Editor:
A sunny Easter Sunday, like we just had, has a special significance for me.
When I was a little boy my grandmother would always guarantee that Easter Sunday would be a bright and sunny day because God did not want his only son, Jesus Christ, to arise from the dead on a grey and rainy day. The fact that I was living my childhood in southern Italy may have contributed to my grandmother’s meteorological acumen.
She explained that Easter was a time of reality, whereas Christmas was a time of hope and optimism. The Easter season, according to her, taught us that the world is rife with cruelty and injustice, and Christ taught us by example that we must resist and endure.
The fact that she had lived through two world wars and had lost family members in both conflicts may have had something to do with her point of view.
I haven’t stepped inside a church in decades so I can’t say that I am an authority on the prevailing Easter message. But I do have friends and acquaintances who attend church faithfully, and these individuals are most definitely not the pharisaic glad-handers that evoke loathing and revulsion.
These individuals are sincere and sensitive people who have genuine empathy for the less fortunate. Most of these people are retired and they volunteer their time and energy in various activities that support our community. They work in thrift stores, they serve on committees, they cook and bake for the needy, and so on. They do this without fuss, without fanfare, without pretense.
A few years ago my mother in law lay dying and we, as a family, did not want her to die alone. We set up a round-the-clock, 24-hour vigil that soon started to take a toll on us. Before we knew it, an attentive care worker made some phone calls and someone approached us with people – volunteers in the community - who would spell us out in our vigil.
It was an amazing gesture of solidarity and support from people that we did not know, and a reminder that altruism and kindness are common practice for many members of our community.
One of my friends is a retired chef and volunteers his time and skills to a church that serves meals to the indigent and needy. He seeks neither recognition nor accolades. He does this work quietly and unreservedly because it is within his means to do so and he sees it as part of his life to help wherever he can.
No preaching, no boasting about his religion, no condemnation of the unfortunate. He just quietly goes about working to make his community, and indeed this world, a better place.
My grandmother’s message was to “resist and endure.” I think that in many ways my friends are doing just that. When they volunteer their time to help others, they are in their own way, “resisting” poverty, resisting hopelessness, resisting despair.
And they are “enduring” because they are determined, they are resolute, and they carry on.
I am not sure what the Easter message should be, but my grandmother’s words seem like good advice. And the work of the many good people in our community is proof that decency and empathy are not just talk, but active choices in our daily lives.
Frank Buonanno
