Spring and Easter celebrate the way life breaks through: chicks break out of eggs, plants break forth from the ground, leaves and flowers burst forth from buds, and, for us Christians, Jesus rises from the tomb.

American theologian Sallie McFague has written a book called Body of God based on this idea. She proposes that the Universe is the physical embodiment of God and gives this as the prime reason why we should treat the natural world with reverence. In the most ordinary of earthly circumstances, when we least expect it, the power of God, the power to bring forth life from death, breaks through because creation and resurrection are intimately intertwined.

The normal development of any organism depends on the routine death and elimination of large numbers of cells through a process called apoptosis. This means that the death of individual cells is a fundamental part of development in all complex forms of life, including us humans. A  similar process takes place on the emotional and soul levels. The Death and Resurrection of Jesus, becomes a symbol of the transformative grace of God working in the “apoptosis” of all life. The Paschal Mystery is not only something that Jesus went through, that we read about on Easter Sunday. We are all somehow plunged into the Paschal Mystery ourselves.

Sr. Joan Chittister wrote, “The resurrection of Jesus is about our coming to grips with the transformed and transforming presence of Christ then, now, and always… and lies not in the transformation of Jesus, but in the transformation awaiting us. Resurrection is change at the root of the soul. It marks a whole new way of being in life.”

Psychologist Abraham Maslow talked about his own death and resurrection experience in an interview with Psychology Today. He said, “After my heart attack, my attitude toward life changed. One very important aspect of the postmortem life is that everything gets double precious and gets piercingly important. You get stabbed by things, by flowers, and by babies and by beautiful things – the very act of living, of walking and breathing and eating and having friends and chatting.  Everything seems to look more beautiful rather than less, and one gets the much-intensified sense of miracles.”

Transformation doesn’t always come quickly after a dramatic experience, as it did for Dr. Maslow. Sr Joyce Rupp wrote, “Eastering isn’t always a quick step out of the tomb. Sometimes, rising from the dead takes a long, slowly-greening time. It can’t be hurried. It may be a painstakingly slow process, a tiny bit of life gradually weaving through one’s pain and questions.”

Jesus’ disciple, John the Beloved, wrote, “My dear people, we are already the children of God. But what we are in the future is not yet fully revealed. All we know is that we shall all be like him” (1 John 3:2). How do we become aware of this divine presence in our lives in a real way? Celtic Christianity’s wisdom teaches that we do this by seeing the divine in the natural world, in each other, and in ourselves. My hope for all of us is that we someday will be able to join with St. Catherine of Genoa, who shouted as she ran through the streets of the city one day, “My deepest me is God! My deepest me is God!”

May the celebration of the Resurrection help us to remember that things are breaking through and proclaim:

Christ is risen!                                                                                                              

The Spirit of God lives in me!                                                                                   

Life is very good!                                                                                                

It is, indeed, a Happy Easter!

On Saturday, April 26 Rev. Yanchy will be facilitating “Resting in the Heart of God” at St. Scholastica Monastery.  For more information and to register, please click here!