandemic that started in Wuhan, China, in late December and has spread throughout the whole world, killing few people at the outset but now causing deaths in thousands daily across the world. At the last count, over 1.75 million people have been afflicted by the virus and over 107,000 deaths, with the US, UK, Spain, Italy, China, France and Germany the worst hit. For Nigeria, it is over 300 infections and seven deaths.The disease has literally caused a seizure to the world community, paralyzing most countries as authorities reel out a raft of safety drills to try and halt the contagion from continuing its rampaging escalation across the world, key among them being social distancing and hand and oral hygiene. Many governments, both national and subnational, have put their areas of jurisdiction on lockdown to keep people apart in order to halt the viral transmissions.As a result, religious, business and social centres have been shut down for weeks now across the five continents. This has gravely affected the Lenten and Easter season in a massive way, with Christians forced to stay at home rather than congregating to mark the events. For those who have been forced to follow the events on television and through the social media, seeing Pope Francis lead the faithful in front of an empty Basilica in Rome, a place that ten thousand faithful usually gathered to worship and receive papal blessings, exemplifies the gravity of the situation. It is the same in other churches. Some churches and groups which tried to breach the stay-at-home order have had their gatherings dispersed and some of those present arrested and prosecuted.President Muhammadu Buhari, in his Easter message to Nigerians, expressed regret that a majority of Christians had found themselves marking Easter in a subdued manner, away from the usual congregation in churches, a development he described as unfortunate and unprecedented in living memory.In the message he personally signed, the president urged Nigerian Christians to remain hopeful, patient and be ready to make sacrifices, as Christ did, by adhering strictly to the safety protocols towards curbing the spread of the virus in the country, including remaining indoors and washing hands regularly with soap under running water among other COVID-19 containment measures.He enjoined Christians to rekindle their faith in Christ who overcame persecution, sufferings and displayed endurance, steadfastness and, above all, piety in the face of persecution and trial.
He added that this Easter celebration was an opportunity for Christians in particular, and Nigerians in general, to remain faithful and hopeful that, with intensified prayers and following the required safety drills, the country and the entire world would triumph over this global scourge just as Jesus Christ overcame his trial and triumphed on the cross, which is the reason for the season.As a newspaper, we wish Christians and all Nigerians a safe and disease-free Easter celebration. We also urge them to remain steadfast for this COVID-19 trial will soon pass, but not without their cooperating with government’s directives.