Bishop Brennan's Easter reflection: Celebrating Jesus' Resurrection and its significance
Spring has sprung, the weather is getting consistently warmer in our beautiful Central Valley, and signs of new life are all around us. It is simply the perfect time for Christians everywhere to remember and celebrate the great Feast of Easter, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It is the Feast of Easter that surpasses all others, eminently more important than our observance of the Savior's birth. After all, Christmas simply teaches and tells us that He came into our world and entered human history. Easter teaches and tells us why He did so.
Opinion
Some of you reading this short reflection may have had the incredible blessing of having visited Israel. For good reason we refer to it as the Holy Land and although it is currently – and once again – suffering the scourge of war and violence, I have some incredibly fond and profound memories associated with that land.
I have been to the Holy Land twice in my life and each time upon my return someone would inevitably ask me what my favorite place was. Every time that happened, I found myself hard-pressed to come up with an answer because my list would be extensive and the choice too hard for me to make.
However, in the context of our Easter season just beginning, I think the Church of the Holy Sepulcher would be a good candidate.
When you first enter the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, one is easily overwhelmed – in a good sense – by the profound beauty of the church along with the reverent attitude of the pilgrims and their sacred silence. Then you see it, what is called an Edicule. It is like a very small church within a large church, a small structure with four walls and a ceiling or canopy, obviously covering and protecting something precious and important.
What you discover inside is darkness, beauty and emptiness. In fact, what you discover is an empty tomb which is what the word sepulcher means, but an emptiness that points to the fullness of life. It is an emptiness that represents the good news, bad news nature of the angelic words to the holy women who had first gone to the tomb three days after the death of Jesus: 'Do not be frightened. I know you are looking for Jesus the crucified, but He is not here. He has been raised, exactly as He promised. Come and see the place where He was laid.'
You see, the joyous news of Easter comes to us through an empty tomb. He is not here is the bad news, the awful news that the faithful women and the Apostles heard. It is the news of loss, the news of painful separation, the news of hopes that have been dashed. Yet, He is not here is also the good news since the glorious reason for the absence and the emptiness is the RESURRECTION!
I remember so well the first few months and years after the death of my own father. I would go to visit my mom and see dad's empty chair in the living room. I would see the empty place at our big dining room table where dad, and only dad, used to sit. I cannot begin to imagine how mom felt about the empty half of a bed she shared with dad for 40 years! On some days I would see that emptiness as only bad news, as something sad and regretful, again, only remembering the loss and feeling the pain.
On other days I would see it for what it really was and remains, a simple but powerful reminder about the good news. That enabled me to start thinking to myself, 'Well, dad is not here but I know where he is … in heaven!'
Some fellow pilgrims in the Eastern Rites of Christianity have the beautiful tradition of greeting each other during the Easter season with the words, HE IS RISEN! Everyone in those communities, young and old, knows that the expected response to that phrase is, HE IS TRULY RISEN! It is a call to rejoice in His Resurrection.
It is a call for those of us who are still here to remain faithful to the tasks before us of loving, serving, trusting and giving of ourselves in sacrifice as Jesus did. It is a call to see whatever emptiness and darkness there may be in our lives and in our world in a very different LIGHT! Yes, HE IS RISEN! Have a simply joyous and wonderful Easter season.
Bishop Joseph V. Brennan serves the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno.
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