Easter Season - April 2008
My dear Holy Crucians,
As we come to the close of the season of Lent and move into Easter, and as winter transitions to spring, it is natural that our thoughts should turn to resurrection, growth, renewal, and the revivification of things. The very moving passage from Revelation comes to mind: “And he who sat upon the throne said ‘Behold, I make all things new…. It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the fountain of the water of life without payment. He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.’”
When we think of changing seasons, we often think in terms of CYCLES. The world turns, summer passes into autumn, winter, spring, and back again into summer – and on and on it goes, forever and ever. But this is not the way it should be for us in our spiritual lives. Or rather, while it should be cyclical, it should also be progressive. The rhythm of life in the Body of Christ constantly brings us back. Sunday by Sunday, we find ourselves back at the altar rail, and the rhythm of the seasons brings us annually back – back to the Christmas Crib during Advent, back to the desolation of Calvary on Good Friday, back to the empty tomb on Easter morning.
But with this constant return, these daily and weekly and monthly and yearly renewals of our encounters with the mysteries of our salvation should draw us ever ONWARD, toward the consummation of our hope in everlasting communion with God. In this sense, our spiritual life should be like a spiral staircase, rather than like a jogging track. We should be moving UP, even as we move around.
The upward movement is accomplished when we approach the sacramental life with an open heart, in constant prayer, because it is the Lord himself who draws us upward, by means of the ecclesial life. But without an open heart and constant prayer, life in the Body is liable to become mere cycles of repetition, or worse: it could become a mere spinning of one’s wheels in the mud. So let’s all resolve to open our hearts to the Lord, and to persevere in prayer as we make our Holy Week and Easter returns. As always: crux sacra sit tibi lux. May the Holy Cross be to you light. -
Fr Will
Church of the Holy Cross
Episcopal Diocese of Dallas
Father Will Brown, Rector
4052 Herschel at Douglas
Dallas, Texas 75219
(214) 528-3855