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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 APRIL 2022 OPINION 3 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 APRIL 2022 Mikiel Galea Letters & Clarifications Faith, love and glory JOHN Guillaumier's letter 'No evi- dence of divine mercy' is the latest periodic outburst which carries a progressively stronger dose of intent. Those who embrace faith see these pandemics and tragedies from an- other angle and are convinced that God's design is not always clear to us. The existence of pain, suffering and death are indeed powerful ac- cusations against a loving God but the marvellous power of the Cross has worked wonders with those who follow Him throughout the centuries and helped them go forward through the Jordan of of our mortality to the promised Land of the Living. There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes even if you lose, you win. The greatest tragedy in his- tory, the death of Christ on the cross, resulted in the best thing that could happen, the opening of heaven to human beings. But that is too difficult for cynics to understand because their diehard reluctance to embrace faith in Christ prevents them from seeing the deep sense of things and events. We live in a broken world. Jesus was honest enough to tell us we'd have trials and tribulations. Sure, everybody likes to understand more about why but who dares interpret God's will? Without any doubt the ultimate answer is Jesus' passion and death and His presence. Christians would never believe in God if it were not for the cross… in the real world of pain how could one worship a God who was immune to it? He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we stamp an- other mark, the cross which sym- bolizes divine suffering. The cross of Christ is God's only self-justification in such a world of ours (again John Stott): "Nay hold this cross, he said, 'and follow Me. This yoke is easy, this burden light, Not hard or grevious if you wear it tight,' So did I follow Him, Who could not move, An un- caught captive in the hands of love. Once He came, then never again would they say, 'He does not know what it is like to suffer'. He walked through the forest first and made the pathway and showed us that without Good Friday, there would be no East- er Sunday. Never again can anyone say 'What have I done to deserve this?'." What a metamorphosical scenario this day presents! Just like the birth of a child which brings about un- told happiness with the pangs and pains of childbirth forgotten. Job had everything restored to him sevenfold. Pretty little bunnies are hopping about and flowers and sunsets. In the end, coming to faith remains for all a sense of homecoming, pick- ing up the threads of a lost life, of responding to a bell that had long been ringing, of taking a place at a table that had long been vacant. (Malcolm Muggeridge). Happy Easter to everyone! John Azzopardi Zabbar