HOLY WEEK: Reflection for Easter Sunday

By Joan Chittister, OSB

April 24, 2011

Acts 10:34a, 37-43 | Colossians 3:1-4 | John 20:1-9

EASTER SUNDAY.

Interesting. The day starts and ends at the tomb. No flash of light. No announcement. Simply the awareness that what has been is gone. Mary Magdalene, in the dark, notes that the stone has been moved. John, at the door, notes that the wrappings have been left behind. Peter, in the burial place, pronounces it empty of the Christ whose burial clothes have been left behind. And they are left to tell the others.

That’s about all the sight of Resurrection that anyone ever really gets, come to think of it. Darkness and an empty tomb. The notion that what has been taken is clearly alive. A burning memory and an unfinished truth. Even today, then, the Easter message to all of us is still the same as it was to Mary Magdalene and to Peter and to John. If the glory of God is to be revealed, then it is up to us to say so and to prove it by our own beliefs.

The world is still in darkness and the wrapping clothes have been left behind for us to sort and show in our own lives the powerful presence of His. We must all, at the end of this Lent, live our lives now so that God is not put to the test, so that all the communities of the earth can find blessing in us, so that the expectation of the in-breaking of the spirit of Jesus is possible, so that Jesus can heal us of our own blindness, so that the dead of this world can be brought back to life, so that the Truth is made disarmingly clear in us, so that the glory of God is revealed today. Alleluia.

This reflection is from The Glory of God Revealed: A Lenten Journal for Peacemakers and was written by Joan Chittister, OSB. Joan Chittister is a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA, a Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace, and the author of numerous books.

• For more Lenten resources, click here.
• To read the Sunday reflections from this year’s Lenten booklet, including the reflection for Easter Sunday, by Angie O’Gorman, click here.