Easter People

Note: This pastoral letter is from the April, 2008 issue of Tidings, the Newsletter of Immanuel.

St. Augustine allegedly said, "We are an Easter people, and 'Alleluia!' is our song." I'm not certain that he really said it, but I am certain that we should. This year the month of April is entirely given over to Easter. While we are tempted to think of Easter as a single day, the church appoints fifty days for the observance. This "week of weeks" (seven weeks) exhorts us to a life where "Alleluia!" is indeed our song.

So what does it mean to be "Easter people"? The Christian life is lived in a "Good Friday" world - a world of sorrow and betrayal, lies and mockery, quests for power and fear of other powers. It is a life that can only end in death. However, because we are baptized into Christ, we are "Easter people," people who know that because of His work on Good Friday, our Lord Jesus has brought us to Easter, giving us the hope of the resurrection. Being an Easter people means we do not have a life that can only end in death. We have a death that can only end in life.

We still live in the Good Friday world. We will still know sorrow, we will still be betrayed - perhaps even those who call themselves Christians. We will still be lied to and mocked. We will still experience the lust for power, both against us and within us. But on account of Christ's victory, we know these things have no power over us. "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" said the angel to the women on Easter morning. The Living One is not found among dead things - the perishable things of the marketplace, the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the world, the pride of life.

We are Easter People, so that we live in the same forgiveness Jesus showed to those who crucified Him, and to His disciples who abandoned Him. "Alleluia!" (Hebrew for "Praise the Lord!") is restored to the liturgy; and hopefully, in the journey through Lent, we have learned more about what it means. How life is empty and meaningless without that word!

Now that Lent is over, and Easter has come, what will it mean for us? The fast being over, should we return to gluttony? The emphasis on prayer being ended, should we abandon prayer now, for the more important things? Being Easter People should mean what St. Paul says in Rom. 6: "We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." What will that "newness of life" look like in how you live with your family? In how you do your work? In how you deal with your habitual, secret sins?

As we tried during Lent to be people of genuine repentance, this April let us build on that and ask the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to renew in us the work of the Holy Spirit, making us Easter People, with "Alleluia!" as our song, until the final Easter comes.