He Lives!
In memory of the recent passing of our Spiritual Amma, Jean Springer, we are re-posting her 2017 Easter blog post. Re-reading it with the awareness of both her recent suffering and new life offers a deeper meaning to the joyous statement “He is Risen.” Happy Easter!
One of the most difficult Christian celebrations for many people is Easter. Well, not so much Easter because we have made it a secular celebration with all the candy, Easter eggs new toys etc. But more to the point, the resurrection! It just does not make sense to so many.
I won’t pretend I fully understand it myself, but my experience of life and the lives of people who come to Eremos is that resurrection is a reality!
There is a Life, a Vitality, within each of us that moves us through the myriad of sufferings that we experience. There is a woman who was diagnosed with Cancer. With chemo and then radiation she was told the margins showed her cancer had been eradicated. She was now ‘cancer free’. In the process of months dealing with side effects, treatments and uncertainties she was changed. She looked at the world differently. She looked at people she loved with a level of love that friends and family members could feel. Through her cancer she was ‘raised up’ to a new level of consciousness.
Scripture does not say Jesus rose up from death, but rather Jesus was raised up. So it is for us. We do not have power over our lives, but we have been given a quality of Life that will always rise us up through the challenges of living. We call this ‘New Life’ but in truth, it is the Life of God that has always been there since our conception. It is the Life of Christ within us raising us to a participation in the Life that is Christ that is greater than us.
As you pause this Easter, my hope is that you will experience resurrection through reflecting on all those moments and events that will let you also proclaim: “He is Risen”. As the old Easter hymn says: “I know because Christ lives in my heart!”
