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Reflections on Easter Sunday

By Carole Brennan

The readings for
this Sunday:

Acts 10:34a, 37-43

Colossians 3:1-4

Luke 24: 13-35

There is no way to have a resurrection without a Good Friday. The Tao states that "all can see beauty only because there is ugly. All can know good only because there is evil. Difficult and easy complement each other." The Tao also states: "Yield and Overcome." The ugly, the evil, the difficult, the yielding are the Good Fridays of our lives. The beauty, the good, the easy, the overcoming are the resurrections of our lives. They are Easter mornings. They are ways of living so that each day is a resurrection day.

Resurrection does not mean that we will be without pain. Jesus surely hurt when he rose from the dead. Buried late Friday afternoon and rising early Sunday morning, he had only been in the tomb about 39 hours. It must have hurt just to get up. But he didn't stay in the tomb. He did get up, got out and got on with his life.

Resurrection doesn't come without the pre resurrection pain of Good Friday, or the post resurrection pain. And that is what resurrection is about. It doesn't mean we won't have pain. It means that we get out of our tombs even when we are in pain. We all have tombs that are sealed with boulders. Resurrection is about choosing to walk out of the tomb. Resurrection is about making those boulders into stepping stones, not stumbling blocks.

Sometimes our resurrections are big; they are the ones we expect - for ourselves. When we speak of resurrection, we speak of miracles. And most often we think of splash and flash. Kind of Cecil B. DeMille. But all resurrections, like all miracles, aren't big. They are rather Run-of-DeMille. They are the little resurrections: the hello from someone who hasn't spoken to you for a long time, the person who tells you that you really made their day, the hug that comes just when you need it. They are resurrections; they give us new life.

But the biggest resurrections come from giving, not from getting. We realize resurrection when we give. Jesus didn't resurrect by taking something for himself. He achieved it by giving of himself. And that's how we receive our resurrections -- by giving of ourselves. We get when we give.

Do you want the resurrection of forgiveness? Forgive others. Do you want the resurrection of understanding? Understand another. Do you want the resurrection of consolation? Console. Do you want the resurrection of love? Love one another.

Whatever resurrection you want, give it -- it will come back to you. That is not a promise; it's a fact. Give -- without expecting or wanting in return -- and it will be returned to you. Guaranteed.

Resurrection is beautiful, but it comes with the price of Good Friday. It isn't easy. It takes strength to forgive, especially if the person we must forgive has hurt us deeply or betrayed our trust. It is difficult to console when the other person drains our energy. It's hard to love when the love is not returned. And it's the most difficult to forgive and console and love without wanting in return.

But remember this: resurrection lasts a whole lot longer than Good Friday. Often in the joy of Easter we forget that Good Friday has happened. It's like a woman who has just given birth. All the pain, all the labor, all the suffering disappear when we look into the eyes and the beauty of new life. In the excitement of being wrapped up in Easter, we forget that it was the pain of Good Friday that made it possible.

Good Friday has happened and will happen again ... and again. But each Good Friday makes for a stronger Easter Sunday.

Stepping stones or stumbling blocks. The choice is ours to make.

© C. Brennan