Saturday in the Easter Octave ~ Paschal Hymn to the Mother of God

                                    The Angel cried to the Lady full of grace:
                                    Rejoice, Rejoice O Pure Virgin!
                                    Again I say: Rejoice! 
                                    Your Son is risen from His three days in the tomb!
                                    With Himself He has raised all the dead!
                                    Rejoice, Rejoice all ye people!
                                    Shine! Shine! Shine O New Jerusalem!
                                    The glory of the Lord has shone on you!
                                    Dance now and be glad, O Zion!
                                    Be radiant, O Pure Theotokos,
                                    in the Resurrection of Your Son!

There are nine exclamation points in the hymn above, indications of surprise and delight. And while there is no biblical account of Mary receiving her own personal visitation of an Easter Angel, here, out of love, the Church has created this most happy and tender scene. 

But the hymn is about the New Jerusalem too, of which Mary is a type or image in faith. That New Jerusalem (Zion) is the Church, the family of Christ born in Baptism. The angel even directs us to dancing in the joy of Christ's trampling on death. And of course, Theotokos is the Greek word for Mother of God.

As the luminous icon doesn't seem to have any name, we might call her something like, Mother of God, Rejoicing or Mother of God ~ Easter Brightness. 

Friday in Bright Week ~ Christ Alpha and Omega

Christ yesterday and today, 
the beginning and the end, 
the alpha
and the omega,
to him belongs time
and the ages
to Him be glory and empire
throughout all the ages of eternity.

Every priest began the great vigil on Holy Saturday night with these words as he incised the Greek letters into the wax of the candle.

The central monogram here that looks like a P with an X through it or superimposed stands for the sacred name, Jesus Christ. The alpha and omega dangle from its arms. These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. But what does it mean?

In Christ, there is the love of God from start to finish.

In Christ, there is the love of God for all of troubled humanity in its
      long story. Can you feel it?

In Christ, there is the embrace of God for our individual and
      familial lives.

In Christ, there is an inclusive mercy. Is our message really
      salvation for all?

Christ, the beginning and ending of each day.

Christ, the beginning and ending of each thought.

Christ, the beginning and ending of my being called into existence. 

Christ, the beginning and ending of my questions, doubts and fears.

Thursday in the Easter Octave ~ Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

THIS ANGEL IS FOUND on the facade of the Gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame, Reims in France which was completed in the year 1275. Over the seven centuries he has lost a wing, the end of his nose and the better part of his right arm. Still he smiles. Indeed, the angel is simply called, The Smiling Angel.

Alleluia is the joyful Easter word. It's been said that the word itself comes from the language the angels speak. Perhaps this smiling angel is thinking thoughts we're unable to think and which cause him a deep interior joy.

Maybe the angel is thinking about the Incarnation of God at Bethlehem and the Resurrection of Easter morning. Or the angel might be contemplating our eternal destiny and his knowledge of God's love for us in Christ, despite our capacity for hatred and self-destruction. 

We were given a window into the mind of God when Jesus told us God knows when a sparrow falls to the ground. Despite endless wars which bomb medieval cathedrals and schools and heap every kind of atrocity on people - still the angel smiles. The angel knows what God knows; Alleluia is the angel-word expressing that knowledge.

Alleluia also sounds like the sounds a baby makes. We call it babbling. And Jesus tells us to be like children, that is: allow yourself to be vulnerable, be an unquestioning and grateful receiver. But also, acknowledge before the great mystery of God's mother-like, self-sacrificing love for us, perhaps the best we can do is babble. The theology, the exquisite hymns and prayers - it's all just a holy stammering before the inexpressible things of God.

Wednesday of Bright Week ~ The Legend of the Dogwood

THE DOGWOOD GROWS in many parts of Europe, China and East Asia and throughout North America. Virginia and South Carolina claim it as their state flower. There is a legend about the dogwood perhaps originating in the Middle Ages when just about everything somehow pointed symbolically to the Mysteries of the Christian Faith. 

At the time of Jesus' Crucifixion the dogwood had been the size of the oak and other forest trees. So firm and strong was the tree that it was chosen as the timber for the cross. To be used this way for such a cruel purpose greatly distressed the tree.

In His gentle pity for all sorrow and suffering Jesus said to the tree: "Because of your regret and pity for my suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a cross. From now on it shall be slender and bent and twisted and its blossom shall be in the form of a cross - two long and two short petals. And in the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints, brown with rust and stained with red, and in the center of the flower will be a crown of thorns, and all who see it will remember."

I like that line, "...and all who see it will remember" especially in view of the mental clutter most of us suffer and the daily temptations to distraction and forgetfulness. 

