Easter Sunday of the Resurrection

Readings of the Day

“Alleluia!  He is Risen!  If ever there was an Easter when we all needed a confirmation of life shining forth from death, this may be it. 

What struck me most in these readings today was the last line of John’s Gospel.  Simon Peter and the other disciple have run to the now-empty tomb to see for themselves that their teacher, whom they had just buried, was no longer there.  The sentence “For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead” captured for me, in a visceral way, our present reality.  We do not yet understand so much about the pain and dislocation and struggle that we’re experiencing, whether as individuals and families, as agencies trying to stand in a perilous place, or as a global community.  We do not yet see the light on the other side, the life that will come from death, both small deaths and large ones. 

Even apart from our troubling current landscape of not understanding, it’s safe to say that we typically don’t understand the Scripture that speaks to us of life coming from death.  How much do we really trust that?  How much do we fight against it, conditioned by society and by our own frail human nature to preserve what we have now, where we are now, who we are now?  It’s a big ask, of course.  The biggest.  Which is why it takes a lifetime of practice to learn and trust. 

We don’t yet have perspective.  The struggle and losses are still too fresh, with more to come in the next weeks and months.  But this Holy Week, this Triduum, this Easter – this is the lived communal journey of death into new life.  I pray we will remember this in the years to come, when we are comfortably again in our parishes singing the Easter Alleluia.  These are hard lessons, but I don’t recall reading anywhere that this path would be easy.  Remember that if we truly trust in God’s mercy for us, in the model of life-from-death that He shows us, then resurrection will surely come. 

Alleluia!  He is Risen!”

Scott Cooper has served as Parish Social Ministry Director of Catholic Charities Eastern Washington (Spokane) for over 19 years.  He and his family look forward to returning to music ministry at Sacred Heart Parish in Spokane soon. 

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