PAT SAYS
Easter, not Christmas, is the primary feast of the Christian year.
Easter has inspired great painters and great musicians, like Tanner and Handel above.
Ressurection, to “rise again” implies that previously, there was a fall or a collapse.
In Jesus’ case, it was his death. His Resurrection was his return to life.
But the universe, the world, nature and mankind is an ongoing process of millions and millions of falls and millions and millions or rising agains, millions and millions of resurrections.
Stars fall from the skies and new stars appear.
The sun falls at night and rises again in the morning.
Flowers retract into themselves in the evening and open again to drink the morning dew.
Two and four-legged creatures lie at night and rise with the light.
The dark envelopes and the light reveals.
The silence of the night is shattered by the dawn chorus.
The pain of childbirth is obliterated by the sleeping baby in the rocking cot.
The surgeons cut gives way to a surge of health.
Life is all about the falls and collapses giving way to the risings and resurrections.
Its about all the Good Fridays yielding to all the Easter Sundays.
Its about all the screams being silenced by all the alleluias.
My friend, may all your Good Fridays, whatever they may be, find all their Easter Sundays.
May all your moments of forsakenness, find all their conjoined alleluias.
May the Easter Jesus give you new sight,
Let you really hear and really see,
Strengthen your weary limbs,
Lift your heavy heart,
And above all else,
Untie your fettered feet
And free you from any tomb,
In which you yourself,
Or others,
Have held you captive.
Alleluia.
Easter Lunch
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 