The Great Fifty Days

One of my professors in seminary was born into a family with a Jewish father and a Southern Baptist mother. During his childhood and adolescent years, he followed his father's religious traditions, but became a Christian during graduate school. This gentleman ultimately went to seminary in order to study for the priesthood, was ordained, earned a doctorate, and eventually became a renowned scholar in his field. During grad school, however, he experienced a period of severe stress and anxiety, an episode profound enough to prompt him to see his doctor, an old family friend. Knowing that the young man before him had embraced the Christian faith, this kindly doctor, after reviewing various tests and finding nothing physically wrong with his patient, said to him, "You know, my friend, looking at you, no one would ever know that Christ had risen from the dead."

One of the great delights of the Resurrection - as if the mystery and majesty of Jesus being raised to new life beyond the grave were not enough - is that we are given an entire season to revel and luxuriate in it. Much as there are 12 days in which specifically to celebrate the Incarnation following Christmas, so the Easter season provides us with an extended time in which to rejoice in the incomprehensibly good news that we, in Christ Jesus, have been given a gift beyond compare and beyond hope: a chance to begin anew; reunion with the God who loved us into being; new life in and with God. Easter is not merely a day. It is a celebration lasting a full 50 days - a week of weeks plus the day of Pentecost - in which our worship is devoted wholly to rejoicing in the victory won for us on the cross and in the tomb. And not just our worship, but our very lives should, during this blessed time, be devoted to pondering, and living into, the new life bestowed upon us.

May the wonder well up within us, and wash over us, this Easter season. Make every day an extension of the Resurrection. Change your patterns, your rhythms, your routines. Allow time and space to rejoice, to celebrate, to be immersed in God's gracious goodness. Pray. Offer the gift of yourself to others in a new way. As said St. Francis famously (or, at least, reputedly) said, "Preach the good news: if necessary, use words." And always - always! - rejoice in this: Jesus Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.