Dear Friends,
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
The Easter Greeting has been part of the Christian Community’s response to the Resurrection since the first disciples met the Risen Lord after his crucifixion. The bodily resurrection of Jesus changed everything and changed the course of human history. By emptying himself into the world (see Philippians 2:5-11) God chose the path of humility to bring humankind back to himself – to realign those whom he created to their first calling.
Jesus is often called The Second Adam and we heard of a wonderful irony in the chant called Exultet at the Easter Vigil: “O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!” From the first Adam came estrangement from God, but in Jesus Christ, God brought us back to himself and gave us hope.
This Holy Week has been the second we have celebrated during a pandemic which means that (assuming that the pandemic is truly over) by the time we reach Holy Week 2022, it will have been three years since the Choir of Men and Boys sang together liturgically in this greatest of all weeks. But this year, in spite of the restrictions, we have celebrated with great devotion the Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection. Dr. Grieb’s sermons have been extraordinary in their power. She has truly broken open the scriptures to us and her many images and descriptions have captivated many of us as we have listened. We have been truly blessed to have her and to have our dear friend, Bishop John O’Hara walk the journey to Calvary and Easter with us this week. Remember that all the liturgies and the sermons are available on-demand.
I end with a sonnet of Malcolm Guite that he wrote last year during lock-down. Katherine quoted him several times. He is a remarkable priest-poet.
The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia!
Easter 2020
And where is Jesus, this strange Easter day?
Not lost in our locked churches, anymore
Than he was sealed in that dark sepulchre.
The locks are loosed; the stone is rolled away,
And he is up and risen, long before,
Alive, at large, and making his strong way
Into the world he gave his life to save,
No need to seek him in his empty grave.He might have been a wafer in the hands
Of priests this day, or music from the lips
Of red-robed choristers, instead he slips
Away from church, shakes off our linen bands
To don his apron with a nurse: he grips
And lifts a stretcher, soothes with gentle hands
The frail flesh of the dying, gives them hope,
Breathes with the breathless, lends them strength to cope.On Thursday we applauded, for he came
And served us in a thousand names and faces
Mopping our sickroom floors and catching traces
Of that corona which was death to him:
Good Friday happened in a thousand places
Where Jesus held the helpless, died with them
That they might share his Easter in their need,
Now they are risen with him, risen indeed.
