Eugene describes his joy at his first Easter celebration as a seminarian at Saint Sulpice.
What a ravishing ceremony for Christians, how the heart was bursting, what joy as one joined with the whole Church of heaven and earth to celebrate the glorious Resurrection of Our Saviour.
After journeying with him through the sad event of his Passion, after weeping over the torments that our sins made him endure, how consoling it is to see him rise triumphant over death and hell, and what gratitude must fill our hearts at the thought that this good Master has really willed to make us sharers in his resurrection, destroying the sin that is in us and giving us a new life.
That day we spent a good twelve hours in Church, I would not have wanted it to be a minute less. It was like being in heaven; so what are the joy and happiness we experience in that blessed homeland going to be like?
Letter to his mother, 4 April 1809, EO XIV n 50
Such mystery in all of this than can, but cannot be explained. And we were there, we were involved for if he willed to make us sharers in his resurrection then most surely somehow we were and are sharers in his death and all that went before it.
Growing up it seemed that the focus – at least my focus was to be on ‘getting to heaven’ – dying so as to get to heaven – and the journey – yeah that sort of mattered – but the real aim – to earn heaven. And it was not about anyone else – they could do their own thing or not but it was about self – they were there – not excluded but not included either.
This morning as I sit here and reflect the picture continues to deepen with added dimensions. It seems to be more about the journey than the end results. I do not seem to worry so much about ‘getting to heaven’ as I do about the journey – my journey. And not my journey alone, but my journey with others. I don’t abandon them because they might hold me back or drag me down – rather the opposite – I cannot abandon them any more than God abandoned me, for we have become somehow joined together. The heart, our hearts are joining together – no words but they all, you all are a part of…
The Easter Vigil – I swear that I have never before been touched and connected with the readings as I was this year. A new dimension perhaps. There was joy as we sang the Gloria and it was all around and I was a part of it – immense and utter intimacy and being with God even as I shared that with others and they shared it with me.
Eugene spent a good amount of time with me this Easter – or is it the other way around? He seems to be becoming more a part of my Good Friday and my Easter and every thing else that is my life. Wow!
I think of the Cross and of Jesus giving us all to each other, through Mary our Mother. I think of Mary in the garden and Jesus sending her to tell the others, us. This is the ongoing love that was manifested in his suffering and death on the cross – this is the ‘for us’ bit.
Yesterday our pastor spoke about going back to Galilee – to where it began. I wasn’t sure I got it, but it is what comes to mind now.