Friends, we find ourself moving, sliding, maybe even careening into a new season. What a gift to recognize around us the change of seasons and the subtle hope that new buds on the trees bring to us. However, as we look around many of the trees are still bare of leaves and often I leave the house in a coat… so its spring, but kind of not. In the same way, it is Easter Season, but is it? The Church Fathers and Mothers understood that we need time to transition from the Lenten journey into Easter; for this reason Easter is not just a Sunday thing. It is a season we’re in for 50 days.
In this moment where there is so much uncertainty, it would be tone deaf for us to act as if magically we are now able to celebrate and rejoice. As we read the resurrection account in the Christian scriptures I believe the beauty of resurrection is that Jesus appears retaining His wounds and scars.
Maybe part of being human is to be wounded and resurrected at the same time? Christ is raised and is without any regret or recrimination while still, ironically, carrying his wounds. As Julian of Norwich reflected.“Before God, our wounds are our glory.” That Jesus’ physical wounds do not disappear is telling. Yes, resurrection is saying something about Jesus, but it is also saying a lot about us, which is even harder to believe. It is saying that somehow we were created in the perfect image and likeness of the Divine and called Good by Being Itself, and therefore made for something good, united, and beautiful. Resurrection is another word that communicates this hope, mercy, grace, and change. But that change doesn’t happen overnight.
For this reason, we would like to invite you to continue Presence and Practice on Thursday evenings at 6:00 so that we can transition into Easter, embracing the fullness of resurrection, not ignoring the pain of this moment, but finding the beauty of it becoming synthesized into our full being.
