RESURRECTION OF JESUS - THE SECOND BIG BANG!

The Resurrection of Jesus can be considered the second Big Bang! Not in the sense of another creation, but in the sense of setting in motion a process in which all that is existing is restored to its pristine splendor and glory. Resurrection is an explosion of light and grace-packed energy which, like the effects of the original Big Bang (the ever-expanding Universes), will continue to course through the present and future realities, bringing in ever-evolving newness/transformation.

Resurrection/Easter is all about newness/transformation - of self and the Universe -- through dying and rising. Dying is letting go, and rising is becoming something new, something/someone that did not exist until then.  It is a process of actualizing whatever until then was only in potential.

An apt metaphor is the caterpillar becoming butterfly.  The caterpillar has to given up the caterpillar existence (Good Friday), and enter into the cocoon where for sometime nothing seems to happen (Holy Saturday), and then burst out of the cocoon as beautiful butterfly! (Ester Sunday)

Everything about Easter is about newness. Easter is set in Spring, when a dead Nature  autumn shedding of leaves and drying of plants is Good Friday, and winter when everything is buried under the snow is Holy Saturday) becomes alive again with fresh leaves and flowers. (Easter).

Then there are the symbols of newness in the Easter vigil liturgy -- new fire, new candle, newly blessed water, newly blessed oils (at the Chrism Mass), newly baptized Christians....

My Prayer

Dear God, let me know what is that I need to let go, and let me be willing to let it go, so that I can experience newness of psyche and soul.

A very Happy Easter to all.

FROM THE HOPELESSNESS AND SILENCE OF HOLY SATURDAY TO THE HOPE AND JOY OF EASTER.

 EASTER VIGIL AT SUMEDHA CENTRE

The Sumedhans Celebrated Easter celebrated Easter Vigil by themselves at the Centre on Saturday night. They had celebrated the Way of the Cross and the Veneration of the Holy Cross the previous day - Good Friday..

On that fateful Good Friday the story had apparently ended. Whatever hopes Jesus had evoked were shattered. Remember the words of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: “We had hoped…..” Now there is only a great silence, the silence of the tomb, a silence that would last all through Saturday.

Holy Saturday is the in-between time – between something old dying and something new emerging. Holy Saturday is the time between the seed falling to the ground and dying and then germinating new life. Holy Saturday is like a dead end, a time when nothing seems to be happening, when one sees no light at the end of the tunnel. 

Good Friday looks like the end of the story. But not really. The story will continue. Light will appear at the end of the tunnel. Death will be conquered. The silence and gloom of Holy Saturday will be shattered in a blaze of glory. Out of darkness a riot of colours will break forth!

This is the great message of Easter. Jesus was killed for dying the Powers Be. But His Father raised him from the dead -- and the story would continue - through so many women and men  of good will, struggling to build the Kingdom of God - where all can live in joy and peace as children of same God, challenging and fighting the Powers Be that seeks to oppress, to fragment and persecute...

When have we felt life to be a long Holy Saturday, when we felt like we have reached a dead end – with no way forward, no light at the end of the tunnel? …. And then surprised – at the happy turn of events? As a popular song says, “there is sunshine after the rain, there is laughter after the pain.”  

For the times we fail to trust in the power of your resurrection, Lord have mercy on us. Heal us of our disappointments and our hopelessness. Fill us with hope and optimism, t help us believe that pain and sorrow do not last forever, that healing is possible, that better times lie ahead....Make us instruments of hope to the hopeless and love to the forlorn. Amen

HAPPY EASTER! BLESSINGS, PEACE AND NEW LIFE TO ALL!

EASTER - DEATH DEFEATED!

Holy Saturday was the "in-between time." Easter is "the real thing!" - an extraordinary, unique, unrepeatable event, a death and a resurrection from the dead that had a profound transformative impact on society.

Wish that we all share in and contribute to the transformation of society, a cause for which Jesus was crucified by the Powers-Be who love to maintain the statusquo - control and oppression of people to maintain power and serve their self-interests.

When we contribute to the coming of the "Kindom" - not "Kingdom" of God -- Easter becomes meaningful, otherwise it remains just a celebration of a Memory.

May we all experience the newness, the transformation Easter represents - and symbolized by the Easter Egg.

NEWNESS OF LIFE

EASTER  is all about newness of life.

Easter occurs at the end of winter when, apparently, nature is asleep and the beginning of spring when nature bursts forth in a riot of colour with new blossoms and new leaves adorning the hitherto dead-looking trees. Newness of life!

The symbols of the Easter Vigil indicate newness. There is a new fire, a new (Paschal/Easter) candle made from pure wax (supposed to!), newly blessed water, new Christians through baptism, new oils (now blessed at the Chrism Mass), renewal of baptismal promises.

All the readings chosen for the nigh vigil speak of newness of life.

And the cultural symbol of Easter - the Egg -- represents new life in a powerful way.

No question, Easter points to and invites us to newness of life, to renewal and regeneration - to a new birth.

What is the newness we are experiencing/need to experience at this Easter. Celebrating Easter without an experience of some newness/renewal in our lives, is to be stuck at Good Friday, to remain in the tomb, not  to experience resurrection.

The Sumedhans celebrated the Easter  Vigil and the Easter in grant style in a moving and meaningful liturgy and celebratory dinner. Almost the whole of Holy Saturday was spent in preparing the Liturgy. Participants showed great initiative, creativity and enthusiasm. The resulting joy was palpable!