In Silent Meditation

I light no candles today.  I will celebrate with family and friends; I will smile and laugh as I help hand out Easter baskets at the community party at the church.  These things are temporal, they are of this world.  Though I will be fully present at these events, I must not forget that today is a day of darkness.  Christ has descended into the land of the dead.  He has not yet risen into this world.  I need to remember what life was like before Christ.  For me.  For us all.

Taken literally or figuratively, the story of Christ is the story of triumph over spiritual death, over the attitudes of those who would destroy my happiness and my hope – even if that be me.  Stories of dying and rising gods have given hope to people throughout history; the Egyptians had Osiris, the Sumerians had Innana, the Greeks had Persephone.  Each of these stories reminds us that there is a time of darkness before dawn; someone must overcome the powers of death that there might be new life.

For me, Jesus is so much more than these stories, for he walked this earth teaching his followers to live as He did, revealing the Image of God in the Love that He both lived and died for.  The story of Jesus’ life shows us that there are things worth dying for, and they are not the things of this world, but the restoration of the Image of God in our hearts and our souls.  His life is an example of the life God desires for us – a life of servanthood and giving; a life of standing for what is right; a life of sharing God’s Love with all.  His life reveals to us that though it is a simple life, it is not an easy life.  In the end, however, it is a life worth living.

Today is a reminder that the darkness must be embraced and lived through before new life can break through into a new day.  Tomorrow we will remember that though our Master Teacher Jesus died, he died that the Christ might be revealed to the world.  He died that the Holy Spirit might be known to those who accept It.  He died to show us that there was more to life than the temporal desires of our bodies.

Tomorrow, I will light the candles.