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In Jesus, God reveals to us that God is not different from humanity. Jesus’ most common and almost exclusive self-name is “The Human One” or “Son of Humanity.” Jesus’ reality, his cross, is to say a free “yes” to what his humanity daily asks of him. It seems we have been worshipping Jesus’ journey instead of “doing” his journey…. we are spiritual beings on a journey toward becoming fully human.
-Richard Rohr
Wesley Tingey/Unsplash
RESURRECTION
I never suspected resurrection
To be so painful
To leave me weeping
With joy to have met you, alive and smiling, outside an empty tomb
With regret – not because I've lost you
But because I've lost you in how I had you –
In understandable, touchable, kissable, clingable flesh
Not as fully Lord, but as graspably human.
I want to cling, despite your protest
Cling to your body
Cling to your, and my, clingable humanity
Cling to what we had, our past.
But I know that … if I cling
You cannot ascend and
I will be left clinging to your former self ...
unable to receive your present spirit.
For some reason, we needed all the time legally given to a parent to name our daughter, or perhaps as I think back, the name chose her. She was Kristina, our little spark of the divine child on this earth. She died at the age of 15 on Easter Sunday such that if we mark linear and not spiritual time, we experience the anniversary of her death twice each year. A dear spiritual companion hoped that one day we would no longer associate Easter Sunday with her death but with resurrection. And a dear friend sent me Rolheiser’s poem some time later.
But thirty-three years later, I know that a coin’s two sides co-exist in symbiotic relationship. The seasons – spring, summer, fall and winter – are all contained within each other as well, held in a continuous flow of life and death. Even our thoughts and beliefs would not exist without the teacher who led us to them. Surely, we would not know the Resurrection if Christ had not experienced the Crucifixion. The continuing miracle of Kristina’s life and death as One is our family’s ongoing, sacred lesson in the unity of All.
Christ has died. Christ has risen.
-Susan Hendrick, csj Associate
PEACE BE WITH YOU
Today’s Gospel opens with:
Emotions of doubt, fright, disbelief, wonder and joy, all vibrating at the same time. The story is recalled every year and is held in a vessel of faith. We sing it so that it engages us in the depth of our being personally and communally.
Sister Loretta Manzara, csj
That Easter Day with Joy was Bright (tune: PUER NOBIS)
Christ has risen, Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
After this holy time of preparation during Lent, we burst with the spirit of Easter joy which will carry us forward as we share the truly Good News with a world that is sorely in need of good news. How will you celebrate this Easter? A joyful Easter liturgy? A quiet day with a chocolate bunny? A gathering with family or friends? An Easter hike? Hopefully, there is some way for each of us to experience that sense of Easter joy which is a gift from God.
For myself, Easter Sunday will start with mass at the Cathedral in Hamilton, followed by coffee with some of the Sisters. In the afternoon, I will join my family in a long standing family tradition of an Easter Egg hunt and Easter Quiz at my brother’s house. Being COVID times, it will be held outside. [A side note: As this will be the first time we are gathering in over two years, we will meet the new babies in the family who arrived during the COVID pandemic including one little fellow who arrived at the very start of the pandemic in January 2020 and whose name is Cove. No, it is not short for Covid. His father is Irish so he was named after the city of Cobh in Ireland but knowing that most people would not know how to pronounce Cobh, they decided to spell it as it sounds.]
This joy we experience as an Easter people who recognize and rejoice in the Resurrection needs to be shared with whoever crosses our path. How it is shared can be summed up in the words of one of our wise Sisters:
‘The most important thing is loving the person in front of you’.
Amen. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
-Sister Nancy Sullivan, csj
Image: Unsplash/Bruno van der Kraan
