What are you living for?

   This day marks the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ after dying on the cross for our sins. To all those people who share the same faith with me, we recognize the significance of this event as this serves as the strong basis of the existence of our faith. A lot of us take it as the ultimate sacrifice our Lord could offer for our human salvation. But if we would be asked to do the same, can we replicate such act? Most of us would really find it difficult to follow. In fact, three prominent biblical characters have shown the same human response as what we would opt. They are in the persons of Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, and Simon Peter.

    Judas Iscariot instead of following Jesus all throughout His ministry decided to betray Him. The reason of such basically is that Jesus did not suit Judas' expectation as the Messiah. Jesus did not fight against the Jewish leaders in a radical way. He did not suit Judas' idea as a political Messiah who shall face his adversaries through rebellion. That despite Judas knowing the plan of Jesus' ministry and human salvation, he could not take the challenge of living the life for others. He could not afford to spare his own life as more political leaders of that time grew to become more angry to Jesus. He could no longer take the actions done by Jesus of mingling with the "least" people of that time. He lived to stick to his ideals. Eventually, after realizing the big mistake he has made, he took his own life as he can no longer take the guilt of his betrayal.

   Pontius Pilate, as we all know was the one who laid the decision of allowing Jesus to be crucified despite his findings that He did no wrong. On three occasions, when he interrogated Jesus in the hope of getting a strong ground for persecution, Pilate could not pin Him down. He himself am convinced that Jesus did not commit any criminal or treacherous act that can be taken against Him. However, because of the pressure laid about by people around him, the church leaders and their influenced people, Pilate gave in to their request. Washing his hands to signify that he had nothing to do with the Jesus' crucifixion, Pilate gave up to pressure in his fear to lose social acceptance. He was not able to live for upholding truth and justice.

   Simon Peter, Jesus' very faithful disciple, the one to whom Jesus assigned the seat of papacy, denied Jesus thrice during Christ's passion. Despite Jesus telling him during the last supper that he would deny Him three times before the cock crows, he strongly disagreed. However, as we all know, Peter committed the denial and Jesus just gave him a stare after the third time he denied Him. Peter ,in the best that he can, tried to live and stick with Christ until his death. On the contrary, he was not able to live with His conviction.

    On these three cases we see people who lived for something but failed to do so. Judas lived to fulfill his Messianic dream. Pilate lived to be socially accepted. Peter lived to stick by his convictions. Did they succeed? To some extent yes but eventually none of them became happy to what they lived for. The most tragic was Judas' suicidal act. They failed to recognize the idea that in order to be happy they must live for a bigger dream that is not for themselves but for others. Among the three, it was only Simon Peter who got the chance to redeem himself because Jesus allowed him to do so.

    Simon Peter became the shepherd of Jesus' flock. He started to take care of the welfare of others, protecting their best interest despite the risk of his persecution and eventual death. His reward? He got the respect of his contemporaries and was given the honor to become the first pope of the Catholic church. Was he able to live big? Yes, when he started to live for others, unconditionally.

    Do we want to be happy? Try to look within ourselves. Are we living just for ourselves? Or are we living for others to become better than who or what we are?

    Let me quote one status message from a friend, "East is where the sun rises. Easter is when the Son has risen." Together with this significant event in our faith, may we choose to be happy and live for something bigger than ourselves.