Easter 2006
As proof we’re ready for a new season, the dead grass has been raked from our lawns and what’s left of our wood piles says we’ve made it through another winter. Yes, the earth has been warm and gentle with us of late, as we begin a new cycle in which we affirm through our own work how much that’s a part of who we are and how we see ourselves. As much as our families or our relationships with everyone our lives touch, that’s what makes us human, and capable of appreciating the miraculous improbability of our species’ continued existence. Somehow, we’ve all made it through to spring.
This is the season we celebrate Easter and Passover, the two great redemption stories of our shared cultural history. The first celebrates personal redemption, the second the deliverance of the collective, and they both celebrate the redemption of time and existence from the unfathomable infinite. What makes them great stories is that they’re true. And what makes them true isn’t that they actually happened exactly as they’ve been told but that irrespective, they describe events that are eternally and internally true. So whether one believes these stories as we normally understand belief isn’t a central point of either, any more than it bears on the reality they speak to. What’s true about both is the message of redemption and deliverance, however each of us understands those things.
Easter is the story of the death and resurrection of the Christ. And whether one understands that as a singular event in time or an expression of divinity told in many ways through human history, that story remains central to the human experience. Also central, Jesus’ message of the redemption of humanity through love has, more than any other perhaps, shaped our collective worldview for the better part of 20 centuries. Passover similarly, the story of divine redemption of the Jewish people, also speaks to the universal aspiration of deliverance. And both stories, of course, are intertwined branches of the same religious tradition. Both branches bear exactly the same relationship to each other as Buddhism’s origin in the Hindu tradition does, or countless other instances where a new message has proven as enduring or perhaps more, than the garden from which it grew. Our traditions are worthy ones; they deserve our respect. That’s true even if we ourselves come to understand them differently than our grandparents or theirs may have.
This spring, we hope everyone finds a way to engage a sacred dimension of the world around us, and a common sense of the strong and basically wise communities we share. We are all extraordinarily fortunate to call this place home. There will in all likeliness, be division enough to go around; there always has been. How we deal with these things is a reflection of who we are, and the extent to which we allow them to define us is a measure of how much we’ve yet to learn. Perhaps this will be a brighter spring than others, we’re guessing it might be, certainly it can. Sometimes our job here is just to remind people it is possible to do better than we might expect; it’s the only thing that makes higher expectations possible or reasonable expectations attainable.
Looking at our county’s governance, our economic climate, and the long-term changes impacting our region, there is positive direction in the winds. At the same time, looking at our development pressures, our tax and infrastructure issues, our school system and so on, there are also reasons for concern. We hope as people focus on all of these issues, they’ll be doing so with an eye towards what’s possible, what’s reasonable, and where we can come together.
This week we’re learning that one of our most important communities in the fellowship of belief, St. Francis de Sales Parish, is facing difficult changes including the permanent closure of its facilities in Boiceville, West Shokan, and Allaben. Over five hundred of us will be directly impacted, though how isn’t entirely clear yet. As our region’s Catholic community now begins to assess and plan for its future, we ask everyone who may be able to help or offer support in any way to be a part of that process, and to reach out to the parish community at sfdchurch@hvi.net.