Easter joy

by Editor · April 11, 2001

SO great is the Church’s joy at Christ’s rising from death, that it was once believed that even the sun danced each Easter morning.

The happiness that fills Christian hearts overflows in the liturgy with its alleluias, hymns, bright and festive robes and the towering symbolism of the paschal candle.

In the northern hemisphere Easter is easily associated with the springtime, when nature’s new, green freshness seems to bid a fitting welcome to the Man who returned in triumph from the grave.

In southern Africa we are in the autumn, and the Church’s joy finds itself enfolded in the gentle decline of heat and daylight. Our early sunsets lose their glow to the warm and brilliant blaze of the risen Lord of heaven and earth.

Joy does not depend on any season to surge up and possess us. It comes when we fully, and sometimes suddenly, learn something greatly to our advantage.

We are told that the disciples walking to Emmaus recalled after meeting Jesus that their hearts had burned within them, so immense was the delight that gripped them to know that he was alive.

It is remarkable that in the gospel stories of Jesus’ rising, the men and women who knew Jesus best, who journeyed with him, hungered and ate with him, did not recognise him when he was seen again. They had no joy, because they were not convinced that it was he.

When compared with one another, the stories of Christ’s resurrection are among those in the gospels that bear the most discrepancies. The reason for this is surely the state of bewilderment of the disciples who just could not accept the resurrection. They had observed their Master die. Now, they could not fathom the evidence that showed him breathing again, indeed later breathing on them the power of the living God to forgive sins.

Mary Magdalene thought he was the gardener. Thomas was convinced that Jesus’ death was as permanent as anyone else’s. The other disciples preferred to think they were seeing a ghost rather than a man of flesh and blood. Their hopelessness was deep. They hid away.

Gradually, as they reflected on what was happening, Jesus’ followers began to grasp that they were being taught a new lesson, a lesson for us too, his followers today. Jesus’ various ways of appearing to them on the road, at the lakeside, in a room with closed doors were all signs of his future presence with his Church, which was to be more than in his glorified, physical body. The risen Christ is permanently present among us, whatever the season, wherever we may be.

The joy of this realisation took hold of the disciples and electrified others, and because of their faith in resurrection and life, we too can shout our amens, alleluias and praise.

Jesus compared the joy of Easter with that of a mother after giving birth. May our hearts burn within us today, and our joy be complete.