The tradegy of hopelessness

By Stephen Ojapah MSP 

“As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.  Don’t be alarmed; he said “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples…. (Mark 16: 5-7)”. Christianity is built on certain mysteries, and one of such mysteries of our faith, is the mystery of Christ’s resurrection. Saint Paul said: If Christ has not risen from the dead, our preaching would have been useless, our faith would have been useless too (I Corinthians 15: 14). 

Easter existed because there was a Good Friday. On Good Friday, the world witnessed a tragedy that was monumental. The death of an innocent soul. The triumph of evil over good, the choice of Barabbas over the son of God, the Choice of death over life.  For some Jews, Jesus was the hope they have been waiting for, for their liberation from the clutches of the Roman Empire. The tragedy of good Friday, was mind blowing. 

Years back I watched The Passion of Christ as directed by Mel Gibson. The movie has been a bestselling film for a long time, the drama of Good Friday is always made to come alive with the film. This year, I decided to watch something local and homely, by praying on Good Friday with the Parishioners of St Patrick’s Catholic Church Gidan Mai Kambu as they staged a phenomenal passion play. Many people watched with tears in their eyes; many were seen in real ecstasy as the scene of betrayal was acted, the accusation leveled against Jesus by the Jewish authorities. The scene of the drama at Pilate’s Palace was more than real for many. The sentencing was swift and irrational. Two thousand years later. The whole episode is made to come alive again for all Christians. 

As Jesus was taken to the grave, his story is supposedly ended. The disciples, were meant to begin a new life because Jesus their hope is no more. The whole concept of Easter is totally alien to humanity. No one has ever risen from the dead. And Jesus was not expected to rise. Isaiah 55: 8-9 says “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher that your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”.  For the Jews, Greeks and Romans; resurrection is a topic for discussion to be listened to only by the unwise. Its even worse in the case of Jesus. Who claimed he was son of God, and friend of Abraham,  All hope was gone in the case of Jesus.

When Jesus was eating the last supper, he mentioned to his disciples that one of them was going to betray him. Peter said to Jesus, even if all will leave you, I will never leave you. And Jesus said to him before the cock will crow you must have betrayed me thrice. Indeed, he betrayed his master when he realized that all hope was gone at his arrest. Hopelessness, by definition, is the belief that things aren’t going to get better or that you can’t succeed. Hopelessness was what Peter saw after the arrest of Jesus; and that was why it was very easy for him to say “I do not know him” to the bystander who asked him “ant you one of his disciples too”

Ralph Davis said: “Our hopelessness and our helplessness are no barrier to God’s work. Indeed, our utter incapacity is often the prop He delights to use for His next act… We are facing one of the principles of Yahweh’s modus operandi. When His people are without strength, without resources, without hope, without human gimmicks – then He loves to stretch forth His hand from heaven. Once we see where God often begins, we will understand how we may be encouraged.” 

Yes. As Christian, we are ministers of Hope, even in the face of the most hopeless situation which surrounds our world from every corner. Hopelessness can be so overwhelming looking at the different scenes of death across our continents. The war in Ukraine, and the border crises in America, the civil war in some parts of Africa especially Nigeria. We see hopelessness in the security crises in Nigeria. On the 13th of April, the families of the victims of the March 28th Train attacks between Abuja and Kaduna came on air to beg the federal government to rescue their loved ones still in the hands of the kidnappers after almost two weeks. The number of kidnapped victims in Nigeria are endless, with no hope of rescue in sight. 

Like the disciples of Jesus who ran away after the death of Jesus were left to figure out what the death of Jesus could mean, so are many in Nigeria left to imagine what our future will look like with the current insecurity. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria introduced the Prayer for Nigeria in distress since 1992, during the military era, the conference saw a nation in serious “anarchy” and “chaos”. They continued the prayer till date. But for many who were alive and where part of the decision to make the prayer a national program for all Catholics, they said it was never this bad. The emir of Daura has said, the insecurity we are witnessing now is worse than the civil war of 1966. How else can we describe hopelessness? 

This is the biggest tragedy. Thinking and imagining that the world can never be free from nuclear weapons, that the world can never be free from war, that the world can never be free from banditry and kidnapping for ransom. The tragedy of thinking we can never conquer our vices, the tragedy of giving up on ourselves, not making effort to keep trying again and again. In such hopelessness, the light of Easter will always elude us. Therefore, while we hope for the best in our personal lives, we turn to God in work and prayers, for the grace never to lose hope even when all Hope is gone, Happy Easter to you all.

Fr Stephen Ojapah is a priest of the Missionary Society of St Paul. He is equally the director for Interreligious Dialogue and Ecumenism for the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, a member of IDFP. He is also a KAICIID Fellow