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| (Is it) Just like they say - nothing good ever lasts? |
That’s another definition of eternity: two people, and a ham.
That is an example of my grandmother’s sense of humor; you may recognize it. She and Grandpa were alone in their one-bedroom house by then, and that affected menu options.
Some things seem to go on forever; ham and turkey leftovers are accused of it all the time. MLB games (though they say they fixed that), and the NBA season. The University Boulevard red light at Four Corners. Election season. My homilies. Contrary creatures that we are, we spend a lot of our time waiting for things to be over.
Lent, with all its restrictions and somber reflection on sin and death, can seem interminable, especially at the beginning, when every day of deprivation drags by as old habits of self-indulgence still govern our muscle memory. Once we get into the new habit – whatever good habits we have taken up – it almost feels good, like physical exercise (or so I’m told). But at the same time, we want the effort, the exertion, the privation to be over, so we look forward to Easter.
But Easter is not the celebration of the end of Lent, like V-J day was to World War II, or Armistice Day for World War I. Yes, Christ is victorious, but what he achieves by it is far more of a beginning than an end.
Christ’s resurrection changes forever the order of things for us who are created in the image and likeness of God. By rising from death, Jesus transforms the death to which we are all necessarily subject into a beginning rather than the end. Death, then, though it still come for us, cannot and will not keep us who are in Christ. His resurrection into glory is the beginning of our going to glory. This glory we can know and enjoy even while still in our earthly life, giving us strength to participate in the victory.
Christ’s resurrection already has transformed human history by making human beings, who are members of His body the Church, capable of victory over sin and death in their lives and in their deaths. This is the witness of the Saints throughout the ages, and the work of the Church in nurturing a communion of souls who reveal the power of loving one another as Christ loves us. One need only visit a land or society that has been deprived of the Faith and the Church to see the difference.
Christ’s resurrection has changed every day for you and for me, as we bear within us the hope of mercy, as well as the capacity for mercy that He has poured into us. Our failures do not define us or confine us any more than the tomb confined Him. The sin to which we succumbed is not who we are; when we repent and look to Him, His triumphant grace changes our lives so that our own sin does not own us. This knowledge, rightly called faith, fills us with joy.
Foolish mortals waste a lot of time waiting for things to be over, including Lent. We also fear that the very best things cannot last, like the cherry blossoms or a toddler’s tender, innocent sweetness. But again, Christ’s resurrection breaks the rules that we make for ourselves, as His good gift indeed reigns without end. Longer than a Montgomery County red light or an extra-innings pitcher’s duel, the goodness He begins in our lives is everlasting.
To celebrate His victory is to restore in us the awareness that we need no longer be foolish, for we are not entirely mortal. Maybe this is why ham was for my family, and still is for many families, the main dish associated with Easter: as something that seems to last forever, it can be a reminder of eternity. Christ has conquered death, and poured new life into us. Easter is not an end, but the great beginning -- our great beginning. Christ is truly risen, Alleluia!
Monsignor Smith
