By Sister M. Paul McCaughey
My mom loved Easter with the passion of Eostre (or Eastre), the pagan goddess of spring and dawn. Appropriated by early Germanic Christians for what we celebrate today as the Feast of Resurrection, Jesus’ Passover from death to life, Eostre speaks to promises kept for new life.
Mom looked for those new dawns, the return of the light. She was relentless in pursuit of Easter: Searching for tender shoots of her perennials, talking to the delicate magnolia blossoms and red buds abundant in her yard, moving out the heavy, darker winter wool for the lighter fabric pastels in her closets, and filling window boxes with young plants to grow and give color to the grey brick. An autumn gal myself (start of school, crisp air, and football), I found this spring whirlwind fairly exhausting.
I am old enough now to know better. Spring is not a chore, but a cooperation with the Light of Christ.
Jesus really does all the spring work for us every Easter. All we really need to do is to actively join his Paschal Mystery of death to life in the ways that we can:
- Protect the tender shoots of the unborn, the elderly, the immigrant, the poor, the ill, the struggling;
- Pray and be present as the delicate blossoms of families are torn by war, by forced migration, by grief;
- Put on a garment of a lightness of heart and consistency of care to clear out the dark woven corners of despair and loneliness;
- Plant the seeds for integrity, courage, civil discourse and deeper dialog with deep humility and listening, trusting grace and not power to bring growth and a riotous rainbow of color and joy.
The Springfield Dominicans wish you spring and dawn, Jesus’ own journey from death to life, and the deep joy that is Easter.
