Easter People: Lift up your hearts!
In the last newsletter, Fr David Matthews encouraged us to ‘Have a heart for Lent’. Now, at Easter, he invites us to ‘Lift up our hearts’
'We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song!'
So St Augustine tells us[1] – and, 21st century Christians that we are, we may find the corners of our mouths twitching at this.
But, hold that thought for a moment ....
Because Augustine is so right. But how? Our faith springs from the resounding Gospel of the Risen Lord – without which there is no point to it all, as the Apostle Paul makes very clear[2]. Isn't it easy to forget this? So tempting to see Christmas or Lent, All Soulstide or Remembrance Sunday, Mothering Sunday or Good Friday, with their 'pastoral opportunities', as more accessible than the spiritual mystery of the Resurrection. And yet to do so is to miss the point entirely.
Easter is the fulfillment of the Paschal Mystery – the journey from Palm Sunday, through the Upper Room into the Garden, through that long Night 'when He was betrayed' all the Way to Calvary, then to the Tomb and on to the Resurrection and beyond – walking in the fullness of Christ's Risen Life. This is the meaning of discipleship grafted by the Holy Spirit in our own lives. This is what we celebrate every Holy Week and sadly, those who choose not to worship with the Church from Palm Sunday until Easter Day, or who go just on Good Friday, run the risk of not grasping the full impact of the Gospel's echoes in our own hearts – and then may wonder why it makes 'no sense'.
George Herbert caught its depths in his words – 'Rise, heart, thy Lord is Risen'[3]. We can be so easily seduced into a morbid spirituality of suffering (which can help us cope with hard times but sells the Gospel short) or into an obsession with 'success' and 'image' at the cost of authenticity. Resurrection faith challenges us to let our hearts rise because the Lord is risen – not because we just happen to 'feel good today'. Herbert uses the striking imagery of the risen Jesus taking us by the hand[4] and teaching us that, because of His Victory over sin and death, our existential angst is ended ('the strife is o'er'[5]) and so 'there is but One, and that One ever'[6]. At the Eucharist our hearts are lifted to the Lord at the bidding of His Priest[7] and only then do we encounter the wonder of the Sacramental Mystery. We have good reason to let our hearts soar in praise, to see things anew, to be caught up in the joy of God – 'for the Lord is truly risen' – not just at the Altar, but in our lives. Alleluia!
For Herbert, and for Augustine, Easter opens up to each one of us that authentic way of being alive and interpreting its meaning that Christ has brought to the whole world through the Paschal Mystery. You see, Christians are essentially Easter people and the way you live, not just on 23 March 2008 but every day, will determine the direction of that thought you've been so patiently holding .....
Happy Easter to you and yours!
Notes:
1 A homily for Easter by St Augustine, 4th century Bishop of Hippo
2 I Corinthians 15:14-22
3 The poem 'Easter' by George Herbert
4 ibid, 2nd stanza
5 Latin hymn 'Finita iam sunt praelia' possibly of the 12th century, translated by Francis Pott, 1861
6 Herbert, 'Easter', final line.
7 At the words Sursum corda, (Lift up your hearts) during the opening dialogue between the presiding priest and congregation in the Eucharistic Prayer.