Easter Sunday - April 16, 2006

Dear friends in life and in ministry . . .

May the peace and hope of the Risen Lord be with you this Easter evening.

It has been a very rich and full week from a liturgical standpoint. Tuesday's Chrism Mass in Rochester was as magnificent as ever. Once again we chartered a small (25 passenger) bus so that many of the people who would enter the Church at Easter would experience this special Mass at the Cathedral. Some St. Mary's parishioners attend every year - remarkable since many Catholics who live close by the Cathedral have never attended this beautiful Mass.

On Thursday night we gathered for the beginning liturgy of the Easter Triduum - the Three Days in which the Church celebrates the Institution of the Eucharist and Jesus' Passion, Death and Resurrection. The Holy Thursday Mass, Good Friday services and Saturday evening's Easter Vigil are rich in tradition and symbolism.

Thursday includes a Foot washing ceremony that I find very moving. Friday, in addition to a combined service with St. Gabriel's, my friend singer Ken Anderson and I prayed and sung at two nursing homes and participated in an ecumenical celebration of the Stations of the Cross in Bath's Pulteney Park.

Saturday night's Easter Vigil begins with the lighting of the Easter Candle which the deacon carries into the darkened church. The candle is used to celebrate Jesus' power over the darkness that is inevitably part of this world - even conquering death. Following several scriptural readings recalling our salvation history, two children and three adults were baptized. Then six other adults expressed their desire to be in full communion with the Catholic church and were confirmed. On Easter Sunday morning, our congregation celebrated with Sarah Ambrosone the baptism of her infant son Wyatt Duncan.

Later today, our children Chris, Annie and Monica joined us for dinner and conversation. It was a very good day which included a well earned nap, a practice I hope to repeat tomorrow which at last will be a true day of rest.

Today, instead of my Easter Column, I'm including the first of a series of refections by my faith formation and youth ministry coordinator Mary Carol Wall. As readers to the weekly email will recall, Mary Carol has been diagnosed with breast cancer and has recently begun weekly chemotherapy treatments. Her reflections inspiringly demonstrate Mary Carol's great faith and trust in God's love and care. It is a message of Easter Hope which should not be missed.

Ray

Printable column coming soon... (Adobe PDF file, plugin needed) (Click Here For Sent To Serve Archives)

Easter Sunday - April 16 , 2006

Last weekend, members of St. Mary's Youth Group and their families and friends cooked for an annual Diocesan Retreat for teenagers. After all the work, fun, cleanup, and laughter were over, we joined the retreatants and their families for Mass. It was the Sunday where the Passion of Christ was recounted.

I have heard the account many times... we all have. This time, tho', I got something a little different out of it.

When I was diagnosed with cancer, it was scary. But I wasn't scared of dying. Or maybe I'm just not close enough to it to be scared. I think, though, that most people in life threatening situations will say much the same thing: they fear less for themselves than they fear for those who love them... the people that they will be forced to leave behind if they die.

My first thought was overwhelming for my children and Jim, but close, VERY close behind were the thoughts of my Mom and Dad, my siblings and their families, my friends who are so close in my heart. It was for them that I grieved most... I hated putting them through all this, not that I had any choice in the matter.

Well, as I stood listening to the Scriptures tell again of Christ's Passion, all of this was far from my mind. And then we came to the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he is agonizing over the future, and praying that, if it was the Father's will, the cup might pass away from him. But it didn't.

I have at times pondered that scene in the garden, even as a kid. I couldn't imagine how scary it would be to know what was coming and still be willing to go through with it. And, yet... I wondered if he wasn't able to find some comfort in that surely he knew how it was all going to work out? Surely he knew he would rise from the dead! But maybe he didn't know all that. And maybe he did.

What came to me on Sunday was the sudden realization that Jesus knew that whatever he did that Passover would forever affect the people he loved. He could reject the cup... and then all that he and the Father and the Spirit had done in preparation would be useless... and the people he loved would still not have freedom from sin and death.

Or... he could go through with it all. Freedom from sin and death would be gained. But at a cost. For Christ must have known that if he made the commitment to go forward, the people who loved him would follow Him. All, in one form or another, right down to me and you, would have to walk through death to achieve life. It happened to the early Christians in particularly violent ways, and Jesus was no fool. He knew what would eventually happen to those men and women he loved so much. No wonder he had so much agony in the Garden.

But go forward He did... and the rest is history, even if some of it is history-in-the-making. And because of it, something amazing has happened.

We all read the newspapers or watch the news on television, or get it from the radio or computer. And it is a frightening world out there. War and revolutions in so many parts of the world... violence in homes and communities, missing children, epidemics of drug usage, sexual exploitation, materialism, and all the other nightmares that can terrorize us if we think about it too long. By all rights, our world and culture should have disintegrated long, long ago.

But it hasn't done that. And I believe the reason, very simply, is this: the vast, very vast, majority of people are good at heart. They go about their days doing what is right and what needs to be done, whether they want to do it or not. They hug their families and friends, they work their jobs, they shovel the neighbor's driveway, take soup or a casserole to someone who is homebound, and make sure to tell the cashier at the grocery store to have a good day. It doesn't sound like much, but it is what makes the world go around.

These people, who act out God's love even if they don't know they believe in God, are the bandages and blankets that are wrapped around an injured world, helping it to heal. And they can do it because they are not necessarily looking out for Number One. And that means they are dying to themselves (I am NOT talking about co-dependency, here!) and helping, therefore, to establish new, healthy life.

We ARE a Resurrection People!

Have a blessed Holy Week and a very blessed and joyous Easter!

Mary Carol

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