Easter joy


As we embark (almost certainly) on another period of confinement, many people are experiencing a range of negative feelings. For some there is grief at the death of friends, family or acquaintances – a grief exacerbated by the restrictions on visiting those on the verge of death, viewing the bodies of the departed, or even sharing in the funeral. There is a wider grief – at contemplating the number of people who have died r been bereaved. A growing number are feeling acutely disappointed – at missing holidays, cancelling long-planned celebrations (weddings, anniversaries and birthdays) and the inability to visit families. For others, fear of what the future holds in financial and employment terms, anxiety about health (one’s own or loved ones’) or the confusion or depression caused by isolation will be the main issue.

We can see most of these emotions among the followers of Jesus in the days after his crucifixion: feelings that coloured their meetings with the Risen Lord. So we see Mary Magdalene’s mixture of grief, confusion and anger only being overcome when Christ speaks her name, and she can run -as she surely must have done – to tell the others “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20: 18.) And Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus fail to recognize Jesus, for they are filled with despair, depression and bewilderment, until they recognize him as he blesses and breaks bread, and they realise that their cold sorrow had been taken away even as they walked beside him – “Were not our hearts burning within us, while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32.)

So we have the opportunity to bring all our grief, doubts and fears into our reflection on the Easter narratives, and see how the disciples’ feelings resonate with ours, and how their realisation that Jesus had been raised transformed them – and can transform us. I find the Emmaus road account particularly challenging and encouraging. One sees (and feels) the two disciples’ heaviness and sense of burden on their journey out of Jerusalem dissolving on their walk and vanishing during their table fellowship with Jesus - so completely that they have the energy to return at once to share their experience; I picture them covering the seven miles in next to no time.
The clearly remembered fact that none of the disciples were expecting to meet the Lord, but were on the contrary caught up in a complex of fears and doubts, is both an indirect testimony to the veracity of the accounts, and also an invitation to each of us to allow the Risen Lord to meet us, gladden our hearts and ‘change our mourning into dancing and clothe us with joy’ (see Psalm 30:11-12.)

For Easter is not just about Jesus – it’s about the impact his Resurrection can make on us, the absolute difference it makes to the way we experience the world, and understand our relationship with God. Many traditional hymns and devotions pick this up – “Christ is Risen – we are risen,” ”Made like him, like him we rise: Ours the cross, the grave, the skies.” And because we have 50 days until Pentecost, these reflections may sustain us daily through the next period of isolation and distancing.

I’ll finish with some wonderful words attributed to St John Chrysostom:
               “Hell was filled with bitterness when it met thee face to face below… It received a body and                                           encountered God. It received earth, and confronted heaven.
               O death, where is thy sting. O hell, where is thy victory?
               Christ is risen, and thou art cast down.   
               Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen…
               Christ is risen, and life reigns in freedom
               Christ is risen, and there is none left dead in the tomb.
               For Christ, being raised from the dead, has become the first-fruits of those that slept.
                              To him be glory and dominion to the ages of ages. Amen.”

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