When Jesus rises from the tomb, he says to Mary Magdalene in the garden, “Go and tell Peter and the others that I have gone before you into
Galilee and I will meet them there.” The words are prophetic ones for us all. Jesus does not promise to meet the disciples in Jerusalem, at the
center of power and profit, as an Establishment figure of either state or synagogue, as the vindicated and recognized one. No, the last act of
Jesus is to lead the disciples to the Galilee, to the backwaters of Israel, to the hinterlands of the poor and dispossessed, to the forgotten and
the oppressed ones. Where he had spent his public life on behalf of the forgotten one, he expects us to spend ours.
When Jesus ascends from this life to Life in the heart of God, the angels say to the disciples who witness this final passage from life to Life,
“Why do you stand looking up to heaven?” (Acts 1:11) The question is a haunting one, a prophetic one: Why do we stand around waiting for
something to save us from ourselves? We are the ones who made nuclear weapons; we are the ones who can decide to stop making them. We
are the ones who pass the legislation that advantages the rich and impoverishes the poor. We can demand better. We are the ones who can
pass the bills that give them the essentials of life–food, housing, education. We are the ones who make war, not peace, who torture in the
name of God and call degradation justice, who make life cheap from womb to tomb. And we are the ones who can forbid such inhumanity, can
disavow such political policies, can demand justice and equality and peace.
If only we will.
And yet, if we do not, what has Easter really been about? If we do not witness to life over death, then what is the empty tomb really all about?
If we refuse to persevere until all the oppression stops and all the discrimination ends and all the inequality is over, then what was the life of
the Prophet Jesus really all about for us? Today and now and here.
Easter is not about the end of anything. It is about the beginning of the prophetic reign of God. But it cannot happen unless we ourselves leave
the site of the tomb and go to the streets and the hovels and the powerful of our own time and say a prophet’s word.
We are the normal people Jesus calls to speak the message again. We are the passionate ones who are called now to speak it over and over,
with persistence and with confidence. To speak it courageously on behalf of those who suffer. To speak it compassionately with care, even for
those who do not speak it at all. To speak it with a vision that transcends the limits of our own language and tribe, system and circumstances.
The prophetic dimension of Easter does not end with Jesus, it starts with us.
The spiritual journey that hears the cry of the prophets and sees that cry fulfilled in Jesus and heeds that cry in our own time is the journey
we are meant to make. Otherwise, why go from Galilee to Golgotha, from Upper Room to the Tomb at all?
Alleluia, we sing at the tomb. Alleluia all our lives. We are alleluia people who go through life praising God and following Jesus till the Garden of
Gethsemane is turned into the Garden of Eden again.
We know what the life of Jesus was about. Now it is time to ask ourselves whether our own lives begin to match it in message and meaning. We
must ask ourselves, standing at an empty tomb, under an empty cross, in front of a needy world, whether or not when people see us at work in
this time, they can say Alleluia, too.
– from The Cry of the Prophet: A Call to Fullness of Life by Joan Chittister
EASTER WEEK REFLECTIONS
MONDAY, APRIL 13 — Easter Sunday is followed by the “Octave of Easter,” eight days of holy hilarity while the church points again and again to
the empty tomb. There are empty tombs in all our lives still, places where death did not conquer us because faith entered in to fill the dark
spots. We have each risen from the dead and Christ has risen in us. What have been two resurrections in your life?
TUESDAY, APRIL 14 — Try to imagine the confusion that might have followed the women’s discovery of the empty tomb. It seems simple and
exuberant now, but it must have been disconcerting then. Had he risen or had he been taken away by those for whom his disappearance would
rob the people who believed in him of a shrine, a center of resistance, a memory of another kind of life? If the women at the empty tomb were
confused, how do we think we can go through life avoiding the same need to think and search? In the face of one loss after another, we, too,
must begin to believe that darkness is simply the only arena in which light can thrive, that little deaths are only the process of making room for
new kinds of life.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15 — “We are an Easter people and alleluia is our cry,” St. Augustine wrote. Alleluia means, I have found God in the here and
now. I celebrate the Presence that gives life quality and gives life meaning always. Say alleluia, alleluia, alleluia to life. That’s what it is to “be an
alleluia people.”
THURSDAY, APRIL 16 — Easter eggs date back to the year 700 A.D. They are the traditional symbol of Christ’s tomb out of which came new life,
as do dormant chicks from a ripened egg. There is always new life trying to emerge in each of us. Too often we ignore the signs of resurrection
and cling to parts of life that have died for us. Is there something new in you that needs tending now?
FRIDAY, APRIL 17 — The poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “Love is the fellow of the resurrection, scooping up the dust and chanting live.” It’s such a
powerful image of universal resurrection, this sight of Jesus turning dust into life again, proving that creation is unquenchable in each of us. If
creation has stopped in you, start something new this week—a new hobby, a new relationship, a new book. Life is the ability to start over again.
SATURDAY, APRIL 18 — During the Octave of Easter, monastic communities replace the usual antiphons at daily prayer with the responsorial,
“This is the day that our God has made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it.” It is an anthem to life. It tells us that whatever is going on for us now
in our lives is where growth and wholeness live for us. Deal with things; don’t just ignore them.
