AFRICA - An Easter of life and freedom, for a reconciled Africa

Kara (Agenzia Fides) - Easter, the central mystery of Christian faith, has a meaning and brings special auspices on the African continent: "In essence, Easter is the transition from death to life", explains to Agenzia Fides Father Donald Zagore, Ivorian theologian of the Society of African Missions (SMA), commenting on the meaning of the imminent Easter on the continent. "How many times have we desired our condition on the continent marked by calamity, servitude, misery, death, is transformed into life, in order to become a continent where life is not only celebrated, but preferred to death, love to hatred, and peace to war? On our continent we are really hungry and thirsty for life", continues the missionary.
"Beyond the liturgical temporal dimension, Easter must permanently become for Africa a mental state, an operating way of thinking, a channel of action, an ethic in which the being of African man develops and is realized. The Easter ethics, which is an ethic that promotes freedom and life in freedom, must become the foundation on which the daily life of the African man is constantly built. It must become part of the socio-cultural and spiritual heritage of African man", notes Fr. Zagore.
The missionary says he is convinced that "in order to carry out this project, it will be necessary to deepen the paschal mystery in order to find the necessary strengths, graces and arguments. The mystery of Easter begins with the mystery of the Incarnation. What is celebrated during the Incarnation is first of all the reconciliation of what was previously opposed: the reconciliation between God and man. It is this same reconciliation that ends at Easter in the extreme sacrifice of Christ".
Fr. Donald concludes: "Africa needs to rediscover this divine experience of reconciliation. Pope Benedict XVI, in Africae Munus, the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Church in Africa at the service of reconciliation, justice and peace, says that mission today in Africa can be understood only in terms of reconciliation. The sacrifice of Christ, who reconciled everything with his blood, must not be reduced to an illusion. This is why living reconciliation, rather than a challenge, is an imperative for post-Easter Africa. The life offered by the African Easter ethics of reconciliation will only make sense in an Africa reconciled with itself and making reconciliation its raison d'etre". (DZ/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 20/3/2018)

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