Although many things have bounced back pretty well since our experience of a worldwide pandemic, there are still a lot of us facing anxieties and worries each day about what hasn’t bounced back, what still remains uncertain. Whether our difficulties are health-related or not, we look for security and surety as a matter of habit.
However, when we can find little or no security in the present, we look for it in the past. Some would say, “The past at least is secure.” And though it may be true that the past can give a feeling of security, it does not actually deliver – because time is moving, not fixed. On the other hand, some of us look for security in the future. We look for a railing to hold onto, because it feels like the ground under our feet is constantly moving and unstable.
In preparing for Mass this weekend, pause for a moment to ask: would we prefer an “un-resurrected” Christ? He would be fixed and immovable, altogether more stable. We could easily convince ourselves that we could “own” and “control” Him. But He is Risen, He cannot be “owned.” He is, in a sense, the vehicle of the Spirit – which blows where it wills.
For perspective, let’s remember that small children, when they laugh, are all laughter. When they cry, they are all sadness. But as we grow older, we learn to drag ourselves along: half-way into things and no more: half in and half out, rarely fully committed. Then Easter comes along to invite us to leave the past behind, entrust ourselves to the future, and enter into the present moment with all we have and all we are. Easter beckons us to go fully into everything we do, say, and think, to “dive into” everything that is presently unfolding in our lives. This approach is the answer to the question posed by the disciples during Jesus’ public ministry: “What does this ‘rising from the dead’ mean?”
