Easter Message

April, 2025

Dear Beloved of God,

In this Easter message I would like to invite you to walk with me on the path the Spirit has been teaching, guiding and transforming me/us through the last 40 days.

There are times when the Lenten journey seems like a walk in the woods and then there are years when that crossing is a long and hard struggle through a hot and barren desert.

This year has been that for me and, for the many whom I have spoken with, the latter.

As Lent began this March, a very dear friend of mine for over 35 years, Santos Avalos, was struck by a speeding motorcycle as he was walking in front of his home. The impact sent him flying and, upon hitting his head, he was knocked unconscious and his brain began to bleed. The local medical intervention was, fortunately, able to stabilize his condition.

Yet, a week later, he died …... leaving a huge hole in the circle of family and friends.

At his wake and funeral, the tears flowed like a river. He was such a good man and so loved by his family and community, yet death came suddenly and there was no time to say to a conscious Santos…..

“Thank you for your wonderful life

and for all the love that you gave to the world!

Goodbye...we love you!”

Later in this Lenten desert, we received word from the doctor that our dear family member had days or weeks to live, that death was at the door.

The whole family has been in vigil now for several weeks.

Recently, the local Franciscan priest came to offer the Anointing of the Sick. We all gathered around and, in this sacred time of prayer, a deep vulnerability was experienced by all where words that needed to be spoken were spoken, as well as words of love, thanksgiving and forgiveness.

And the tears flowed.

The news reaches us incessantly and we learn that bombs continue to fall in Ukraine and Gaza. People are maimed and murdered through warfare.

In many of our cities, immigrants and refugees have hidden in fear, and many have been hunted down and thrown into for-profit detention centers, separated from their loved ones and forcibly returned to the lands from which they had fled due to poverty and violence.

We hear their cries and have seen their tears.

How many of us have experienced the burning fire of righteous anger this Lent?

Has it brought us to the empty and barren place of recognizing the deep sadness that we carry for the so many things that we cannot change?

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, in his recent book,

The Tears of Things, speaks of these realities.

"…the realization that all things have tears,

……....and most things deserve tears,

…………..might even be defined as a form of salvation:

from ourselves and from our illusions.

The prophets knew and taught and modeled that anger must first

be recognized,

allowed

— even loved! —

as an expression of the deep, normally inaccessible sadness

that all of us carry.

Even Jesus, our enlightened one, “sobbed” over the whole city of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41) and at the death of his friend, Lazarus (John 11:35).

The older I get, the more it feels like

......I must forgive almost everything for not being perfect

…..…...or as I first wanted

………………..…..or needed it

……………….………… ….to be.

This is true of Christianity, the United States, politics in general, and most of all …………… myself.

Remember…..

if you do not transform your pain and egoic anger,

you will always transmit it in another form.

This transformation is the supreme work of all true spirituality and spiritual communities.

Those communities offer us a place where our sadness and rage can be refined into human sympathy and active compassion.

Forgiveness of reality — including tragic reality —

is the heart of the matter.

All things cry for forgiveness in their imperfection,

............their incompleteness,

.....................their woundedness,

their constant movement toward death.

Mere rage or resentment will not change any of these realities.

Tears often will, though:

…..first by changing the one who weeps,

……..and then by moving any who draw near to the weeping."

Last week, 22 members of our Beloved Communion traveled on pilgrimage to Montgomery, Alabama.

This powerful travel learning experience, organized by our Truth and Reconciliation Commission, invited us to visit sacred places such as the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and reflect upon the experiences of those who were enslaved and those who were terrorized by lynching.

We came to a deeper understanding of the roots and continued practices of institutionalized racism.

We also came away inspired by stories and lives that struggled forward, people who fought for freedom and justice and would not stop loving and forgiving.

We traveled through the past and into the present, by way of story, history, personal narratives and art.

I am so hopeful that the tears that were shed through our eyes will continue to transform our hearts and call us to help transform our society.

And then, once again, at the end of our Lenten journeys, we hear a sacred story of our Faith Tradition,

filled with weeping,

tears

and

….. transformations!

In John 20:11-18 we hear this beautiful story of

Mary of Magdala:

"Meanwhile, Mary stayed outside near the tomb weeping.

Then, still weeping, she stooped to look inside and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been: one at the head, the other at the feet.