It is the day of Resurrection! Jesus is the Victor over fear, death and everything we name as darkness. Christ’s peace, joy and blessing to you and your family in the Easter time!
Here on the cover of this bulletin there is the icon of Jesus going down into the deepest darkness. He is looking for us who are represented by Adam and Eve. He has gone to a very great trouble for love. He’s knocked down the doors of death and stands on them like an Olympiad who has won the gold. But the prize Jesus wins is us, snatched from eternal loss. Jesus holds, not just humanity in general, but each of us as particular persons with our names and personal history. He has gone to the deepest place of our tragedy to save us from the final soul-death that comes with drugs, exploitation, self-loathing, alcohol destruction, gluttony, resentment, insecurity, abuse, fear and loneliness. We each name the “deepest place” for ourselves.
And while the Easter Christ revealed the Resurrection more than 2000 years ago, he wants to reveal it today as well, and in your own life. Believe it, in a world of disbelief! Look for Resurrection! Be glad where you detect it? Share it with others! Victories great and small over pride, cynicism, coldness of heart, withholding of forgiveness, the grip of old memories, the power of addictions, the paralysis of fear and anxieties, the return of joy and hope! And in a world which sees death as the solution to its problems, believe that the life of Christ-Risen has the final say.
We observe too, that Easter takes place in the time of year when ice is melting and ground is thawing, when green things are pushing up and the animals are returning, when light is increasing and new life is emerging. Surrounding the Risen Jesus, it all says: See, we can change! We needn’t be frozen in resentment; we don’t have to be deadened by hatred and anger. And when I draw near to Jesus – an alive friendship with an alive Christ, a living Lord of Light, my own life becomes something quite new. Indeed, I become a new creation – a new kind of human person. We see this new kind of human person in the lives of the saints. I must stop making excuses and realize I’m called to be a saint: the best version of who God designed and desires me to be, the one who “pursues the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3: 14)
So let’s love each other these Easter days. If it’s hard to love some people as we find them, then as the hymn says, let’s love them as “they may become.” Let’s smile more, make friendship and gratitude grow. Open the little space around you to hospitality. No room for grumbling, negativity, alienation and ingratitude – Christ has conquered death, pushed away the death-declaring stone and left the tomb empty! Be warmed and gladdened like the myrrh-bearing women of Easter morning who ran from the empty tomb with happy hearts. (Matthew 28:8 )
