Irish Insights: encouragement, love, forgiveness

As the Irish approach Easter, celebrating Christ’s Resurrection, students and faculty have been reflecting on what Jesus’s sacrifice means for both the community and on an individual level.

Britney Gamez, senior:
In her life, senior Britney Gamez said she uses Christ’s Passion and Resurrection as encouragement and an example of how people should treat each other, especially in times when someone might treat her poorly.
“I always think about there is a person out there who wouldn't treat me like that and it's God,” Gamez said.

“God just loves us so much and you just love us even with our own flaws that we judge ourselves for or judge others for that he died for you and me.”

Gamez uses Christ’s example to help her in times of sadness, looking to her crucifix as a reminder.

“Whenever I cry, I always see it, and I always just remember there is a person that really does love me and did die for me,” Gamez said

She offered advice for anyone going through a hard time.

“You just go back to your roots, you go back home and sometimes just ask God ‘help me’ or ‘what's going on?’”

Franny Santos, sophomore:
For sophomore Franny Santos, Christ’s death and Resurrection is an example of how God can create beauty even from suffering.
“Any suffering I have, even if it's something really small, God can use it, or he allows it so that it can become something really beautiful, and I can learn from it,” Santos said.

“He made it so that Jesus' death opened the doors to heaven for us, and so if he can take that and turn it into that, what can he do with what I go through for myself and for other people?”

Deacon Tom March:
“That Resurrection is that culmination of the passion of God's proof that there's nothing we can do that he won't forgive.
“It affects me in that it leaves me feeling pretty petty when I won't forgive somebody, or I get my feelings hurt, and it also leaves me knowing that I have a God that loves me, and so I want to go to him.”

March sees this forgiveness in his own life.

“As a parent, you have so many experiences where what you want is the opportunity to forgive your child so that you can rectify the relationship,” March said.

“There's nothing my kids could ever do that I wouldn't be willing to forgive, to heal the relationship and have the relationship with them, so long as they recognize they couldn't continue in that.”