Some years back, I received an Easter card which contained only these simple words: “May you leave behind you a string of empty tombs!”
That’s the challenge of Easter: To resurrect daily, to leave behind us a string of empty tombs, to let our crucified hopes and dreams be resurrected so that, like Christ, our lives will radiate that, in the end, everything is good, reality can be trusted, love does triumph over apathy and hatred, togetherness over loneliness, peace over chaos, and forgiveness over bitterness.
We need regular resurrections. Spring and the resurrection are the season to let ourselves be unthawed, to revirginize, to come to second naivete, to think young again, to give the child in us scope again, to be open again to new possibilities, to surprise, to a new frolic under the sun after a cold bitter time.
Nature, all of it including ourselves, is incredibly resilient, incredibly resurrectable. Given any chance, life wins out, brokenness heals, bitterness melts, new seeds form and life bursts forth from what once appeared to be dead. Crucifixions, bitterness and winters will come, but spring and resurrection are arsonists, both of them. So, as a song once perfectly put it:
Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun’s love
In the spring becomes the rose.
Spring and Easter. May we all leave behind us a string of empty tombs.
By Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI Thanks to Sharefaith for the photo.
This Easter, have YOU left behind YOU a string of empty tombs?
LOVE IS GOD’S LANGUAGE WHICH REQUIRES NO SPOKEN WORDS!
This is a beautiful Easter Message to be shared: www.TreatsfortheSoul.org.
