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Let us celebrate the feast…with sincerity and truth.
What words can adequately describe this holy day?
Struggling to find the words I remembered that last year on Good Friday my youngest son’s dog, Cleo, died. She was part of the family long before his children were born and they were all saddened at her passing.
Max, the youngest child who was five at the time, thoughtfully reminded his mom and dad that sometimes people come back to life. His kindergarten class was learning about Easter and at some level Max understood the resurrection of Jesus as a sign of hope and he offered that hope to comfort his parents.
Today, our churches are bright with lilies and banners and crowds gathering to hear the words of Easter. After the solemnity of Holy Thursday, the darkness and silence of Good Friday and the quiet of Holy Saturday we welcome the messages of hope in the music, scripture, and homily.
In today's gospel we hear of Mary Magdalene going to the tomb where Jesus was buried only to find it empty. She hurries to tell the other disciples what she found. There are two elements of hope here: Jesus rose from the dead as he said would happen and a woman carried that extraordinary news to the world.
Resurrection is not an easy concept to wrap our heads around. It seems impossible, outside our experience, but aren’t all things possible with God?
In her book, Amazing Grace, A Vocabulary of Faith, (Riverhead Books, 1998) Kathleen Norris devotes an entire chapter to the ideas of belief, doubt, and sacred ambiguity. I have read this chapter more than once. The first time I balked as it seemed she was saying we should not question things but upon reading it again I realized she was making holy our doubts, even our disappointment in the institutional church. She suggests that when faith ebbs we remember when our faith was strong and do our best to dwell in that memory. She writes about a wise monk who advocated for honest prayer, asking God to help our belief or lack of it, and how this practice can lead to renewed faith.
John Flaherty shared a prayer with us last Easter about the liturgies of holy week that said, “…don’t evaluate, discuss, or deconstruct your liturgies immediately after you celebrate them. Leave that for another day and time. Enter into these three days fully. Take care of your own interior life, tending your own fire, and enter the prayer yourselves. Let your experience simply be that….”
Kathleen Norris and John Flaherty are on to something important, as was little Max. The story of Jesus is real. It may not all make sense all the time. We might not understand it as fully as we want to, but it offers hope, a hope that keeps us engaged in faith.
On this very special and holy day enjoy each moment, each prayer, each song and the time you have with those you love.
Wishing you a blessed Easter!
Peace,
Anne
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