An Easter reflection from Fr. Mike
It’s Easter – Make a Little Effort
Last Sunday, Easter Sunday, I said that when the stone was rolled away from the tomb the door to our future was opened to us. The obvious thing to do when someone opens the door for you is to say thank you and walk through. It may be obvious but that doesn’t necessarily make it automatic or easy.
In the first half of the gospel (John 20:19-31) assigned for this Sunday (the Second Sunday of Easter), it is the evening of Easter Sunday. Guess where the disciples are. In the house behind a locked door. In the second half of that gospel, it’s one week after Easter Sunday. Guess where the disciples are. In the same house, behind the same locked door.
But here’s the thing – the door is locked from the inside. The stone was rolled away, but the disciples locked the door. The tomb is empty, but their house is full.
I wonder what has the disciples locked in. It’s an interesting question, but there is a more relevant question. What has us locked in?
In what ways have we locked ourselves out of our future? What keeps us from taking that first step into a new life, a new way of being, a new way of engaging life, a new way of seeing the world, others, ourselves?
Maybe it’s fear, the pull of old habits and routines, exhaustion, a lack of imagination, the uncertainty of the future. Maybe it’s not wanting to take responsibility for ourselves and our lives. Maybe we’re unwilling to let go of our past or the way things used to be. Maybe we’ve just gotten comfortable with and settled for the life we have, even if it’s not the one we want. Maybe we’ve given up.
How badly do you and I want an Easter life? How much effort are we willing to put into it?
We often talk about what Easter, the empty tomb, has given us. But what if it is also asking something of us? That’s what we learn from Abba Helladius, one of the desert fathers.
“Of the same Abba Helladius, it was said that he was accustomed to eat bread and salt, and that when Easter came, he would say, ‘The brothers eat bread and salt; as for me, I must make a little effort because of Easter. Therefore, since I eat sitting down all the other days, now that it is Easter, I will make this effort, and eat standing up.’” (Translated by Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 62)
What would it take and be like to “make a little effort because of Easter”?
If Easter declares anything, it’s that God believes we are worth the effort. What about us? Do we believe ourselves to be worth making a little effort? How about others, are they worth a little effort from us? Is our town? America?
It’s Easter. What’s the little effort you can make today?
