Becca has written a reflection on Easter Sunday as we enter the seven weeks of Eastertide
“Maybe love is winning again. Love for neighbors that is strong enough to sacrifice our important gatherings. Love that gives up our cherished celebrations to save lives--the lives of other children of God whom we don’t even know. Maybe these empty places are, in fact, a reminder--a reminder that, through it doesn’t look like it, it is Easter anyway.” -The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry.
Many of you have written about your different experience of Easter at home yesterday. Many of you named the helpfulness of worship, liturgy, videos, music, zoom meetings with family and friends...and how they all helped to keep you connected and grounded...and yet there was still sadness...something missing.
The Most Reverand B. Curry, the 27th Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church
I was surprised by how sad I felt yesterday. I knew it would be strange. I knew I would miss and ache not being able to worship together on our holiest day. But the sadness snuck up on me and took me by surprise. But the more I thought about it, the more I talked with friends and colleagues, the more I realized that this has been the most Easter-like Easter we’ve ever known.
Like Mary, we woke up Easter morning not knowing what the day had in store. We woke up in the fog of grief, the bleariness of tears still in our eyes. We met the gardener but didn’t recognize him. The Good News of the Resurrection didn’t come in the form of timpani, pomp and circumstance, or a multitude of lilies. The Good News broke through our fog of loss and confusion like a pale thin ray of sunlight, gently and slowly.
The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry (the bishop who married Prince Harry & Meagan Markle) offered that reflection of Easter morning yesterday. This experience has been varied for all of us; we’ve all been affected in different ways. And globally (not universally, certainly, but for many) there seems to be an awakening happening...a growing awareness of our connectedness. It is a growing love for each other.
It is that love that grounded Jesus’ ministry and teaching. It is that love that emboldened him as he entered Jerusalem, protesting the Roman Empire. It is that love that allowed him to love his disciples, even though each would abandon him. It is that love that overcame death. And it is that love that disperses the fog of our grief and confusion in a time of deep uncertainty.
What lies ahead? What’s next? Easter. We have seven weeks of Eastertide and we will journey through this season. Which is to say, we have time to feel our feelings and acknowledge the strangeness of this Eastertide...and...maybe we will relate to the experience of those bewildered disciples in a new way.
Blessings to you, dear ones, wherever you find yourselves on this Easter Monday.
