Alleluia! He is Risen!
The words ring out in churches everywhere today. Some
churches, like mine, ‘bury the Alleluia’ and avoid saying it during Lent. Then
on Easter the Alleluia is back in joyful abandon. I once read that years ago
the clappers on the church bells some places in Europe were removed during Lent
and returned for Easter when they clanged the joyful news.
Many places you’ll see flowers and eggs and butterflies. All
are symbols of new life coming from something simple. In each case what comes
out is nothing like the thing that it started as. A seed is nothing like a
plant, a chick is nothing like an egg, a butterfly is certainly nothing like
the caterpillar.
Early in Lent I heard a speaker talk about what happens
scientifically and physiologically to the caterpillar in the process of
becoming a butterfly. Like her, I had always imagined the caterpillar kind of
splitting down the back with wings and the new creature emerging. Turns out it
is much more dramatic. The caterpillar actually ‘dissolves’ into something
called ‘imaginal disks’ which then form and turn into the butterfly.
During Lent, we have been exploring symbols that may have
helped us in our own transformation toward a fuller Christian life and commitment.
We are the God-breathed dust that forms us into living, breathing humanity. As
that, admittedly frail and fault-ridden, creation we are called to be Light in
the world’s darkness and to plant seeds of transformation. The only way we can
hope to accomplish such a monumental task is because of the Love of God seen in
Jesus on the Cross.
The Living Lord, rising from the Grave, was a new and
different creation from the dead carpenter’s son laid in the grave by Joseph of
Arimathea and the faithful women. Because we have the imago dei of God (maybe
that is like the imaginal disks of the caterpillar turning into a butterfly?)
we can live a new life this Eastertide and beyond. Because of the Cross and
Victory over the Grave we can, with St. Paul say, “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as
Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who
said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone
in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:5-6)
Alleluia! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
