HOLY WEEK & EASTER!!

This is the day the Lord has made, alleluia!
-Let us rejoice and be glad, alleluia!

We have traveled yet another 40 days and 40 nights of the Lenten Season, a desert time of solitude and solidarity, of prayer, and of mindfulness of life, of suffering, of meaning, and of impending death and sadness, lifelessness. And yet, even while in the darkness we have the inner knowing of hope, the reality of life and of life-giving LIGHT and love.

As I wrote in my last post, LIGHT explodes in the darkness! Life is renewed! Life is reawakened in our hearts, in our souls, in our world. It truly is -- if we have but eyes and hearts to see. And if we do not, all we must do is ask and it will be given us; it has been promised.

Alleluia! Alleluia!!
Jesus is risen!!
Alleluia! Alleluia!!
He is risen, indeed --
just as he said!
Alleluia! Alleluia!!

The path of life is a path through suffering; it is a path of birthing, of learning, of growing, of letting-go, of rejoicing, of grieving, and of healing. There are moments of clarity and moments of confusion; there are moments of darkness and moments of glorious LIGHT.

During the prayers of the holiest week of our Christian year we are united with Jesus, in all of the above -- all of our life's experiences are encapsulated in the Holy Week liturgies, readings, and prayers. We are immersed in the promises of our very own baptism:

"Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Through baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might life a new life" (Romans 6:3-4).

What an awesome gift to us from the God who loves us so much, a gift offered to us by the Church through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Our focus on Jesus' passion, death, entombment, and glorious resurrection plays out before us year after year, inviting us, luring us, enticing us, stirring and igniting out hearts, and embracing us fully, into union with God and with all of humanity.

We must remember:

"The darkness is over and the real LIGHT begins to shine. The one who claims to be in LIGHT, hating their brother [or sister] all the while, is in darkness even now. The one who continues in the LIGHT is the one who loves their brother [and sister]; there is nothing in them to cause a fall" (1 John 2:8b-10).

This is the day the Lord has made, alleluia!
-Let us rejoice and be glad, alleluia!

HAPPY EASTER!