Mother Church makes some mighty stiff requests of her children during Lent on into the seven weeks of Easter. One of the most difficult things she asks of us regards how and why we perceive and use our time as holy Church intends. When we began the Lenten Journey on Ash Wednesday, our confession regarding sin, brokenness, and the self-deceptions which plague us became the focus of our penitential work. No absolution is pronounced over us at the time (Did you notice?). Rather, an ashen cross marked the nature of the hard work we faced during Lent, ridding ourselves of the weighty stones of suffering, death, and despair. That long-expected absolution came on Maundy Thursday in Holy Week after five weeks of being “shriven” – that is, of our perpetual work of penance and contrition, a word related to “Shrove” usually overshadowed by the crazy festivities of Shrove Tuesday. Penitential mindfulness is difficult and demanding. Mother Church is quite honest about that for a good reason. She desires that her children become what God in Christ has set about making them: baptized, blessed, and graced people who reflect the glory, love, and compassion of the living God for the sake of the whole world. Alas, we come kicking and screaming.
We likely fall short of what the Church asks. Who can keep in mind after a long and busy period our most significant Lenten discipline [discipline is what disciples do]? The whole of Lent is in a sense one single event: a focused movement from confession and contrition [the action of repentance] toward the blessed sound of God’s absolution, the forgiving words of kindness and love for humankind. The many Bible readings, services even during the midweek, and cross-marked stones all serve as solemn witnesses standing around and pointing to that one central reality and calling of Lent.
Strangely enough, even the trumpet and organ blasts, the Alleluias heralded by God’s angels, church choirs, and congregations eager to celebrate, and the joyous announcement of the Lord’s resurrection is also as hard NOW as THEN to fathom and understand. Do we yet recognize our Lord’s presence in our midst, or do we think him simply the gardener like Mary Magdalene or miss him altogether as we decorate the Easter eggs, flower the cross, glad to be back in the season of our Easter glad rags and family dinners? Social commentators and theologians alike address our cultural inability to celebrate fully what might be thought appropriate given the actual meaning of Jesus’ resurrection for us as a parish, the whole Church, and even beyond its borders. Like bedraggled Christmas trees unceremoniously abandoned on the curb by the 26th of December or the chancel already empty of the lavishness of Easter morning, we may well check off Easter by Easter evening – “We’ve been there, done that, thank you very much! What’s next?” As far as Mother Church is concerned, Easter in 2023 lasts until 11:59PM on Sunday, May 28th, the Festival of Pentecost, otherwise known as the Great Fiftieth Day after the Resurrection. Honesty demands that we ask in all sincerity: How and why should we or can we keep the Easter celebration going for fifty days?
What we discover during these Great Fifty Days is that Jesus is still busily at work wrapping things up for us ragtag band of disciples just as he did for that first ragtag band of disciples called by him into very perplexing and demanding work. The Easter Day message is probably impossible for us fully to fathom as humans this side of glory. Mary didn’t understand. The disciples, especially Thomas, desperately needed some affirmation of Jesus’ transformed, resurrected reality. Other disciples we will hear this coming Sunday during their walk to Emmaus encounter their risen but unrecognized Lord. They finally are granted inward sight and the fire of love in their hearts when scarred hands break bread and bless wine. Again, a my Lord and my God!!! moment.
The incarnate Christ was fully aware that his disciples wouldn’t get it at first. Thus, he remained for up to forty days after his resurrection – the biblical accounts actually vary as to the length of his post-resurrection period on earth. The risen Jesus is about the work of drawing their and our attention to stories [beginning with Moses and the Prophets…], blessed and grace-laden encounters with food and fellowship, of Jesus’ own fervent prayer to the Father that we might BE the one body in one faith and one Lord which is God’s intent and the Holy Spirit’s transforming gift in our lives. Just wait until Pentecost when the Spirit transforms reality for us as much as Jesus’ resurrection did for all of creation! Why all this work? It is because the incarnate Lord of the Gospels could only be in one place at a time, limited as it were by the strictures and limitations of our created world. The RISEN Lord, however, now in-dwelling his disciples, can go into all the world with a blessed mission.
This is why we were baptized [the myriad gifts and charism of the Spirit], why we were brought into community [companions for this journey and mission – NOBODY can do it alone!!!], why we hear again and again the stories of faith until they become OUR OWN stories of faith. It is why Jesus sent and still sends his disciples out into all the world, not for scalp-hunting but so we become the gracious, healing, encouraging, and loving presence that the incarnate Jesus himself was in a small little corner of the world some two millennia ago. The risen Jesus’ healing, restoring, blessing actions become our own actions, practiced until we too can say words which others will hear, but in fact will hear Jesus speak in the telling. It is why Mother Teresa went about the poor, sick, and the dying in Calcutta, peering deeply into their eyes in order to glimpse Christ Jesus peering back at her. That blessed nun was in fact becoming Matthew 25:34-40! Human hands in 2023 and beyond will bless, break, and also receive bread, recognizing their Lord in the action. Hands and words will touch the sick and suffering, anointing them with oil and saving words, and suddenly Jesus will be glimpsed, thanks to a very busy Spirit. Folks young and old will care for this ravaged earth, eliminating pollution, neglect, and pillaging, and the God first met in Genesis 1 and 2 will be found in their midst. And, when two or more gather for care and regard of each other, Jesus still promises to appear as confirmation that he remains busily at work. Truth be told, we’ll hardly have gotten started during these Great Fifty Days of Easter’s celebration. It will take our lifetime, many times over until we at last see him face to face. Meanwhile, “Into my heart / come into my heart / come into my heart, Lord Jesus!”