I wonder how you will spend (or have been spending) Easter this year. Three days of public holiday offer us lots of possibilities, even in our COVID-world! Some of you may even spend some of the weekend attending religious services. We did last night as we shared in the Celebration of the Last Supper. But, however you approach, understand or enter into the Easter event, at its heart, it is always pure drama. Traditionally it involved a three-part liturgical mystery play: the celebration of the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples; Jesus' arrest, trial and crucifixion; and concluded with the celebration of Jesus' resurrection.
Some Christians believe they are celebrating actual historical events. Certainly, it can be presented as such. Yet for me, it is not actual historical events we are remembering, because we are relying on ancient texts that have their own story of evolution. By the time the Gospels were written the authors were living in quite different circumstances from that of Jesus and his disciples. Inevitably this influenced the way they chose to tell their stories. They emphasised what was relevant to their new situation while minimising or leaving out all together what was no longer relevant. So what we have now and what we celebrate liturgically, are stories of faith rather than descriptions of actual historical events.
This means for me, the biblical stories are like 'fingers pointing to the moon', as referred to in my last blog. Rather than reliable stories of historical events, the truth behind the story of the Resurrection (or the Ascension - or even the Assumption of Mary for that matter) is that at some point we have to let them go. 'Do not cling to me!' Jesus said to Mary in the Garden of the tomb (John 20:17). A similar instruction is found in Acts 1:9-11 after Jesus' Ascension. The disciples are told to get on with their lives rather than emotionally clinging to Jesus as they gazed heaven-ward.
Life is about living, and at some point, we all have to learn to let go and live in the moment - as hard as that may be. If we don't, we end up suffocating the things we cling to with our ideas rather than directly experiencing the Divine life that was reflected in them and is now is there to be found in the core of our being.
Teresa of Avila, for example, knew that the mysteries of life and of faith contain something far greater than we may ever understand. She believed we need to let go of an insatiable demand to understand or know intellectually and begin to learn and understand in a more intuitive soulful way. It is as we learn to do this, we begin to participate in the mystery that life and faith and divinity have to offer us.
Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.
Phil
