I find the lived reality of Easter much more difficult than that of Good Friday. It is so much easier to mourn and moan, to regard the pitted, misshapen form of my own cross and feel ashamed, aggrieved and discouraged all at the same time. It feels so much more natural to complain about the burdensome heft across my shoulders than to appreciate its weirdly beautiful grain or enjoy its Christ-induced lightness.
Pope Francis put it most aptly in his Easter Vigil homily last Saturday when he likened the journey of the women at the tomb to our own personal journey especially when they came up against the large stone blocking the entrance: At times, it seems that everything comes up against a stone: “the beauty of creation against the tragedy of sin; liberation from slavery against infidelity to the covenant...It seems that the steps we take never take us to the goal. We can be tempted to think that dashed hope is the bleak law of life.
How true there seem to be stones everywhere; big ones, medium ones, and even the little pebble in our shoe become huge obstacles in our lives. It is just so tempting to give up and wallow in doom and gloom. The pope reminds us: God takes away even the hardest stones against which our hopes and expectations crash: death, sin, fear, worldliness.
All is not lost. We should continue to celebrate the light of Easter and not give in to resignation and failure for “Easter is the feast of tombstones taken away, rocks rolled aside.” God takes away even the hardest stones against which our hopes and expectations crash: death, sin, fear, worldliness.
Pope Francis goes on to describe the stones that hinder us, the first being discouragement that leaves us cynical, negative and despondent... Life becomes a succession of complaints and we grow sick in spirit. A kind of tomb psychology takes over: everything ends there, with no hope of emerging alive.
The other stone is that of sin, it promises things easy and quick, prosperity and success, but then leaves behind only solitude and death. Sin is looking for life among the dead, for the meaning of life in things that pass away.
Pope Francis further comments on the women at the tomb who were too frightened to look up when they encountered the angels. Are we also like those women: We prefer to remain huddled within our shortcomings, cowering in our fears...glum and closed up within ourselves, we feel in control, for it is easier to remain alone in the darkness of our heart than to open ourselves to the Lord.
Why do you seek the living among the dead? It’s a really good question to ask myself for rather than always fixating on the blemishes, I should look for the irrepressible kernel of beauty when I view life. Jesus was crucified, died and is resurrected just so that I can be restored from my sins, reborn in my deaths and revived from my desolation.
Jesus is a specialist at turning our deaths into life, our mourning into dancing (cf. Ps 30:11). With him, we too can experience a Pasch, that is, a Passover– from self-centredness to communion, from desolation to consolation, from fear to confidence. What grace! I should be escstatic.
If I put my trust in Him, I will know that He loves me unfailingly and that no matter however much of a mess I make of things, His love remain unchanged - He loves me with a love I can feel every day in very real ways. This is the Easter faith I am challenged to embody, this lively love of the Lord. On this love I can rise again with Him.
So this Divine Mercy Sunday which marks the end of the octave of Easter I want to rise with Him and give my life to Him. Jesus I trust in you.
By your divine mercy we met
And sooner rather than later
We chose the abundance of Cana
By your divine mercy we knew
Just how much we could love
Not just each other but You
Our Lord and Our God
By your divine mercy we trust
To seek you in all things
Above all things always
By your divine mercy we see
How much more life can be
Joy never-ending can be ours
Singing his first birthday song
* To read Pope Francis’s entire Easter Vigil homily, go to: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-04/pope-francis-easter-vigil-mass-homily-text.html
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