Seasonal Reflection: Easter, 2018
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But Ash Wednesday is only the first day of
an entire season that leads us to Easter. Lent is an
opportunity to move from death to life, from sin to
virtue. And the students of Stoneman Douglas High
have given us a tremendous example of how that too
can be real. This time a school massacre didn’t end
with thoughts and prayers from an intransigent group
of adult lawmakers, gun lobbyists, and gun
advocates. This time students rose up and spoke out.
They walked out and rallied and marched and went to
state and federal legislators. And many, MANY adults
followed their lead. By Palm Sunday weekend, nearly
one million people of all ages and colors and
nationalities in the U.S.A. and across oceans
participated in massive public actions to say,
“ENOUGH!” “THE TIME IS NOW!” And they—we—have no
intention of letting up. Oh, the opposition is rising, too, as they
turned on Jesus during what we now commemorate as
Holy Week. Student activists are being criticized,
threatened, and slandered, as Jesus was falsely
arrested, tortured, and crucified. But we know what happened on Easter Sunday.
Light overcame darkness. Life conquered death. Hope
was restored. Jesus returned with a greeting of
Peace, and he commissioned his disciples to do as he
did. The students of Marjory Stoneman High School and all whom they have inspired are a modern-day sign of light, life and hope. Their call for sane gun control is a greeting of Peace. Whether they think of it that way or not, it is as if they, too, have been sent forth. They have taken the pain of Ash Wednesday and transformed it into the energy of a movement to put people before profits, safety before gun rights, life over death. They are a Resurrection people. May we be no less.
Prayer
As the world sings triumphant cries to
heaven over death that you conquered, help us, Lord,
tomorrow as well, when the dresses are put away and
the candy is all eaten and on with life we go let us
not forget. The celebration of your resurrection over
death is a celebration of life that should continue
well beyond the sunrise service and the music,
rehearsed for days prior; it is beyond the sign of
spring, beyond the lily, beyond new lambs grazing in
open fields. Resurrection is a daily celebration over
fear; man's greatest and most powerful enemy. Fear
of tomorrow, fear of our yesterdays, fear of what
shall become of our young our old our unborn.
Resurrection is replacing fear with physical action. This alone, the most touching and profound
of your signs that fear is dead and belief in you
brings not just hope but life. What better living parable could You have
brought? All fear death. All. Even in the garden,
You took on our fear if for only moments, it was as
real as our fears can be real and You knew then that
this single enemy must be destroyed. And, You sacrificed your life, leaving
those who had been comfort, and follower; You left
them behind, to conquer fear. I shall cling to this now, and the
tomorrows given me. Peace and thanksgiving lifted unto you. Amen. Source: https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/Lent,-Easter,-and-Spring-Prayers.cfm
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Pax Christi Metro New York © 2018 |
