Sunday, March 31, 2013

The Word Today Is Alleluia!



Today Christians around the world celebrate Easter, a word derived from aurora, the Latin word for “dawn,” and from an Old English word for “east,” from which the dawn arises. Easter celebrates a new way of wrapping our lives in hope. It is the dawn of hope.
         Christians celebrate Easter at the same time all of us celebrate the return of spring, when darkness folds into light. Within the dark earth, hopeful seeds break forth from their dry husks and stretch upward, willy-nilly, to light. To a new way of being.
         For those in the Southern Hemisphere, the season that begins on March 21 reaffirms that the waning of light and the entrance into darkness is part of each human’s journey to wholeness.
         This past spring week, Jews observed their Passover, which commemorates the passing over of the Hebrew people from the prison of slavery in Egypt to the possibilities of new life beyond that land of desert and drought. For Christians, Easter commemorates Jesus’ Passover from one way of being to another.
         Passover and Easter are inextricably linked. According to the Christian scriptures, Yeshua—Jesus’ Hebrew name—ate a final meal with his disciples. A Passover meal. He died on the day before the Sabbath. In his death he discovered the Fullness of Life—Oneness. God graced him with that new life on the first day of the Jewish week. A day of new beginnings.
         Woven through all these seasons, traditions, and feasts is the idea of newness. The idea that we can pass from hatred of our human condition—with its loss and death, flaws and foibles, despair and sorrow—to a newness of spirit in which we embrace who we are.
         And what do we embrace? Our messiness. The very thing that so many of us resist. Yet Easter proclaims that we can hope in the possibilities of ourselves. My 77th birthday is tomorrow. And still I’m in the trenches with the messiness of myself. I still have a hard time believing I am lovable. And yet out of that messiness comes, for me, an ability to show others how lovable they are. That messiness is me living with hope that one day I will embrace this loving and lovable me. And in that embrace will come the gift of peace. I will then be the Alleluia that Oneness proclaims.
         What else do we embrace when we accept this gift of Easter? Passover? Spring? The answer is clear: we embrace our Oneness with every person who has ever lived. With Yeshua and with the serial killer and the homeless woman with her shopping cart, and the child with his Easter basket, and the widow with her grief.  
         All of us are “in” life together. We are united in our flawed humanity. By embracing the darkness and doubt within ourselves, we become the cherished human we long to be. And we begin to treasure the being of others.
         Today then, I wish all of you growth in the human spirit whether as Christian or Jew or Muslim or as a nonbeliever whose belief lies in the hope of spring. I wish you wholeness as you strive to become fully human.
         For myself, I believe that Yeshua was a human being who fully realized humanity within himself. He embraced the darkness and death that lies within each of us and passed over to an acceptance of the possibilities within himself. He donned Life.
         Yeshua became compassion. He became graciousness. He became hope. He became life-giving. He became the poet of possibility. He became the one who saw Oneness every where, every time, every now, every here.
         And that is what this season offers all of us.
         So on this day of spring, this Easter for my Christian friends, this first day of the week for my Jewish brethren, this Sunday for you who celebrate each new dawning, I pray that life will spring forth within you and that you, filled with hope, will enter the Mystery that is the Holy Oneness of All Creation of which you and I and the cats who lie here on my computer desk are a part. Peace.

All the photographs are from Wikipedia.

16 comments:

  1. That was lovely!!

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY tomorrow, you young punk, you!!

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    1. Dear Fishducky, and a happy belated birthday to you! You young at heart, newly published author, you! Peace.

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  2. What a truly wonderful post, Dee. I was at one time a person who went on retreat during Holy Week at a convent, and I remember Holy Saturday was dark and depressing, with black cloth on the altar, and Sunday morning being one of intense joy, and I was presented an Easter basket filled with goodies baked by the nuns during the night.

    It made me wonder when I went to the Drop Zone on Saturday and saw that an Easter parade was in progress in town. Today when I woke and watched the sun come up, I thought of long-ago days and gave thanks for all the incredible blessings that fill my life. You are one of them, and having found you, I will follow your journey for as long as I can. Rebirth and renewal are celebrated by many today. I wish you all good things in the coming year. You deserve it all! :-)

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    1. Dear DJan, like you, DJan, I have wonderful memories of the way I used to spend Holy Week and of the Easter vigil. All that has changed for me but one thing abides: gratitude. And I'm grateful today for all the friends--like you--who have chosen to accompany me on this journey as I write my on-line memoir and this writing memoir. I hope you know that I am grateful for all you share on your two blogs about your thoughts and your deeds. Peace.

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  3. Happy Birthday! I learned a great deal from your beautifully written post, and I want to assure you that you are lovable and most definitely are loved.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Dear Janie, thank you for your kind words. Peace.

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  4. Happy birthday!!! I hope it is the most wonderful one yet, filled with unexpected blessings and newness of life.

    Have a wonderful celebration~

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    1. Dear Shelly, I'm writing this on Monday morning--my birthday! Thank you for your hopes for this day. I have some gifts to open and I'm going to have lunch with my cousin-in-law and supper with my brother and his wife and their oldest daughter.
      I have so much to be grateful for. Peace.

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  5. You are definitely lovable!!! And you taught me a few new facts, too. Hope you had a Happy Easter. :)

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    1. Dear Rita, thank you. Easter was lovely. I spent it with my brother and his wife and their extended family, which includes several young children from age 8 down now. Lot's of excitement during the Easter egg hunt! Peace.

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  6. Happy Birthday Dee. You are most definitely VERY lovable, but I do understand where you are coming from. It is so much easier to see the good in others than in ourselves.

    I hope that this is the year when you are able to believe all of us who say that you are much loved, and also the year in which you learn to love yourself.

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    1. Dear EC, in the Christian scriptures, Yeshua encourages us to love others as we love ourselves. And of course that means that we need to love ourselves so that we can then love others. So I hope that during this coming year I will grow in appreciate for the gifts the Universe/Oneness has given me and can come to love others better.

      Thank you for your hopes for me. I hope that what I said about the Southern Hemisphere seems right to you. Peace.

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  7. Such a beautiful and heartfelt post, Dee, full of life and hope. I've only just come to it on Easter Monday, your birthday, and it has strengthened that Easter joy and hope I experienced yesterday. Wishing you a very happy birthday, dear Dee.

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    1. Dear Perpetua, thank you for this birthday greeting. It's a lovely day here and I'm going out to lunch with my cousin-in-law and to supper with my brother and his wife and their oldest daughter. I've received gifts and calls and cards! Much happiness "here in the neighborhood" as Mr. Rogers used to say on his children's show. Peace.

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  8. Dee,
    This is a beautiful post. It takes strength to be this honest with others and with yourself. You have wonderful beliefs. And I hope you'll see how amazing and lovable you are!

    P.S. When I was little, I wanted to be named Aurora LOL! :)

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  9. Dear Elisa, thank you for your kind words. I think that the name "Aurora" describe you well. You always seems to brighten the day--just like the rising sun. Peace.

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