Easter Sunday With News of a Regular Day

Supermarkets are lined with marshmallow peeps and chocolate eggs. Pastel colors fill the aisles of various stores, while families come together in celebration and head off to church for mass on Easter Sunday. Like many other religious holidays, Easter can be used as a medium to draw attention to religiously motivated current events. Pope Benedict XVI focused on relevant world issues in his first Easter speech prior to mass on the holy Sunday.
This year, Pope Benedict XVI used his time in the spotlight to further urge countries to opt for diplomacy when dealing with the fragile issue of nuclear activity – a clear reference to the recent advancements made in Tehran regarding the production of nuclear reactors. The Pope also expressed his wish for Palestinians and Israelis to further reconcile their differences so that a peaceful two country coexistence may in time develop. It is ironic that on Christianity’s most joyous day of the year, such somber topics were necessarily addressed. We are living in uncertain and scary times – there is no day that we can set aside merely for celebration. Celebration these days is tempered by current issues that are a constant presence in our world. The question “What would Jesus do?” is begged during the bittersweet holiday.
Hopefully the Pope’s message to the Christian community and the rest of the world did not fall on idol ears. We are living in pressing times when it is not enough for people to only hear speeches on the state of current affairs from politicians and anchormen – a religious figure such as the Pope can carry a different and more powerful meaning in his speech.