I
InThePew
Guest
Easter is supposed to be a time of joy and celebration but it’s fair to say that this year things are more than a bit subdued thanks to self-isolation and social distancing becoming the new norm. Churches are closed, streets are empty, whole nations affected by the upheaval which lead us to ask – what gives?
Easter isn’t supposed to be about easy answers but about understanding Christ’s enduring presence in our lives, about the hope that comes from the cross, the message that we are one family, one body united by the blood and water flowing from the heart of Christ.
Suffering has always been part of life accompanied by the struggle to make meaning of it. Ancient humans saw themselves entirely at the mercy of gods who had no concern or care for them but decided their life or death entirely on a whim. Atheists would have us believe that it’s all just random chance without any deeper meaning, leaving us to live our lives as best we can without purpose and without hope. Easter is the Christian answer to suffering and living; Christ’s great gift of himself, out of love, dying that we might have life and have it to the full.
Christ’s resurrection calls us to hope, giving us light amidst the darkness of sin and suffering, death and despair; allowing us to believe that there is a purpose to life, allowing us to trust in the promise of the new life to come. The empty tomb is an enigma, part of the mystery of faith - something hidden but also revealed. Christ is absent from the tomb but not from the world; like the disciples discovering the tomb, we need to look for him who has already found us.
In this way the resurrection isn’t imposed on us as a dramatic event witnessed by the world, but is instead a subtle sign of something more, requiring us to actually want to believe, to want to make an effort to imitate his life in our own. In the same way, while we can’t eliminate suffering, we have a choice of how to respond. We can live for ourselves alone or for others in imitation of him who died and rose again for us then we might be found and saved.
We are called to recognize the face of Christ in all who suffer, called to enable them to see his love made visible in our own love, called to be Christ to one another - who loved us, gave himself for us and calls us to go and do likewise.
Easter isn’t supposed to be about easy answers but about understanding Christ’s enduring presence in our lives, about the hope that comes from the cross, the message that we are one family, one body united by the blood and water flowing from the heart of Christ.
Suffering has always been part of life accompanied by the struggle to make meaning of it. Ancient humans saw themselves entirely at the mercy of gods who had no concern or care for them but decided their life or death entirely on a whim. Atheists would have us believe that it’s all just random chance without any deeper meaning, leaving us to live our lives as best we can without purpose and without hope. Easter is the Christian answer to suffering and living; Christ’s great gift of himself, out of love, dying that we might have life and have it to the full.
Christ’s resurrection calls us to hope, giving us light amidst the darkness of sin and suffering, death and despair; allowing us to believe that there is a purpose to life, allowing us to trust in the promise of the new life to come. The empty tomb is an enigma, part of the mystery of faith - something hidden but also revealed. Christ is absent from the tomb but not from the world; like the disciples discovering the tomb, we need to look for him who has already found us.
In this way the resurrection isn’t imposed on us as a dramatic event witnessed by the world, but is instead a subtle sign of something more, requiring us to actually want to believe, to want to make an effort to imitate his life in our own. In the same way, while we can’t eliminate suffering, we have a choice of how to respond. We can live for ourselves alone or for others in imitation of him who died and rose again for us then we might be found and saved.
We are called to recognize the face of Christ in all who suffer, called to enable them to see his love made visible in our own love, called to be Christ to one another - who loved us, gave himself for us and calls us to go and do likewise.
He was talking about manners outside church - in our Ukrainian Greek Catholic church we don’t shake hands in church like RCs do.