Happy Easter!
Easter begins in the dark. Always.
Many problems darken the horizon of our time. We need but think of the urgent need to work for peace, to base relationships between peoples on solid premises of justice and solidarity, and to defend human life from conception to its natural end. And what should we say of the thousand inconsistencies of a globalized world where the weakest, the most powerless and the poorest appear to have so little hope?
We live in the midst of a culture of death marked by a false understanding of human sexuality, by spiritual and material poverty, abortion, addiction and attempts to decriminalize assisted suicide and euthanasia.
It’s easy to identify with Mary Magdalene.
In all the accounts of the empty tomb and the Resurrection, Mary Magdalene (alone or with any number of her companions) comes to the tomb while it is still dark. She feels the pre-dawn darkness around her and within her: a void of hopelessness, a crushing sense of loss, grief that cannot be articulated in words.
Easter begins in the dark of night. Easter is God’s definitive “yes” to life and the beginning of the process of bringing hope to every situation and segment of life.
If you have ever kept vigil, worried to death at the bedside of a loved one, if you have ever been unable to sleep because of what was to come, if you have ever been overwhelmed by doubt or grief, Easter has dawned in your life.
God has been with you through those long hours; God has embraced you in your isolation; God has come in the morning.
Through His death and Resurrection, Christ has established an everlasting kingdom of life, a kingdom where each and every human life is respected at every stage.
Easter begins in the dark earth. Easter is a seed planted in the new spring soil that struggles through the winter hardness to blossom. If you’ve ever struggled to change or worked hard to remake your life in the wake of loss, hurt or devastation, Easter has dawned in your life. Easter is that light that reveals death is not the final ending, but the passage way to the God who first breathed life into you.
Easter begins in ashes. If you’ve ever been swallowed up in hopelessness or fear, or if you’ve ever been paralyzed by hurt or ill treatment, Easter has dawned in your life. No matter how hard we fall, no matter how broken we are, no matter how deep the chasm into which we’ve fallen, Easter is the Risen One walking in your midst in the compassion of loved ones, the support of friends, the dedication of saints.
Easter begins in the darkness of night, in the seeming finality of earth, in the hopelessness of ashes. But Easter moves beyond those states. Easter is more than dogmas and verities.
Believers do not come to church at Easter simply to celebrate and remember the historical reality that Jesus rose from the dead. They come, as they do all Sundays, in order to taste this victory over death, this gift of new life.
Easter is the stubborn hope of a God who recreates us and our world until his dream of a humanity bound in his love is realized. Easter is the Risen Christ in our midst, enabling us to recreate our broken lives in his compassion and peace.
Christ’s victory is a victory for today, because we share His risen life now. If we share His life, we are an Easter people. The Risen Christ calls us all to build a culture of life, to proclaim the victory of life, and take our stand against all the forces that threaten to eclipse the value of life. We can stand before these forces, declaring that they no longer have any power over us or any place in our midst.
We need not fear the final outcome of the battle, for life is already decided. Christ has already conquered sin and death. Christ is risen!
IF YOU’VE EVER STRUGGLED TO CHANGE OR WORKED HARD TO REMAKE YOUR LIFE IN THE WAKE OF LOSS, HURT OR DEVASTATION, EASTER HAS DAWNED IN YOUR LIFE.