I felt wounded and distraught when my dad died. I was haunted by a similar deep sense of absence and emptiness 21 years later when my mom died.
But now, as I look back, I think that what bothered me and hurt me the most when my parents died were the fleeting and passing thoughts that death might have wiped them out and obliterated them forever. I was desperately attempting to come to terms with a sense of meaninglessness and nothingness that seemed to envelop me.
I knew that there was so much about them that deserved to survive. I knew that there was so much that deserved to be rewarded. I knew that the kindnesses they showed; that the good deeds they had done; that the Christ-like attitudes they had exhibited; that the compassion and purpose they donated to their children; and that the prayers they said could not just end on a deathbed.
Deep down I knew that it would be so meaningless if death were the end. It would be so incomplete if death were the end. I knew it would be so absurd if death were the end. I knew it would be so shocking if death were the end. I knew that it would be so depressing and so hollow if death were the end.
In my quiet reflective moments of faith, I knew that Easter says death is no longer the end of life. Easter says we are made for something more than this life. Easter says death is no longer a final stopping place. Easter says death is a passage to new life.
Easter says death is the gateway to a better pasture and a better life. Easter is an awakening to the fullness of a life that is eternal and which no death can ever touch. Easter says death is a pause on the journey so that we can make sense out of the life that is both visible and invisible.
Easter says that because Jesus rose from the dead, everything is different and we are different too. Easter says that because of the Resurrection, death is the high point of life. Death is the beginning of a new way of living, being, thinking and acting. Death is the beginning of new life and a sharing in new visions and fantastic possibilities.
Easter says a large stone was rolled away. Jesus left his burial wrappings folded on the bench. The tomb was found empty. Jesus appeared to many. Jesus spoke to a group of more than 500 people at one time. Jesus walked with two lonely and dejected disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus comforted them when they were mourning a lost leader.
Easter was the beginning of new life for the disciples. It is the beginning of new life for all of creation. It is the time when flowers begin to show their faces. The daffodils, tulips and crocuses begin to bloom. Forsythia and pansies come back to life overnight. We become acutely aware of this rebirthing and new life.
Easter says that at the core of our beings and at the core of our existence, nothing ever really dies. There is just one continuous series of rebirthings throughout our life. Easter says that we can grow in our awareness of God’s divinity and power – appearing and shining. We can come to see things differently as though with new eyes or a new set of lenses.
Easter says our founder and leader is alive! In fact, Christianity is the only major religion that says its founder is alive. He is not just another prophet, teacher and guru. He has a continued living presence in our midst. And this belief has inherent healing capabilities for the Christian.
Easter says Jesus is not in the tomb or marble monuments or stained-glass windows. He is right in our midst. The Risen Jesus lives within us and all around us. He lives in all of the counties in Southern New Jersey and all over the world.
Easter is a time to discover how to live deliberately and deeply. It is the time to cultivate awareness and living through the eyes of compassion. It is the time to work on changing a stressful, unfulfilled, unfocused life into a life that is filled with purpose and direction.
Easter is the time to gain new insights into the meaning of dying and rising. It is the time to connect my own death and my own resurrection. It is the time to connect my faith and my life.
Easter is the time to dive beneath the surface of my life and look at the architecture of this human and divine existence that is mine for a time and forever. In this way I will taste the deepest meaning of a Happy Easter.
Msgr. Thomas Morgan is pastor of St. Thomas More Parish, Cherry Hill.
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