Nouwen: Easter Resurrection

Nouwen: Easter Resurrections

“When you forget your true identity as a beloved child of God, you lose your way in life.”—Henri Nouwen, “Holy Saturday/Easter Vigil: Be Not Afraid” from Fear to Love: Lenten Reflections on the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Creative Communications of the Parish, 2009).

Jim and his grandson

So many spiritual friends I talk to identify with Nouwen’s Easter message. We lose our true identity for many reasons, which are usually fear-based. We forget that we are loved by God and seek love everywhere else. We stop becoming the person God created us to be and become the person others or our society wants us to be. We become people-pleasers, fearing rejection. We become insecure, fearful, frightened, and look for relief in power, addictions, fame, money, or attachments to others. We grow dependent on what others think about us, or we may become paralyzed and unable to make any decisions. We eventually become acutely aware that we have lost our connection to God. Where can we find help?

My experience is that it is in community where we find help. We talk with others who can share their connection to God. In recovery groups, this is called “sticking with the winners, staying close to those who have their lights on.” Eventually, we are healed and stay connected by reaching out to others who have gone through a similar experience.

As the alcoholic or addict in recovery stays sober and clean by telling their story, we talk to someone else seeking recovery and share our story of Resurrection from Good Friday.

Some may not call it Easter, but that is what it is. I was reminded of this by a dear friend, Jim Waldron, who now lives in the resurrection and becomes sober on Easter Sunday many years ago.

Resurrections are offered to us in the life to come and in this life. We know it is true, because we believe it and have seen it! Resurrections have happened even in this pandemic and horrible war in Ukraine and the Middle East. I have seen families who have been estranged come together to help each other. This is a resurrection time for our earth. Then, people begin to talk about what is really important in life.

Joanna joannaseibert.com  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

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Easter Forgiveness

Easter Forgiveness

Guest Writer: Eve Turek

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”—Luke 23:34a.

This photograph is from a previous Easter Sunday morning in lockdown. Before daybreak, I went to the ocean and found the empty Cross waiting at the access road. I felt led to go to it.

I’ve been thinking a lot all this week about what we Christians sometimes call “Holy Week.” There is so much to think about...where to pause and contemplate? Palm Sunday? Last Supper? Good Friday? Easter Vigil? Easter Morning?? This year, what caught my heart (and my breath) was a more profound implication I heard from the Cross: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.”

What got to me was what I did not hear. I didn’t hear, Father, forgive them; they are really sorry. Father, forgive them; they know better now and will never do this again. Father, forgive them. They are repentant. Father, forgive them. They are so ashamed. Nope.

I heard something like this: Oh, Father, forgive them; they just don’t get it. Father, forgive them. They are so clueless (bless their hearts). Father, forgive them...not because they know, but because they don’t know. They really don’t know.

This is why, at rock bottom, when people ask me what I believe and what I stand for, I tell them I am in Love with God to my core, in Love with His Son Jesus, in Love with His Spirit because He loved us first. Because to whom much is forgiven, that one loves much. That’s why I focus on Love so much. I’m forgiven, and I was forgiven even before I knew better, did better, or wanted better. I was forgiven not because I was sorry, but because He is Love.

 And once I got hold of that truth, really got hold of it, then God had hold of my heart. And He’s never let go...thank God. Because He sustains this Love, I can walk in Love and forgiveness.

That’s what Easter means to me this year. He is Risen...not only 2,000+/- years ago, but risen in me. Coincidentally, the Easter season a past year once again coincided with the day I first made a conscious, deliberate commitment to God: April 1, 1973. Many years ago. I was 16 years old. I knew somehow, the decision meant everything would change. And it did.

I still had my times of walking away from the best I knew, but God was faithful even when I wasn’t. It was His faithfulness that brought me back to my best self. And that Love is why I am STILL His today.

Eve Turek

Resurrection Chapel National Cathedral Washington

Joanna. joannaseibert.com   https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Resurrection: It Takes a Second Look

Resurrection: It Takes a Second Look

“Seeing things as they actually are usually takes time. How else are we to explain the fact that no one—no one!—noticed the resurrected Jesus at first sight? Seeing the resurrection requires a second look, another glance. It takes a while for our eyes to adjust to the light of the resurrection, and then all of life looks radically different…Seeing God’s “new thing” is about seeing an old thing in a new way through a new lens. Such is the miracle of Gospel sight—to see what has always been there in such a radically new way that it becomes a new thing. This is always a work of grace, and we can only handle so much of it at once.”

—Kris Rocke and Joel Van Dyke in Geography of Grace, Doing Theology from Below from Daily Quote, InwardOutward/ Church of the Saviour, InwardOutward.org, April 30, 2019.

When friends ask what life must be like in the resurrection, I remind them that our only stories are of the resurrected Jesus. After the resurrection, the disciples on the road to Emmaus did not recognize him. Mary Magdalene did not recognize him. The disciples meeting Jesus on the beach were not sure who he was. Jesus came and went through closed doors. The resurrected Jesus gave fishing tips, cooked meals, and ate dinner with his friends.

The Easter season is the perfect time to read and meditate on the resurrected Jesus’ appearances on Easter Day and the next forty days (Acts 1:3-8).

We may be most familiar with the four Easter Day appearances of Jesus (Mary Magdalene in John, Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary in Matthew, two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke, disciples in the upper room when Thomas is absent in John). There are at least 12 appearances of the resurrected Jesus. This Easter Season is an excellent time to practice Ignatian meditative practices, putting ourselves into unfamiliar scenes.  

Jesus appeared to the disciples eight days after the resurrection (John 20:24-29), with Thomas present in the upper room. He appeared to seven disciples at the Sea of Galilee, asking Peter to feed His sheep (John 21). Jesus appeared on a hillside in Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20), perhaps to over 500 people, as referenced by Paul (1 Corinthians 15:6). Jesus was later seen by his brother James (1 Corinthians 15:7). Jesus’ final appearance was the Great Commission, after the disciples returned to Jerusalem and were led out to Bethany at the Mount of Olives. (Luke 24:50-52, Acts 1:9-11). Then we know that Paul also encountered Jesus a few years later on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:5, 1 Corinthians 15:8).1

The fact that people have difficulty recognizing Jesus tells us at least two things. First, the resurrection was so overwhelming that it was almost impossible initially to believe. Second, Jesus looked different in the resurrection. 

May we, in turn, learn from these stories what resurrection is in this life and the next.

1Msgr. Charles Pope, Blog, April 9, 2012, blog.adw.org

From his Native American heritage, Bishop Steven Charleston constantly reminds us that we have gotten through this pandemic and racial and social unrest with the help of those who love us in the resurrection in the next life. Through them, God prays, walks beside us, and nudges us to care for ourselves and others.

Caravaggio supper at Emmaus. National Gallery London

Joanna. joannaseibert.com   https://www.joannaseibert.com/