Will the sun dance this Easter morning 2017? The joy of Easter morning brings much needed hope to a world beset by many challenges: hunger, poverty, drought, flooding, unemployment, ill-health, disease, violence and war. Does the sun get tired of dancing this time of year? It seems so routine, the list of problems confronting the human community seem to return year on year, age upon age. There seems little reason to dance.
Two thousand years ago there were a lot of people who had difficulty with the resurrection of Jesus. It wasn’t just the philosophers in Athens who laughed at the very idea, even some of the disciples who had been with Jesus in Jerusalem during the last week of his life and who may well have seen him nailed to a tree had major problems with it. Execution and death are hard to argue with. So why is it that one billion Christians around the world still gather to mark this event?
Maybe they are all deluded idealists, wishful thinkers who can’t face reality or… maybe not.
Maybe in fact they are people who, one way or another, are in touch with a living and vibrant tradition of faith in the risen Christ that simply won’t go away.
Maybe they are people who in their own lives have been nailed to the cross or been forced to stand by it and who have come through that experience, not broken and embittered, but aware in a very profound and life giving way that God’s love never ends.
Jesus did not simply come on earth to die.
He came on earth to show us how to live and he was murdered for that.
He was murdered for showing that there is always a place for the prodigal at home,
for forgiving people who did not deserve to be forgiven,
for exposing religious bigotry and intolerance,
for rejecting the use of force and the abuse of power.
He was put to death for making a simple connection between our faith and the way we live,
for asking us to believe that God’s love is always given and never earned.
In all of these ways and especially in his death and resurrection he was witnessing to the triumph of love over hatred and of hope over despair.
Easter matters because it is God’s yes to the world. In the risen Jesus God affirms all that is good in us and asks us to follow in the steps of his son by working together to build up the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed, trusting that the Spirit of Jesus is within us empowering us in ways that go beyond what we can imagine. Yes there is a “Time to Dance” Easter 2017 is such an occasion. Gods light is brighter than any darkness. Life is more than any death. May such hope and joy be truly felt in all our hearts.
Jesus Loves Me; Easter Tells Me So
Jesus loves me, this I know;
The Easter story tells me so.
He died for me to bear my sin;
He opened heaven to let me in.
Yes, Jesus loves me;
Yes Jesus loves me;
Yes Jesus loves me;
Easter tells me so.
Jesus loved me when He died,
Loved me enough to be crucified.
But His death didn’t last very long,
Because His power is so strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me;
Yes Jesus loves me;
Yes Jesus loves me;
Easter tells me so.
Jesus’ came back from the dead
I know because the Bible said.
Jesus is my Lord and King;
Love and praise to Him I bring.
Yes, Jesus loves me;
Yes Jesus loves me;
Yes Jesus loves me;
Easter tells me so.
When I die, I’ll rise up, too.
We’ll all be in heaven, me and you.
We’ll see Jesus face to face.
Up in heaven, that happy place.
Yes, Jesus loves me;
Yes Jesus loves me;
Yes Jesus loves me;
Easter tells me so.
The Easter story brings much joy
To us all, each girl and boy.
Jesus is my Savior now;
Heaven and earth to Him must bow.
Yes, Jesus loves me;
Yes Jesus loves me;
Yes Jesus loves me;
Easter tells me so.
Fr Paddy Byrne
SEE ALSO – Fr Paddy: A Holy Week monologue