Galilee and I will meet them there.” The words are prophetic ones for us all. Jesus does not promise to meet the disciples in Jerusalem, at the
center of power and profit, as an Establishment figure of either state or synagogue, as the vindicated and recognized one. No, the last act of
Jesus is to lead the disciples to the Galilee, to the backwaters of Israel, to the hinterlands of the poor and dispossessed, to the forgotten and
the oppressed ones. Where he had spent his public life on behalf of the forgotten one, he expects us to spend ours.
When Jesus ascends from this life to Life in the heart of God, the angels say to the disciples who witness this final passage from life to Life,
“Why do you stand looking up to heaven?” (Acts 1:11) The question is a haunting one, a prophetic one: Why do we stand around waiting for
something to save us from ourselves? We are the ones who made nuclear weapons; we are the ones who can decide to stop making them. We
are the ones who pass the legislation that advantages the rich and impoverishes the poor. We can demand better. We are the ones who can
pass the bills that give them the essentials of life–food, housing, education. We are the ones who make war, not peace, who torture in the
name of God and call degradation justice, who make life cheap from womb to tomb. And we are the ones who can forbid such inhumanity, can
disavow such political policies, can demand justice and equality and peace.
If only we will.
And yet, if we do not, what has Easter really been about? If we do not witness to life over death, then what is the empty tomb really all about?
If we refuse to persevere until all the oppression stops and all the discrimination ends and all the inequality is over, then what was the life of
the Prophet Jesus really all about for us? Today and now and here.
Easter is not about the end of anything. It is about the beginning of the prophetic reign of God. But it cannot happen unless we ourselves leave
the site of the tomb and go to the streets and the hovels and the powerful of our own time and say a prophet’s word.
We are the normal people Jesus calls to speak the message again. We are the passionate ones who are called now to speak it over and over,
with persistence and with confidence. To speak it courageously on behalf of those who suffer. To speak it compassionately with care, even for
those who do not speak it at all. To speak it with a vision that transcends the limits of our own language and tribe, system and circumstances.
The prophetic dimension of Easter does not end with Jesus, it starts with us.
The spiritual journey that hears the cry of the prophets and sees that cry fulfilled in Jesus and heeds that cry in our own time is the journey
we are meant to make. Otherwise, why go from Galilee to Golgotha, from Upper Room to the Tomb at all?
Alleluia, we sing at the tomb. Alleluia all our lives. We are alleluia people who go through life praising God and following Jesus till the Garden of
Gethsemane is turned into the Garden of Eden again.
We know what the life of Jesus was about. Now it is time to ask ourselves whether our own lives begin to match it in message and meaning. We
must ask ourselves, standing at an empty tomb, under an empty cross, in front of a needy world, whether or not when people see us at work in
this time, they can say Alleluia, too.
– from The Cry of the Prophet: A Call to Fullness of Life by Joan Chittister
EASTER WEEK REFLECTIONS
MONDAY, APRIL 13 — Easter Sunday is followed by the “Octave of Easter,” eight days of holy hilarity while the church points again and again to
the empty tomb. There are empty tombs in all our lives still, places where death did not conquer us because faith entered in to fill the dark
spots. We have each risen from the dead and Christ has risen in us. What have been two resurrections in your life?
TUESDAY, APRIL 14 — Try to imagine the confusion that might have followed the women’s discovery of the empty tomb. It seems simple and
exuberant now, but it must have been disconcerting then. Had he risen or had he been taken away by those for whom his disappearance would
rob the people who believed in him of a shrine, a center of resistance, a memory of another kind of life? If the women at the empty tomb were
confused, how do we think we can go through life avoiding the same need to think and search? In the face of one loss after another, we, too,
must begin to believe that darkness is simply the only arena in which light can thrive, that little deaths are only the process of making room for
new kinds of life.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15 — “We are an Easter people and alleluia is our cry,” St. Augustine wrote. Alleluia means, I have found God in the here and
now. I celebrate the Presence that gives life quality and gives life meaning always. Say alleluia, alleluia, alleluia to life. That’s what it is to “be an
alleluia people.”
THURSDAY, APRIL 16 — Easter eggs date back to the year 700 A.D. They are the traditional symbol of Christ’s tomb out of which came new life,
as do dormant chicks from a ripened egg. There is always new life trying to emerge in each of us. Too often we ignore the signs of resurrection
and cling to parts of life that have died for us. Is there something new in you that needs tending now?
FRIDAY, APRIL 17 — The poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “Love is the fellow of the resurrection, scooping up the dust and chanting live.” It’s such a
powerful image of universal resurrection, this sight of Jesus turning dust into life again, proving that creation is unquenchable in each of us. If
creation has stopped in you, start something new this week—a new hobby, a new relationship, a new book. Life is the ability to start over again.
SATURDAY, APRIL 18 — During the Octave of Easter, monastic communities replace the usual antiphons at daily prayer with the responsorial,
“This is the day that our God has made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it.” It is an anthem to life. It tells us that whatever is going on for us now
in our lives is where growth and wholeness live for us. Deal with things; don’t just ignore them.
A WITNESS TO LIFE
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