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Dear Friends:
Alleluia, Christ is Risen! Our long Lenten fast of prayer and self-examination has ended, and now our Easter feast begins. Whatever your feast includes, I pray that it is filled with joy and shared with those you love most.
Feasting, like fasting, is biblical. In Easter Sunday’s reading from Isaiah, the prophet envisions the kingdom of God as a feast of “rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.” At this meal, unlike too many feasts both then and now, everyone eats.
But this vision of the heavenly feast is not only about food and drink. The prophet tells us that on the holy mountain, God will destroy death forever and wipe away the tears from all faces. This vision is a comfort to anyone who has lost loved ones, but it is not just about our personal grief. Isaiah is proclaiming to all of God’s people that death and dying will be no more.
The end of death and suffering is the promise of Easter, not only for our own lives, but also for our hurting world. The tomb is empty and Christ is risen, and like Mary Magdalene on Easter morning, we are called into the world to share the good news that heals the brokenhearted and transforms lives.
Christ is risen indeed!
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