Though the fourth winter storm is predicted for the Northeast as we speak, Spring began officially at 12:15 P.M. yesterday. The Cherry Blossoms in Washington are not sufficiently opened yet to be harmed - they are due to open fully around March 27. A friend who helps me with science things writes:
The Spring Equinox is one of the two days of the year when the earth's axis of rotation is not tilted towards or away from the sun. The sun crosses the equator and we experience a balanced day and night, and light and dark. Equinox mean equal night. It marks the beginning of the season in which the hours of daylight will overcome the hours of nighttime darkness.
It means winter has ended. It is a day of balance. Now the light begins to grow. Light wins over darkness, light which guarantees life. We can each name the darkness as we perceive it. But light wins and with that light comes life, and warmth, and birth, and hope restored. Don't we need this restoration?
And in just days from now we'll stand in a dark-as-night church and the great candle with the new flame will enter the church, and we'll sing greetings to it and the One who rose from the dead before dawn and left the tomb empty.
And we'll each "catch" the light from the candle and take it to ourselves, and every face will be illumined, and we'll see each other in the light. We'll see the others as they really are - God's dear ones all, and each saved from the darkness which will seemingly be pushed through the walls to the beyond.
Do I believe it matters that Christ rose from the dead in a world that feels so very dark? Here is an old translation from the Latin of a bit of the Easter Night Exsultet - the hymn to the candle.
Let the earth also rejoice illumined with such resplendent rays;
and enlightened with the brightness of the eternal King,
let it feel that the darkness of the whole world is dispersed.
Let also our mother the Church rejoice,
adorned with the brightness of so great a light;
and may this temple resound with the joyful voices of the people.
