Scripture Reflection, Sunday, April 5,2015
Sister Gertrude Foley, Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill

Click here to read and listen to an Easter Scripture Reflection prepared for the Diocese of Greensburg by Sister Gertrude Foley.

Easter Sunday

Reading I
Acts 10:34A, 37-43

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23

Reading II
Col 3:1-4

Gospel
Jn 20:1-9

Reflection Question: Why do the Scriptures keep repeating that Jesus ate and drank with them after he rose from the dead?

“I thank you God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of the trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes”

So writes E.E. Cummings trying to describe how his spiritual rebirth renewed how he saw the world, as if for the first time.

What is so amazing about this day we call Easter?  When the disciples of Jesus tried to explain what had happened they had no philosophical language.  All they could say was, “He died, he rose, and he ate and drank with us!”  And forever after, when the disciples got together to share loving and wondrous memories of Jesus, they continued to eat and drink.  They began to call it Eucharist.  “Everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes.”

The hardest thing about our faith is to believe that the natural could be infinite, but this is what we mean when we say we believe in the Incarnation.  It is faith, not philosophy. Because of Jesus, the natural became infinite, an eternal “Yes.”  A dangerous thing about our faith is to overemphasize the infinite and downplay the eating and drinking that is its sign in the Eucharist. We keep trying to push God farther away, and God keeps trying to get closer.

Maybe Good Friday says that God got too close. But Easter says God keeps trying.  The infinite yes is unconditional Love. We talk about that a lot, but we find it hard to believe.  We like it better when we can meet some conditions, some challenges. Nevertheless, we keep making faith difficult, surrounded with rules and regulations—some of our own making.

Instead, celebrate Easter!  Hear Jesus’ “Yes” to God, the “Yes” to life that raised him from the dead–and make it your own.

“I who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth”

By Sister Gertrude Foley, Seton Family Coordinator, Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg