Rise heart; the Lord is risen, sing His praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him mayst rise;
That as His death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold and much more, just.
(Easter George Herbert)
Easter is a time of joy for Christians. Having spent Lent in penitential mode, practising self denying penance and self emptying prayer, we naturally look forward to discarding the sackcloth and ashes and concentrating instead on joy filled Easter thoughts. We turn eagerly to reflect on the Resurrection of Christ which follows the sorrowful events of Holy Week. This is not to undervalue the darkness of pain and sorrow for it seems that to experience the joys of Resurrection we must accept the reality which precedes it. We must feel the darkness the better to enjoy the light.
No other generation of Sisters of Mercy has been given an opportunity that was presented to us through the Ryan report and its aftermath to empty the soul of our Congregation and reform ourselves, this time with more love, humility and respect for all God’s creation, animate and inanimate. It is a precious opportunity to turn the darkness of failure into the purified light of love justice and truth. The Easter season is a very fitting time for us to consider our reality. St. Paul says that if we have died with Christ we shall also rise with Him. We can pray that our immolation be linked with that of Christ so that in poverty of spirit we journey with Him from the anguish of Calvary towards the healing light of Easter morning.
Easter is an appropriate time to fan the ashes of dead hope and revive the spark of life and love and peace which was in danger of being dimmed. In harmony with earth’s Springtime renewal we can walk tall again in all the newness of our conversion. The daffodils have come again, the lambs on greening hillsides are lifting our hearts, and the lark’s clear notes are heard once more saluting the morning. We too can salute our new chastened life in the Spirit and transcend darkness by allowing the Risen Christ to raise us with Him in a world that is eager for love and justice and truth. When we do we can identify with George Herbert’s exuberant exclamation:
“Who would have thought my shrivelled heart
Could have recovered greenness?”
Kathleen Minogue rsm
South Central Province
