As we continue to read of the horrors in Ukraine, we ask ourselves, how can we celebrate Easter? How do we celebrate life in the midst of death? The women who went to the empty tomb were also asking that question. They, too, were in deep sorrow as they walked with the spices and ointments they had prepared.
Celebrating Easter is more than daffodils and bunnies; it is more than colored eggs and beautiful sunshine. It means emerging from the winter of our inward being, from the despair we often feel when hearing of war, murder, and evil.
Easter does not deny that death occurs. Easter does not mean glossing over the realities we face of pain or suffering. Easter means seeing those realities in a different context, one of having the presence of God in our lives no matter what. It means that God and the love of Christ are with us in our daily lives, embracing us so we can embrace one another in hope, faith, and love.
Prayer for the Day
You surprise us, O God, in the ways your love manifests itself;
Revealing yourself in ways that bring us closer to you and others;
Deepen our awareness of your Eternal Spirit,
Made known to us through the totality of your creation;
May we always be open to the joy of Easter in our lives
By sharing its manifestations with others.
In the name of the One who shows us how to love,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
“Christ has risen.” Whoever believe that
Should not behave as we do,
Who have lost the up, the down, the right, the left, heavens, abysses,
And try somehow to muddle on, in cars, in beds,
Men clutching at women, women clutching at men
Falling, rising, putting coffee on the table,
Buttering bread, o here’s another day.
Czeslaw Milosz, from “Six lectures in verse,” Polish poet (1911-2004)
Sing to the Lord a new song, God’s praise from the end of the earth!
Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants.
Isaiah 42: 10