Again, a Most Prescient Easter Reflection in Our Time of Crisis

On the occasion of Easter in 2002, Lyndon LaRouche issued a statement entitled “Easter, A Time for Reflection” (Easter, A Time For Reflection, by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. (larouchepub.com))  He opened the piece as follows:

“On the Isle of Capri, the Octavian who was later enthroned as the Emperor Augustus, sealed a pact with the priests of Mithra. Through aid of that pact, he overturned the reign of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, and established the evil which was the Roman Empire. During his reign, Jesus Christ was born. It became the pleasure of Augustus’ adopted successor, the Emperor Tiberius, also at Capri, to receive the news of his agent’s, Pontius Pilate’s, judicial murder of Christ. Augustus and Tiberius have had many imitators in modern times. These have included the paganist, self-styled “Sun King” of France, Louis XIV, and that parody of Louis XIV known as the first fascist regimes, those of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and his successor Napoleon III. The continuation of that modern fascist revival of ancient imperial Rome, has included the followers of Immanuel Kant and the first modern philosopher of the fascist state, G.W F. Hegel. From this same tradition, came many followers, including the so-called Carlist tradition of Hispanidad, the Confederate States of America, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and the fascist legal tradition of Carl Schmitt, Roland Freisler, and today’s U.S. Justice Antonin Scalia. This is the universal fascism typified by the policies of such murderous devotees of Nashville Agrarian William Yandell Elliott’s Confederacy tradition, as Zbigniew Brzezinski, Samuel P. Huntington, and Henry A. Kissinger.

Now, in a time of great menace to all present and future humanity, Christianity celebrates a Holy Week. On the occasion of that Easter Sunday, how should we view the presently perilous circumstances of the world? How should all peoples, of whatever religious profession, from around the world, view the leading developments of these days? Let them receive the news, that this Sunday celebration is a message to all those people who must be hoping for a sublime intervention against the murderous evil of those universal fascists, who are, at this moment, menacing humanity as a whole?

I am not as a priest, but, rather, a person assigned to simply serve as a hand of Providence. Such are the boundaries of my profession, and so I serve you in this matter immediately at hand, on this day.

My message to you is this; to achieve a sublime result, you must let yourself be inspired by a sublime thought, and combine that thought, as Jeanne d'Arc did, with the will to risk whatever that sublime intention demands of you.

On this occasion, you should focus your attention upon the great work of Johann Sebastian Bach, in his Passion of St. John, and, most notably, the Passion of St. Matthew. These musical services for Eastertime were intended for the participation of the congregation and musicians, to enable them better to relive the sublime experience of Christ's own passion. This treatment by Bach is outstanding for the power with which it conveys the clearest and most loving message any Christian could be capable of delivering to any people, of any profession, in these terrible times, in any part of the world today.”

In this Easter season the world faces an even greater crisis. In the United States we are in the fight of our lives against a fascist menace which has metastasized to include most of this country’s wealthy and professional classes. In the name of defeating the leading Republican presidential candidate they are prepared to jail him and use all the weaponry of the state against the growing political movement he represents, a movement of working people and farmers of every age, sex, or race. The people realize that they fight against principalities and powers and must be willing to sacrifice themselves, if necessary, for the higher good and the future of their children. Similar battles are emerging throughout the former Christian states as Christianity itself and the entire tradition of western civilization are under sustained assault by those who believe themselves to be God while espousing the actual tenets of overt satanism. The elites who run NATO, European governments, the globalized financial system, and the U.S. security state now tease the idea of a nuclear war as their power becomes ever more tenuous.

LaRouche’s reflection (and we urge you to take the time to read the entire piece) and Bach’s music are both a balm and an inspiration from which one can summon the spiritual commitment required to overcome today’s crisis. Read LaRouche’s reflection and devote the three hours or so to an uninterrupted communion with Bach’s Passion of St. Matthew BWV 244.

We suggest two versions of the performance. One by the greatest conductor of the 20^th century, Wilhelm Furtwängler, performed in 1954 in Vienna. An audio only version is available on YouTube at BACH: Matthäus-Passion BWV 244 / Furtwängler · Wiener Philharmoniker - YouTube

For a contemporary video version we recommend this performance: Bach - St. Matthew Passion - Iván Fischer | Concertgebouworkest - YouTube

The full text of the Passion, which you will want to follow as you listen to the music is available here:

Matthaus-Passion BWV 244 - English Translation [Parallel Format]

Translation of J.S. Bach’s Vocal Work

English Translation [Parallel Format]