Word to the Wise
Sunday, April 12, 2009 - Easter Sunday - The Resurrection of the Lord
[Acts 10:34A, 37-43; 1 Corinthians 5:6B-8 or Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-9]For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth
One of my most startling Easter Sunday memories concerns a little boy who came to me on that day and presented me with a colorful box which contained a chocolate cross! While the celebration of Easter is certainly marked by food - all those Easter eggs - and chocolate Easter bunnies - those are secular symbols. The cross is another matter! Although I thanked the little boy, I could never bring myself to eat that cross! Now I wonder if perhaps I should have. St. Paul literally asks us to "eat" Easter! Christ comes to us in the form of unleavened bread - the bread of sincerity and truth! But that is only the beginning (as important as it is). The new batch of dough develops its own new yeast. The resurrection of Christ is a new starting point for us all - a new springtime. Mary Magdalen bursts into our cluttered and burdened lives with the astonishing news that: "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him." The "we" and "they" are just the beginning for Mary since she will soon confront the Risen Lord in the garden. The two disciples run to the tomb and one of them (not Peter) understands what has happened! All of us come to Easter with all its challenges to the senses of sight, taste, touch, smell, hearing. The first four involve us in those Easter bonnets, eggs and chocolate bunnies, but the last one, hearing, receives the glad proclamation: CHRIST IS RISEN! And our response may be the traditional one of the East: CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED! or a simple and loud ALLELUIA! Take in all the celebration with all its glory and color and celebrate with joy the Resurrection of the Lord! ALLELUIA! AMENt