“And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ ” (John 20:22). I recall hearing this verse on Easter II 2020, and how it tickled my ears in a new way; even moreso in 2021, with a year-plus under my belt of living and attempting to minister in the world of an airborne virus.
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“Therefore, overcome with paschal joy, every land, every people exults in your praise and even the heavenly Powers, with the angelic hosts, sing together the
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Perhaps our real problem with grasping the topsy-turviness of the resurrection accounts is that we look at them as the final chapters of the gospels, and therefore we think that they are endings.
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As the Scottish poet Robert Burns observed, to see ourselves as others see us is God’s greatest gift, and the Simpson household has certainly helped me do that.
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After Easter II is over, the glorious wounds of Christ sort of vanish from our Easter celebrations. It’s almost as though we believe that the Resurrection erased the Crucifixion.
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Blessed are you, Believing Thomas, in whom we often see our twin: absent, defiant, demanding, accepting, faith-filled.
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Is Easter a terminus ad quem or terminus a quo for we who believe? If the latter, Easter reveals the lens through which we view all of reality, our destiny as human beings, and why God so passionately desires a relationship with us at all.
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What songs has your parish sung during this Eastertide? Better yet, did any songs bring much rejoicing to your heart? Did any songs bring much weeping and gnashing of teeth?
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I eventually came to hear in the recounting of that marvelous Genesis story the essence of the Resurrection: that the heart of God desires nothing more than light and life and love.
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Do our liturgies celebrate a joy that is sober? Do they reflect a realism that is infused with hope?
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