What do you think about when you are wondering where will you attend the Easter ceremonies? Perhaps you are a regular attender at one particular gathering or maybe your choice depends on other aspects of your life schedule. This year I joined a small rural community for the ceremonies on Good Friday.
Easter fire
Good Friday can feel like a bleak day, yet for me this year it came alive in a new way. A choir of somewhere between sixty and eighty people drawn from every age group added a special quality to the celebration. It was clear from the start that this was a local christian community where people were engaged praying together and remembering the passion of the Lord. A young father, taking on the role of one of the apostles, shared the telling of the Good Friday gospel as he recalled it. The deep feeling in the church was palpable.
On Holy Saturday night each person stretched out a hand to bless the Easter water and when we stood to renew our Baptismal vows, we stood with a hand on the shoulder of the person beside us as we were reminded that we were doing this together, a community committed to God, to one another and to living out our Baptismal vows each day.
Another high point came on Easter Sunday morning as car lights converged on Two Mile Gate on the shore of Lough Derg for the dawn Mass. Nothing dimmed the enthusiasm of the local community. By 5.30 am the Easter fire was blazing guiding anyone who was a bit unsure of the exact location. A larger group of local musicians sat together by the lake shore and proclaimed resurrection. Again the sense of a community worshiping together, co-operating together, encouraging one another and appreciating one another could be vividly sensed.
When Fr. Donagh started to speak about stagnant pools in his homily I wondered where he was going with this? As he continued to reflect on how our lives can become stagnant his words carried an urgency with them as the darkest hour just before the dawn intensified and the breeze off the lake stirred us. He listed some ways we can become stagnant, trapped in lifeless routines, worrying about the past, present or future, engaging in excesses, in overwork, in constant movement, becoming prisoners of disillusionment and cynicism. Stagnant pools!
Sunrise March 31st Easter Sunday 2013
Resurrection did not just happen 2000 years ago. There is always room for renewal and rebirth in our lives. In his poem Begin Again Brendan Kennelly says:
‘Though we live in a world that dreams of ending
that always seems about to give in
something that will not acknowledge conclusion
insists that we forever begin’
If God creates us with endless capacity for life, dawn reminds us of the constant possibility of starting anew. Through the Resurrection we can come through no matter what life brings. There is always the possiblity that we can resurrect; with the help and support of friends and family we can find the courage we need. We can find truth in who we are in Resurrection and in God. The invitation is to move away from negative places and turn towards places and spaces that give us life.
In his poem To Be Dead Patrick Kavanagh suggests that
‘to be dead is to stop believing in
the masterpieces we will begin tomorrow;
to be an exile is to be a coward,
to know that growth has stopped,‘
As the predawn cold gave way to the new light we knew that Christ had risen, we knew that there are masterpieces to be created today, tomorrow and each day.
Marie Stuart rsm
South Central Province
