“Look East!” If the Body of Christ were a bus, this is the bumper sticker you’d see plastered to the back of the bus in bright psychedelic letters. We are, indeed, built for that shift from worldliness to resurrected life, but how easy it is to collapse again and again into old and unhelpful patterns of living. In the early days, candidates for reception into the Church literally stood facing the darkness, shouting their rejection of evil, but then, in an instant and with the help of the community, they made the turn eastward, to the light of a new day. This, of course, is why the resurrection of Jesus is called “East-er.” It is not a new idea in human history – as attested to by a certain allegory about a cave – but our celebration of these mysteries of faith should reveal to us just how urgently and passionately that eastward direction is rushing towards us in this great drama of conversion: a loving Father constantly trying to hold us together, directing us toward a horizon that gives life, assuaging our anxieties, dealing creatively with our wounds, and offering us an enduring and meaningful alternative to the shadowlands. Praise God for the daily work that is our resurrection and for the awesome liturgical reminders along the way. May our hearts, indeed, have some taste of the explosion that emptied the tomb on this hallowed day. Ave Crux, Spes Unica!
April 16, 2022
Published
Voice of Moreau 