It's noteworthy too that the dogwood has served medicinally as well over time. It has been used to curb the spread of malaria. Confederate soldiers made bark tea from the dogwood to cure colds and fevers and a leaf-paste to cover battle wounds. Of course, the remedy or medicine we need is a spiritual one. Praise Christ Risen in the Springtime!

Tuesday of Bright Week ~ Having Heard From The Angel

IN THIS FRESCO from a monastery wall, there are a couple of scenes conflated into one: One Easter angel points to the binding cloth or shroud of Jesus. Another angel points to the empty tomb, announcing to the confounded women that Jesus is risen and gone ahead to Galilee. The soldiers, symbolizing power and empire, are fallen. The walking stick held by each angel indicates that these are messengers in motion - alive with news. 

Having heard from the angel
the glad tidings of the Resurrection,
and that the ancient curse was done away,
the women disciples of the Lord
cried exultingly unto the apostles,
"Death is no more and Christ our God is risen,
granting to the world great mercy.

(Eastern Christian Resurrection Hymn)

This is a wonderful verse to memorize and repeat many times each day - even out loud - during the Easter time. I believe it has the power to dispel sadness, self-pity and harmful anxieties.

An Easter Sermon ~ Bright Monday ~ The Myrrh-Bearing Women

DIANE CAMERON IS A FREELANCE WRITER who had an article published a few years ago in the "Forum" section of U.S.A. Today. She recalled a time in her life described as the lowest point, a time of crushing depression when everything seemed to be loss.

I don't imagine there is anyone reading this post who can't recall his or her own lowest life-point. Maybe someone is feeling, "I'm in it right now!" Diane went on to share that she had gotten out of the habit of regular church worship and of surprisingly finding herself at an Easter morning service in the midst of all this daily confusion and inner darkness. She remembered nothing of the sermon except these words, "We live in a Good Friday world."

On Palm Sunday many Christians heard the Passion account of Saint Mark, and then on Friday, as told by Saint John. If we were attentive we'd see all the themes of the Good Friday World, which is life on the planet today (likely it is the world's story in every place and time) but also themes detected in our own personal lived experience.

The themes of the Good Friday World are these: loss, grief, mistakes, false accusation, suffering, burdens, pain, betrayal, hatred, curses, abandonment, torture, loneliness, false imprisonment, false religion, fears, tears, nakedness, shame, insults, violence, prison abuse, treachery, brutality, bribery, libel, scheming, indifference, cold calculation, the dark world of politics,  death. It's often very difficult to live in this world.

We live in a Good Friday World, - we all know a Good Friday World. And on Saturday night, if your church service started in darkness - that's what the darkness symbolized. And much of the world seems to be fine with that. "Jesus came into the world as light, but people preferred darkness to light." And when we can't stand the darkness anymore, the culture goes shopping, or gets high, or we get something else to eat, or we look for another screen in which to lose ourselves.

But Saint Augustine says, "We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song." This means we're not celebrating a past event so much as we're celebrating the thing that defines us - resurrection defines us. Resurrection was Jesus' experience surely, but it is as much OUR experience. Or it's supposed to be.

The new fire of Saturday night, and the lifting up high of the great candle, and singing to the candle as if it were personal and even alive, and our taking the light off of the candle and holding it to ourselves and feeling its glow: We're an Easter people. And this isn't just wishful thinking or trying to "buck up" in the darkness - but the light pushed back the darkness. The candles dispelled the darkness - sent it away!

The women at the tomb, called the myrrh-bearers, have something to tell us about this. These women are images of us. They are not poor women or stupid women (as misogynists like to say) but they are not able to move beyond the Good Friday World. They expect only to encounter what they knew on Good Friday. They wonder, 'Who will roll the stone away for us?" They can't or don't think of a personal world of new and other possibilities. All they expect to see again is the brutalized and dead body they had started to embalm on Friday.

They love Jesus very much and are intent on doing for him what they can, but they have yet  to comprehend what Jesus can do for them which is to call them - this time not down the dirt roads of Galilee, but to follow him into a new world of faith - into a new world which is to become a new kind of human person - transfigured and born of light.

Some years ago I was chaplain to a residential school for young people who had lost their way. And every Easter there was at least one who asked to be baptized. And so on Easter night these young men and women would step up to the watery sepulcher with Jesus to be ritually drown - to move beyond the Good Friday World to their own personal Easter. They had started to change and they wanted to change even more - for a lifetime - all the way to heaven. And I want to change. I want to be different from last Easter.

We might print a copy of the little icon of the Myrrh-Bearers speaking with the Easter Angel of  Happy News and put it where we'll see it for Easter's Forty Days. Maybe with a simple prayer at hand like this one:

Risen Jesus, 

as I walk in this Good Friday world,

grace me, and all of the others, 

with something of your

Resurrection mind,

Resurrection life and energy,

Resurrection heart and spirit,

hope and joy.

Amen! Alleluia!