Does Easter Raise Eternal Questions?

We had it so good for so long, we stopped asking ourselves why, and started taking our well-being for granted. The things the prior generations taught us no longer seemed relevant. Couldn’t we just do our own thing and be good with it?
David Brooks, National Public Radio “All Things Considered” commentator, a New York Times No. 1 Best Seller, and Yale University teacher, wrote a provocative piece March 31 in The New York Times entitled, “The Strange Persistence of Guilt” which ought to give us pause. He referenced Alasdair MacIntyre’s book, “After Virtue,” asking: Imagine if we lost the theoretical coherence of science; and imagine if we still used scientific words but had no framework to explain how things fit together.
He equates this to the state of our moral discourse today. We use words like virtue and vice without any overall metaphysics, without any understanding of the basic causes and nature of things. “We have words and emotional instincts about what feels right and wrong, but no settled criteria to help us think, argue and decide.”
“Instead society has become a free-form demolition derby of moral confrontation” marked by fanaticism, rage, et al. Brooks references essayist Wilfred McClay who believes that we are still driven by a world with an inextinguishable need to feel morally adequate.
Brooks’ view is that we have no clear framework to guide us in our quest for goodness. “Worse, people have a sense of guilt and sin, but no longer a sense that they live in a loving universe marked by divine mercy, grace, and forgiveness. There is sin but no formula for redemption….
“Sin is a stain, a weight, and a debt. But at least religions offer people a path from self-reflection and confession to atonement and absolution. Mainstream culture has no clear path upward from guilt.”
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Brooks’ analysis raises eternal questions. Easter offers reassuring answers. Easter is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, after his crucifixion. His resurrection marks the triumph over evil, triumph over sin and triumph over death. The risen Christ offers eternal life to those who accept him.
Art Hall
From the Bible — Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6