Happy Easter!
April 12, 2020~ Easter Sunday
JOIN US TONIGHT, EASTER VIA ZOOM AT 7:00PM!
While we can no longer gather in Linehan Chapel, we can still gather via Zoom for a weekly Liturgy of the Word service reflecting on the readings of the day and a homily. Please join us via Zoom at:https://naz.zoom.us/j/144809501
Meeting ID: 144 809 501
"May the hearts of those who have enough be open to filling the empty hands of those who do not have the bare necessities.” ~ Pope Francis, Easter Vigil Homily 2020
Happy Easter!
Our Lenten journey, which leads us to today, was certainly not like anything we imagined it would be. The placement of the word “happy” before Easter does cause me to pause, especially when so many are experiencing loss, pain, and suffering in these days of fear and uncertainty. Forty days ago, when we gathered for Ash Wednesday, we reflected on what we would “give up for Lent” none of us would have imagined we were going to give up our lives as we had known them. Lent is a journey of detachment, culminating in the pain and loss of Good Friday, ultimately leading to a new understanding of ourselves and the embracement of possibilities on Easter.
One of the many images found in the Easter gospel readings, one that serves as a metaphor for reflection in many Easter homilies, is the empty tomb. We see many pictures on FB today of a stone tomb with a large boulder rolled away. On many Easters, I have focused my reflected on this stone, which once served as a reminder of death and loss, but now in its new location, serves as a reminder of new beginnings and opportunities. Reflecting this Easter on a stone rolled away is difficult when we all feel entombed. The world has been shaken by Covid 19. Many lives have been lost, and many people are suffering physically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually. The death toll numbers are overwhelming and the timeline of recovery seems to get longer every day. The tomb does not feel empty on this Easter Sunday.
Easter in a lot of ways is the Christian Commencement ceremony – Easter marks a beginning, not an end. The Church reminds us that Easter is an eight-week celebration, a journey that begins on Easter Sunday (well, technically on the evening of Holy Saturday) and will continue until the great Feast of Pentecost on Sunday, May 31. Just as Lent is a gradual journey of understanding of what prevents us from living fulfilled lives, the Easter season is one that invites us to reflect on how we are called to embrace a newfound understating of how we are called to live fulfilled lives. Lives of love for ourselves and our neighbors.
Most of us, including myself, have been saying we can’t wait until our lives return to “normal.” However, Easter reminds us that return to the old normal is not what we can or should hope to achieve. Instead, we ask ourselves, how have these days of loss and separation caused us to realize what is truly valuable? How have we, as individuals and as a society, come to a greater realization of the inequities and injustices that exist in our world? How have we been introduced to a new way of living?
These questions, and many others, ask us to see how the resurrected Jesus represents a new understating of ourselves and our world. A new understating of life rooted promise, hope, and joy. Yes, this Easter is unlike no other in most of our lifetimes; however, it is like every other Easter in its invitation to live our lives in a new way. May we choose to live into these days between now a Pentecost, not longing for how our life was, but rather for how our life could be.
Easter Peace, Joy, and Hope!
~ Jamie