A First Sunday after Easter Thought to Start the Week Off Right
Last Sunday was Easter. But Easter isn't over. We don't simply put Easter behind us now. The 40 days of the Easter Season replace the 40 days of Lent. During Lent we focused on penance. During Easter, our focus switches to joy. The Inner Life of the Soul explains:
"The illustrious Benedictine, Dom Guéranger, in his work on the liturgical year, tells us that the practice for this holy season mainly consists in the spiritual joy which it should produce in every soul that is risen with Jesus. 'This joy is a foretaste of eternal happiness, and the Christian ought to consider it a duty to keep it within him, by ardently seeking after that life which is in our Divine Head, and by carefully shunning sin, which causes death. Our Holy Mother the Church is urgently now bidding us rejoice. You who before Easter were sinners, but have not returned to the life of grace, see that you die no more. And you to whom the Paschal solemnity has brought growth in grace, show this increase of more abundant life by your principles and your conduct.'"
Remember that spiritual joy may or may not be accompanied by a feeling of joy. Last Sunday, Easter Sunday, I wrote of my personal experience with this. While the recent death of our son has more or less suppressed any actual feelings of joy, nevertheless Easter remains joyful. And here, our author quickly acknowledges those of us laboring under the weight of sadness and grief during this Easter Season.
"Yet there are sad hearts, lonely hearts, suffering hearts, who will ask how this joy can be; how anything will have power to stop the anguish which death, or separation, or some interior trial has brought."
He offers a straightforward solution to the seeming conflict between our sadness and the joy of Easter.
"It can only be by simple and entire abandonment of self into the hands of God; by an utter and childlike union with His holy will; something more than submission, something higher than resignation; a veritable oneness with our risen Lord..."
Of course, it will take a leap of faith. And to have such faith, we need God's grace. I'd grasped this with my intellect in the past, but only with the death of our son have I understood the need for grace to strengthen our faith to the extent of "entire abandonment of self into the hands of God."
So having leapt into my Father's arms, has the feeling of sorrow dissipated? No. It's presence remains. But that hasn't locked out the joy of Easter. And that joy, I trust, will help to strengthen my soul in ways I haven't yet perceived and may never fully understand. The key here: Trust in God.
It's no different for any of us, this need to trust - even those of us who are not in a state of sorrow and grief. Whatever our current personal situation, recall that we're all united in our fallen human nature. We're all sinners. Yet, even in our sins, we may joyfully find the compassion and love that only God can give.
For those of us laboring under the heavy weight of the anguish that accompanies grief:
"In God's own time the anguish will pass, the light of the illuminative way will dawn, and the soul will press onward to union with her Lord. In the hot crucible of trial, pride is burned away, and the soul learns to walk in lowliness and fear, and so gains strength .When there is no longer any dependence on one's own powers, then comes the strength of God to give the soul a more than human energy to conquer every foe."
It is thus that we unite ourselves to our risen Savior during the holy Easter Season. Again and again we turn to Him, despite our pain and suffering, despite failing or falling, joyfully confident in His forgiveness and His infinite Love.
"Such is the resurrection that can take place this side of the grave; and such the path that leads to true Easter joy and peace."
"The illustrious Benedictine, Dom Guéranger, in his work on the liturgical year, tells us that the practice for this holy season mainly consists in the spiritual joy which it should produce in every soul that is risen with Jesus. 'This joy is a foretaste of eternal happiness, and the Christian ought to consider it a duty to keep it within him, by ardently seeking after that life which is in our Divine Head, and by carefully shunning sin, which causes death. Our Holy Mother the Church is urgently now bidding us rejoice. You who before Easter were sinners, but have not returned to the life of grace, see that you die no more. And you to whom the Paschal solemnity has brought growth in grace, show this increase of more abundant life by your principles and your conduct.'"
Remember that spiritual joy may or may not be accompanied by a feeling of joy. Last Sunday, Easter Sunday, I wrote of my personal experience with this. While the recent death of our son has more or less suppressed any actual feelings of joy, nevertheless Easter remains joyful. And here, our author quickly acknowledges those of us laboring under the weight of sadness and grief during this Easter Season.
"Yet there are sad hearts, lonely hearts, suffering hearts, who will ask how this joy can be; how anything will have power to stop the anguish which death, or separation, or some interior trial has brought."
He offers a straightforward solution to the seeming conflict between our sadness and the joy of Easter.
"It can only be by simple and entire abandonment of self into the hands of God; by an utter and childlike union with His holy will; something more than submission, something higher than resignation; a veritable oneness with our risen Lord..."
Of course, it will take a leap of faith. And to have such faith, we need God's grace. I'd grasped this with my intellect in the past, but only with the death of our son have I understood the need for grace to strengthen our faith to the extent of "entire abandonment of self into the hands of God."
So having leapt into my Father's arms, has the feeling of sorrow dissipated? No. It's presence remains. But that hasn't locked out the joy of Easter. And that joy, I trust, will help to strengthen my soul in ways I haven't yet perceived and may never fully understand. The key here: Trust in God.
It's no different for any of us, this need to trust - even those of us who are not in a state of sorrow and grief. Whatever our current personal situation, recall that we're all united in our fallen human nature. We're all sinners. Yet, even in our sins, we may joyfully find the compassion and love that only God can give.
For those of us laboring under the heavy weight of the anguish that accompanies grief:
"In God's own time the anguish will pass, the light of the illuminative way will dawn, and the soul will press onward to union with her Lord. In the hot crucible of trial, pride is burned away, and the soul learns to walk in lowliness and fear, and so gains strength .When there is no longer any dependence on one's own powers, then comes the strength of God to give the soul a more than human energy to conquer every foe."
It is thus that we unite ourselves to our risen Savior during the holy Easter Season. Again and again we turn to Him, despite our pain and suffering, despite failing or falling, joyfully confident in His forgiveness and His infinite Love.
"Such is the resurrection that can take place this side of the grave; and such the path that leads to true Easter joy and peace."
Happy Easter!
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