“May the strength of the risen Christ reach us and, renewing us from within, transform our sorrows into joy.” This is how Bishop Bernardo Álvarez expressed himself yesterday during the Eucharist that he presided over at the Cathedral on Easter Sunday. In the course of it, commemorating the baptism, the sprinkling with the water that was blessed during the celebration of the Vigil on the night of Saturday to Sunday was carried out.
“There is not only a resurrection of the body, there is also one of the heart”, which is for day to day. The same is the one that “concretely depends on us, from now on”, the bishop maintained, strengthening the hope and novelty born of Easter, since “it is not true that there is never, for us, anything new under the sun”.
Álvarez also presented in his homily the experience of the encounter with the living Jesus of both the apostle Saint Paul and Paul Claudel, as two examples of the power of the resurrection, whose effects reach people.
At the end of the mass, the prelate congratulated the faithful on Easter and gave thanks to those who made Holy Week possible so that, this year, it could also be celebrated in the streets.
The procession with the Blessed Sacrament then went from the Cathedral to the parish of Our Lady of the Conception. There, specifically from the tower, the bishop imparted the blessing with the Blessed Sacrament.
In Santa Cruz, the procession of the Resurrected also took place from the church of San Francisco, while in the afternoon the passage of the Holy Christ from the parish of Santiago Apostol did the same.
Taganana
Yesterday was also a day to recover traditions that have been maintained, despite the years, on Easter Sunday, such as the burning of Judas, in Taganana, where the doll that represents the apostle who betrayed Jesus, once again walked the streets of the town on the shoulders of its neighbors, on Saturday night, to be burned yesterday after the celebration of the Easter mass. This tradition dates back to 1630, the date on which it is recorded for the first time. The ritual begins with the making of a doll, a representation of Judas, one of the twelve apostles of Christianity who betrayed Jesus Christ. He is a very controversial character, despised and rejected, turned into a symbol of evil. On Easter Sunday, the doll is placed on the outskirts of town, in a clear area, but highlighted so that everyone can see it. There he will be given a figurative trial in which a poster is placed on him with his sentence: for a traitor!
