Sunday, April 12, 2009

BETWEEN CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION

The Saturday between Good Friday and Easter is a sort of limbo day. This year it's grey and gloomy, drizzly and cold. One of those early spring days that takes us back into winter. But spring is already in our blood, and we know the time is coming very soon for blossoming forth with new life.

Religion gives us stories that bring to consciousness direct understandings of the changing seasons as transitions in our lives. We are so blessed to have these stories. We are blessed to live in that moment of change, poised on the brink of a new world.

Each year we have a new opportunity to make the leap of faith into love. Maybe we only do it this year with one other person, maybe only for a day at a time. Maybe it is only to love ourselves a bit more, for how can we love our neighbor as ourselves if we don’t love ourselves. Or maybe we can reach out and touch somebody’s hand who is sick or dying or just being born. Whatever expressions of love we are able to bring into the world this coming year increase the amount of love in the world.

I figure one day of love in a person’s life balances out two days of hate. One day for the day that is now filled with love, and one day for the influence that love can have on others, so that exponentially love grows and grows.

Hate can spread like wildfire—we’ve seen that more than once. But so can love. And love is stronger than hate. If we can only harness love and learn to live it all the time, we will have discovered a power greater than fire, greater than ice, a power for healing, and justice, and peace.

This is the message of Easter. And “I await my resurrection, feeling fine.”*

*Graham Nash, “A Girl to be on my Mind”