The Paschal Triduum, the pinnacle of the Church’s liturgical year is such a richly human experience touching all our senses – bread, wine and incense at the Lord’s supper on Holy Thursday; a cross to venerate on Good Friday; the fire, candle procession in the dark, sprinkling of holy water, singing of the Exultet, and of course the fragrance of flowers at the Easter Vigil. Through this sensually alive experience, we are reminded it is in the things of earth and through our humanity where we find God.
One of my favorite Easter stories takes place in a garden near the tomb where Jesus had been buried. Mary Magdalene goes to visit the tomb and is grief stricken because she can’t find his body and she presumes it has been stolen. So she asks, “Where have you taken him?” With all the darkness we’ve witnessed in our world this past year, we might also find ourselves asking, “Where is our Risen Lord?” After all, so many people’s lives have been devastated and disrupted by natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy, or by senseless violence as in the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT and a movie theater in Aurora, CO among others.
It’s more sorrow and pain than even we distant bystanders can hardly bear as we watch our sisters and brothers cope with grief and loss that are beyond words. To see people lose their homes and all their material belongings seems too much to take in. Witnessing parents losing a child is the ultimate incomprehensible tragedy. The loss of a sense of safety and innocence touch all of us as we process the unthinkable happening in a small town school. Darkness and evil surely seem to be all around us.
So where can we find the Risen Lord amidst all of this human pain? First of all, I believe He is right in the middle of it, crying with those who are weeping, loving them and sorrowing with them – as you would with a loved one who has lost so much!
But I actually saw the Risen Lord appear! In the innumerable acts of kindness that were done to alleviate people’s suffering. NBC’s Ann Curry wrote a tweet encouraging everyone to do 26 Acts of Kindness in memory of the 26 lives lost at Sandy Hook – and it went viral!
And again, how many unsung heroes have gone to the affected areas of New York and New Jersey from all over the country volunteering their time, talent and money to help rebuild people’s homes, people who wouldn’t otherwise have the resources to begin again! How many groups collected and distributed toys for children there who were not going to have a Christmas because of being displaced. Other people drove to Newtown to simply offer solace, support, even hugs to the grief stricken.
So where is our Risen Lord? He is present wherever the “Light of Christ” becomes more than a sung acclamation and shines forth from within you, or me, or another person. When we live out of the belief that as disciples we are called to be the incarnational presence of the Risen Christ who promised, “I will be with you always” – there is our Risen Lord.
Let your light shine in the darkness.
Sr. Nancy Shively, osc