Contemplative Focus
“Christ is risen, indeed,
He is truly risen!”
One of the cherished gifts of the Easter Season for me was to hear a dear friend’s voice over the telephone proclaiming “Christ, is risen, indeed, He is truly risen!” I will be hearing that message from a new vantage, for this companion on the journey is now living in the beauty of eternal life.
It seems as though I am traveling with Christ’s friends after the Resurrection event: grief-laden, disbelieving that a loved one is gone from the earth. This terrain is new and I brace myself, sensing that the complexities and layers of the Paschal Mystery reside simultaneously in my being and I am caught in ambiguity. There is a challenge in all this: a commitment to believe in the resurrected life even when the clouds of sorrow or the struggles of life hold full sway. Some disciples and friends of Jesus did not fully understand the fulfillment of His promise that Easter morning, it took another period of waiting, a time when they wrestled through anxiety and fears cascaded to the shoreline of their ordinary day to day existence. Pentecost suffused the disciples with the grace to proceed from the past chaos and confusion to become faith-filled proclaimers of God’s loving kindness.
In this moment when many people face the insecurities of the financial crisis, when they worry if their houses will be listed for auction, when sudden illness strikes a loved one, or when they have received the pink slip. . . the proclamation still sounds forth that Christ is indeed risen from the dead. As Christ told Mary not to cling to him, we are challenged to hold fast in faith, believing in the mystery of Christ’s resurrection transforming us in the real situations of life.
Invitation:
Ponder the Post Resurrection stories. How do you come to meet the Resurrected Christ? What are those situations that hold your attention right here and now that you want to bring before the Lord? Can you name or describe some seeds of hope that are germinating in your life?
Maria Viatori, O.C.D.
Cleveland, Carmel
