Today is Easter Sunday, 2012. We celebrate the Resurrection today. I’d love to just jump to feelings of Hallelujah and images of the Risen Christ, but the day begins with Mary Magdalen visiting the tomb to be with the corpse. So let us find our Easter questions in this gesture.
Mary Magdalen was at the Crucifixion, witnessing the death, hearing the last words, helped remove the body from the cross, prepared it for burial and attended the entombment, seeing the rock placed over the entrance. Now the next morning she comes with spices to care for the corpse.
Let’s enter into her being for a moment. Was she anguished with grief? Had she slept or eaten? Was her mind overwhelmed by her heart? Was she weeping with sobs of unimaginable sorrow and confusion?
Was she mourning the teacher, the healer, the man, or the god? Or her friend, her savior, her “husband?”
And why is the redeemed prostitute, the woman freed of the seven demons, the one written about on this morning? Is she the only one with the fierce life forces and the unconditional love forces to bear loving witness to the lifeless body?
This Easter morning bring a feeling of the grieving, redeemed Magdalen into your heart. Feel the morning sun around her, knowing she felt no sun rising in her heart and ask yourself:
Easter Sunday Questions
- How does my soul grieve?
- How am was I redeemed by what I so deeply grieve?
- How do I find devotion in my heart, even when I am feeling the deepest loss?
The rejoicing of Easter only comes when we have the resolve to dwell in the deepest grief. Perhaps this is the meaning behind the wisdom “the darkest hour is the one before dawn.”
I urge you to revisit the posts to read the comments and add your own. Share the Easter wisdom of your soul.
The average man does not know what to do with his life, yet wants another one which will last forever.” ~ Anatole France
Here we are on Easter Sunday, a day when many will go to church in one form or another to get back in touch with the Divine —
— a day when we will enter “God’s house” and look for answers, or salvation, or grace, or even God Itself.
“Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me.” ~ Alice Walker
I was taught that God resided in the church,
and yet I have discovered during the course of a life dedicated to spiritual adventure that,
while God does indeed reside in churches all around the world,
He/She/It tends to define “church” a bit more loosely than most of us do.
To the Divine, which encompasses literally everything in this glorious Universe,
“church” is wherever you happen to choose to consciously BE.
It is not enough to go anywhere to be with God —
— you have to choose to pause and BE wherever you are.
That’s the doorway to being in God’s company.
Of course, step two is even more important:
once you are conscious of the Divine that resides within everything around you,
you become aware that the same perfection reside within you —
— and that the only way to sincerely honor that Essence to ACT ACCORDINGLY;
that the only way to truly “do God’s will” is to reach out to Care for another.
Being a member of a church or attending church regularly or being baptized or professing Jesus as “your only Lord and Savior” are all fine and dandy.
Heaven knows that the Apostle Paul would be immensely pleased with all four.
Of course, to please the Divine — to enter the “Kingdom of Heaven” that Jesus describes in the Bible,
it is only necessary to reach out for one moment and be Kind when least inclined;
… to care for the downtrodden;
… to forgive those who insult or cheat you;
… to be the Love we all so wish to see.
“If anyone brands you as an infidel, tell him that Love occupies a position more exalted than religion, and has nothing to do with faith or heresy.
Whoever sets his feet firmly in the abiding-place of Love transcends both the bounds of infidelity and the limitations of faith.” ~ inspired by Attar
It doesn’t really matter whether you are a Christian or not.
Nope — to be “saved” is to feel how it feels to be literally ONE with your life.
And to feel this perfect Peace, it is necessary to Love — to Love courageously & actively & radically & with empathy.
At least, that was Jesus’ position on the matter …
“A new command I give you: Love one another. Just as I have Loved you, so you must Love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you show Love to one another …
If you understand these things, blessed are you while you do them.” ~ Jesus Christ (John 13:34-35+17)
Indeed, that is the very reBirth that Jesus so wanted us all to know —
— that was why he preached that we could all do “even greater things” than he did.
You see, there is nothing greater than Caring for those you don’t like …
… there is nothing greater than having the humility to reach out and be Kind to a stranger …
… there is nothing greater than having the courage to forgive your enemies.
Indeed, today, my Friends, is not about being a “good Christian” …
Today is about reawakening to the perfect Love that resides within you right now —
— the “Christ” that lives within every being on this planet.
Yes, regardless of your religion (or lack thereof),
LOVE is waiting to be reBorn in your life today.
So … got LOVE?
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting;
it has been found difficult and left untried.” ~ G. K. Chesterton
forgot to say that “my comment” was written by my son Scaughdt
I was with extended family yesterday. I feel my family’s sadness in my heart today. Heavy heart. Except this time, I’m not telling a story about it, nor reacting to it – nor gearing up to try to fix it. I feel the heaviness in my heart and breathe through it. Wait for it to lift.
Yes, I’m feeling it, too. Grief and joy dance together so closely sometimes, it’s like their chests are pressed together and you can’t always tell where one stops and the other begins. I can’t help but think of that line from the song “Closing Time”: “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end . . .” It’s an odd juxtaposition. Mary Magdalen’s sorrow, then her joy, then her sorrow mixed with joy that her life will never be the same again, probably both because of the sorrow and the joy. Loss. Opportunity. Saying goodbye. Growing that relationship (I think of my daughter) by talking from a distance . . . like so many lost Easter eggs being found and opening up to new treasures . . . difficult also, though . . . much to think about . . .