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March 30, 2008
Our Personal Easter Experience The octave of Easter
is a full week of solemn celebration for the entire Christian
world. The days of the Octave are so solemn that all the ordinary
feasts are displaced and give way to the Easter celebration. Even
the feast of the Annunciation which we ordinarily celebrate on March 25
was pushed to the 31st this year. All our energies are
directed to the Resurrection. What does that mean to us in our
daily experience? Do the events of that first Easter have any
bearing on our lives? They should and will if we only give them a
chance.
Let’s begin with Mary Magdelene. On that first day of the week Mary begins her day by seeking the Lord. When she sees he is nowhere to be found she begins to cry, possibly because she is sad but also because she no longer sees any reason for hope. How are we like Mary? How often have we had the experience of needing God in our lives and looking for him in places such as prayer of Sunday worship or even in our daily activities and seemingly not “finding” him? We become distraught like Mary and we get discouraged. What can we learn from the story of Easter? Simply that Jesus was there all along. Mary simply did not recognize him because she had a preconceived notion of what she was to see. Don’t we often react in the same manner? God is there all along and we don’t see him. Another example is the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus. There are two men who are walking toward the small town of Emmaus. They spend their time discussing the events of the passion and the missing body. They remember all the good things he did while he was alive but now they are confused because they no longer see him or know where he is. Their lives have been turned upside down. What are they supposed to think and feel? Do we see ourselves in these two men? How often are we guilty of losing sight of God’s wisdom and power when things go wrong in our lives. We become afraid and are unable to see or recognize the work of God in our lives because he has changed the scene a little and we become disoriented. Jesus is right there with them and they fail to notice. Are we guilty of that same blindness? A very popular Easter personage is the Apostle Thomas. We all know Thomas as the Doubter. Thomas had known Jesus for some years now. He was also a close friend of the other Aposltes. When Jesus appears to them and Thomas is missing he does not believe them. He must see for himself. Isn’t this a familiar tune? How often are we up against events that cause us to doubt the reality of the existence of our God? No matter what others tell us we dig in our heels and insist on proof before we break down and believe. It is strange that we see Thomas for who and what he is but we do not recognize our own behavior for what it truly is. Perhaps we can learn something from Thomas. Perhaps the most difficult lesson to learn is the one all the Apostles had to learn. Jesus appears to them and scolds them for being hard of heart. They refused to believe those who had come back to them and reported the fact that Jesus was no longer dead. They argued and ridiculed the barrers of the message. They simply were not open to the possibility of Resurrection even when Jesus had told them that it would happen? Are we ever closed to the word of God in our lives? Do we refuse to listen and believe? Why? Can we learn something from the Easter story? Lorette P. Nault |