Hallelujahs will reign down from choir lofts and bellow forth from church steeples this coming weekend and all throughout this season of resurrection. While we may treat this exclamation as just another undecipherable religious term, in some undecipherable ancient language, we might be delighted to hear that it simply means Praise God, or more literally Praise Yah(weh), the eternal and unbounded ground of being who transcends human cognition. Could such worship, that is, praising the one true God, be the key to our salvation? Could the singular decision to orient our lives around the infinite, instead of some passing fancy or worldly idol, make us whole and lead us to communion? The answer is apparently “yes” in light of the paschal mystery: the crucified Christ, made radically open to the truth, arms and legs splayed upon the cross, allows himself to become vulnerable to the divine mystery which transforms him over a period of three days into an absolute and enduring expression of life. Let’s therefore get into the habit of praying Hallelujah with Jesus in the joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious times. Instead of coming down with a case of the “poor me’s” or defaulting to “it’s all your fault” mode, we can patiently praise God—even behind clenched teeth—and begin to savor the sweetness of the first light of our own resurrection.
Ave Crux, Spes Unica.