Dear Parish Family,
Happy Easter! This wish comes across to you on pages of the Bulletin that you might read on line or on webcast that we stream live from St. John. Somehow the celebration is so muted as we are all ‘walled in’ and segregated. The English poet, John Donne, wrote in one of his sermons: “And when God shall come to that last act in the glorifying of man, when he promises “to wipe all tears from his eyes”, what shall God have to do with that eye that never wept?” May be we have enough reason to shed tears as this Feast of the Resurrection passes by without the coming together of the parish family. We all of us struggle in different ways. Some will have lives neither especially happy nor especially burdensome; some will be struggling with worries and cares: trying to make ends meet, fighting ill health, struggling with relationships, but all feeling the weight of the world upon their shoulders.
The Good News of the Resurrection does not push to one side our vulnerabilities as though they are now of no concern. We continue to laugh, and we continue to cry. And this need not be a bad thing: for to laugh and to cry is for us in our humanity, the very same humanity that Christ possessed, to engage with a world that is both beautiful and difficult, the very same world that Christ came to save. But, now, with the assurance of the ultimate victory of the love of God over anything that life might throw at us, our laughter and our tears take on a new meaning: they become part of the great story of the salvation of the world. That is Donne’s main point. What shall God have to do with that eye that never wept? Good Friday and Easter, as well as Holy Thursday, are bound together into one celebration, the celebration of the Paschal Mystery. The name ‘paschal’ refers to the lamb who was sacrificed and whose sacrifice brought life.
Before Jesus’ sacrifice, mankind had lost the capacity to have a deep spiritual life, an intimacy with Divinity. Mankind’s sin, the human decision to push God out of his life, destroyed his own spiritual life. God is the Lord of Life, but mankind decided that he didn’t need God. His choice of sin was a choice of death. His pushing God aside allowed Evil to have free reign on the earth. Without God, without a spiritual life, mankind’s existence was limited to the here and now. There was no hereafter for him. No eternity. Through a paradox beyond our understanding, Jesus’ death was a means for restoring life to his brothers and sisters, to us.
Jesus rose from the dead and became the source of spiritual life to all who believe in Him. This is why we call out “Alleluia.” Easter is the celebration of hope. Our hope is that we will share in the fullness of the New Life Jesus won for us through His suffering and death. It is our hope in Christ that helps us endure challenges like the corona virus. No one can take the Risen Savior from us. No one and no situation, no matter how terrible, can take His Presence from us. May the life of the Risen Lord flow through our veins, so that every thought word and deed of our lives may shout out: Jesus Lives! And may we all rejoice in the hope of eternal life
Fr. Tom Kunnel C.O.