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Connections&
March 31, 2002-- Easter Sunday
The angel spoke to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary: "Do not be afraid. I know you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised up, exactly as he said. Come and see the spot where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him... '" Matthew 28:1-10
Great day in the morning
Sometimes in the morning, if her feet ached more than usual, she felt a little low. After washing her face, she would hang up her towel with a sigh and go into the kitchen, feeling that it was hard to make a start.
But the moment she heard her grandchildren running down the uncarpeted back stairs, she forgot her own aches and pains and exhaustion. She ceased to be an old woman with arthritis; indeed, she ceased to be an individual. She became part of a group, a family, a relationship. She was drunk up into their freshness when they burst in upon her, telling her about their dreams, explaining their troubles with buttons and shoelaces and underwear shrunk too small.
The tired, solitary old woman Grandmother had been at daybreak vanished. Suddenly the morning seemed as important to her as it did to the children, and the mornings stretched out sunshiny, important.
[Adapted from Obscure Destinies by Willa Cather.]
CONNECTION: Easter is the ultimate morning of transforming light. The joy of this morning opens our hearts and spirits to realize God's presence in our tired, exhausted lives. Easter is filled with the promise of new things that can be realized through love, compassion, forgiveness, reconciliation, justice and peace. It compels us to bury forever the hatred, shame and selfishness of Good Friday and move on to make new things happen by embracing Christ's spirit of humble service to others. Like the old woman who is transformed into a loving grandmother by her grandchildren's visit, may we be transformed from cynical, struggling, broken individuals into an Easter people, committed to bringing resurrection into our homes and communities until Easter's ultimate realization at the end of our lives' journeys. u
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