Spring (May-June) 2021 - Encountering Resurrection
“Encountering Resurrection”
The good news about the Resurrection is that it's about us and our rebirth. Christ is risen, Jesus has left the tomb. The question for us is if we can abandon our own, leaving the old trappings behind and live in the blinding light of Christ’s empty tomb.
It’s at the cemetery, in front of the tomb, that we discover eternal truths about ourselves. At the grave, the persistent questions of Lent begin to make sense. At the tomb, our questions and doubts come together in one glorious, blinding light of awareness.
To follow the Resurrected Jesus means to begin to act differently. The Easter truth is that all our questions, however puzzling they may be, are not isolated. They are all the same, each one depending on the other. To become what we practice is to become new. To realize that life is about slow, persistent, untimely growth is to discover the redeeming qualities of each moment, each encounter. Following the Resurrected Christ is to travel through life with new insight, with a new awareness of people, in new ways.
The Lenten question is whether or not we mean to live life newly. If not, then we go on doing more of the same-old - same-old and call it “following Jesus.” The answer to the Lenten question requires us to rise from our tombs bathed in light.
Rising from our tombs compels us to respond to suffering humanity where the cross of Christ is still everywhere and whose tombs cry out for emptying. The Holy Myrrh Bearers went to the tomb to anoint the body of the one who changed their entire lives. We, too, have been on a journey to that tomb. We, too, ask the same question as these holy women, "who will roll the stone away”? Will we find it removed? Will we rise and do life differently?
Indeed, Lent is not a series of behaviors: It is a series of questions. Consequently, Easter is not simply a day of celebration: It is, as well, a day of decision. What is really to be decided is whether or not we will rise from the deadening grip of this world to the light-giving time of God’s coming again, this time in us.
God is With Us!
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Blessings, Fr. Timothy
Illustration, “The Empty Tomb” 1889 by Mikhail Nesterov
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