Fr.
Tony’s Mid-week Message
The
Other Side of Easter
“The
only simplicity for which I would give a straw is that which is on the other
side of the complex — not that which never has divined it.” --Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
(Holmes-Pollock Letters: The Correspondence
of Mr. Justice Holmes and Sir Frederick Pollock, 1874-1932 [2nd ed., 1961],
p. 109).
Tomorrow is Ascension Day, 40 days
after Easter Sunday. As we begin to get
ready for the end of the Great 50 Days of Easter on Pentecost Sunday
(Whitsunday), it is important to remember the difference between where we are
“this side of Lent” and on “the far side of Easter.” We live our lives, and God is not apparently
here. As Jesus teaches in the
beatitudes, God seems most present in his absence: “blessed are the poor, the weak and downtrodden, the
hungry, the thirsty, the mourning,
and the bullied.” Before Lent, we hear silence about us and
notice our failings. We wonder whether
there is a God, and most certainly whether God loves us, given what we see all
about us and deep within us. After Easter, Jesus ascends and returns to
Father. We are again left in silence,
with our hearts wondering whether these stories matter, if they really
happened, or what difference they make.
But the promised breath from Jesus, the comforter, advocate or
helper—the Spirit—descends in tongues
of flame at Pentecost. This
Jesus-made-present-to-us-now, this God-made-present-to-us-now, makes all the
difference in the silence. She (the Hebrew word for wind or spirit
is feminine) comforts and gives us voice.
We often think of the Incarnation, the
Ascension, and the Coming of the Spirit in vertical terms: up and down, heaven and earth. But they are really just images for God’s
presence or absence. Perhaps we should
think of them in horizontal terms: here
or there, near or far, face-to-face present or far-away absent. God is made present by our being present for
others, our listening, being with, and serving.
Saint
Paul said that the spirit speaks in our hearts and gives us confidence by
assuring us of the truth that has always been there: we are beloved of
God. The Spirit gives voice to our
inchoate groanings, incoherent feelings and deepest aspirations: “For all
who are led by the Spirit of God are God’s children. For the Spirit you received
was not one of slavery so that you could fall back into fear, but rather one of
adoption as children. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that
very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and
if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans
8:14-17).
Though life goes on
after the Great Fifty Days much as before, all is changed. The simplicity on the near side of complexity
is worthless; that on the far side, worth all the world. The silence and wonderings of the dark days
of winter have become prayers and wonders of bright summer.
Thanks be to God.
Grace and Peace.
Fr. Tony+
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