Each
year I gather with your people at Easter:
those who
trust me with their stories, and those who honor me with their tears;
those
who hassle me, and those who humble me;
those I
challenge, and those who challenge me more;
those who
dare to follow me to unexpected places, and those who forgive me when I fail—
all beloved
by you, all beloved by me.
From
their stiff, wooden pews they morph into a
mass of
greeting hands, kind smiles, sparkling eyes,
as their
separate silence is shattered by Alleluias,
bells,
choirs, trumpets, timpani, organ, a multiplicity of voices.
This is
our time of glorious transcendence.
We
revel in the resplendent glory of your risen Son.
For a transitory,
ascendant moment we grow wispy wings,
the roof
melts away,
and we
soar into the sky above us.
O, how
I delight in soaring with your people on Easter!
And
yet, this year we will not gather
to sing, listen, touch, eat and drink.
Can
this really be Easter
without
altar guild, ushers or acolytes,
without
flowers in the windows,
without
the flame of a paschal candle,
without
bread and wine,
without
a cross moving from the back of the nave to its rightful place before an eager assembly
of the faithful?
Can
this really be Easter as I watch myself on a small screen announcing to whoever
cares to tune in that Christ is risen,
while I
chomp on Raisin Bran, pajama-clad, my only company Father Guido Sarducci the cat, nestled in my lap?
Can I approach
this emptiness like the women who came to the tomb?
Can I receive
the news that things are not always as they seem,
that from
death, you bring new life?
Can I
recognize that you are always transforming your people,
like the
disciples on the first Easter,
hunkered
down behind locked doors,
separated,
stranded,
unaware
of the life and freedom that was about to find them?
Can I
trust that I’m not alone,
that my
community is with me even when I can’t see them?
That your
living presence is with us all,
beyond any
of the usual grandiose ways I have celebrated Easters past?
Celebrated.
But
never needed.
Until
today.
Christ
is risen!
Here is
my strength,
my joy,
my
hope.
❤️✌️
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