As you go about your reflections on Easter, think about this: more than one year since the outbreak of this global pandemic called COVID-19, we Filipinos are experiencing ECQ once again. Businesses and travel came to a standstill, similar to how it was in the beginning just last year.
However, this time is different. We learned more about COVID-19, us along with the rest of the world are rolling out vaccines in the race to inoculate our population, but then we are experiencing 10,000-15,000 cases on the daily. Now, the numbers of cases become names. And sadly, these names become those of people we know.
Addiction, the Holy Week and the Pandemic
Now that it’s Holy Week, what does all this mean for us? As we also continually struggle not just with getting by, but also with our demons—our addiction or those of our loved ones.
Disorder, chaos, destruction, and death come at us from all directions. And with us in a lockdown with no certainty of what lies ahead, it seems like we have nowhere else to go. It’s easy to feel afraid, helpless, and hopeless.
Will we ever get a breakthrough and find healing? Will things change for the better in the face of all this fear and loss?
In the same way that we think about a person recovering from active addiction that has devastated their and their family’s lives, we look around us and think: only a miracle can save us now.
What We Can Learn from Reflections on Easter and Recovery
There is a very direct and meaningful symbolism of death and resurrection—and hope—that you can find in addiction recovery. It is the best time to discuss this now, a pivotal Holy Week for us Filipinos, whose population is peppered with meth addicts, alcoholics, and problematic gamblers, much like any other nation.
However, most important for us Filipinos, with a majority of us celebrating this Holy Week, we as Christians can learn from recovering addicts highly profound lessons on new life, healing, and hope. In much the same way that Christians surrender their lives to God, many recovering addicts go through a 12-Step Program and surrender their lives and recovery to a “Higher Power.” Because they can’t do it alone. They must surrender their old lives to find renewal and healing.
For many, this surrender is hard. And this is exactly why it’s the first step of the 12-Step Program. In parallel to our lives as Christians and as Filipinos, we are at a turning point and we have to accept our new reality. Not in a way that we are surrendering and being incapable of making any change. We are letting go of old notions and old ideas, letting go of our old selves in order to embrace something new. And only then can healing can begin. Only then can hope be found.
May this Holy Week, along with your reflections on Easter and resurrection, serve as a reminder for us to pause. To look deeply within. To look around and find the things that are truly important in life. To find strength and hope in the midst of all this uncertainty around us. May we find lessons and inspirations not just from people from the Bible, but also from people today who have turned their lives around. Those people who have conquered their own demons and turned their backs on addiction for good.
More importantly, it is time for us to know shed our old lives and look on to one with more hope, which can only be possible if we all work together and support one another.
May you all have a meaningful Holy Week as you go about your reflections on Easter and the days ahead.
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