We Are Easter People, Easter Reflection 2020

Grace be with you,

I am hoping you are all well, and managing as best you can. Some days will be easier, some days more difficult. This week, has presented some particularly challenging circumstances.

Just when we thought we might get an early spring to relieve our distress, the wind turned cold and the sky snowy. Earth Day, usually a celebratory affair, was confined to the computer screen as environmentalists noted that the response to cov-id 19 belies the commonly held thought that the world cannot unite behind climate control. And the tragedy in Nova Scotia gripped everyone's attention as we saw violence erupt in a series of small town communities coping with grief and loss. And there is the on going death and illness that has become a part of the daily menu on all media sites reporting on the Cov-id 19 virus. It is hard to know where to turn.

But when we quiet ourselves, and listen to our inner wisdom, we do know how to proceed. We may despair, we may feel low in spirit, we may be sorrowful. But we do have a plan of action. We do know what we are to do. Hold steady. Keep your eyes on God. Keep your arms open to the world. Know you will sometimes be hurt, and keep loving anyway.

We are Easter people. And we know the beauty of spring comes after darkness.

We know that the earth and sky and water do not belong to us, they have rights of their own, and we are to be their custodians, caretakers of Mother Earth, not pillagers and rapists of what is not ours by right any more than it is anyone else's.

We know that God holds precious all people, and the person who resorts to evil is just as lost a child as the one he kills. God gathers them all into an embrace of love, and we are called to do the same.

And we know that death comes to us all, sooner or later, and it is the love we have given and received that makes of our lives something lovely.

Every blessing to you. May grace continue to abide with us all.