Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Happy Easter!

This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad.

- Traditional Easter refrain

Today is Easter Sunday, the celebration of Jesus' rising from the dead.

We'd like to take a moment to wish all of our Christian readers a peaceful, blessed, and joyful day. It's wet and rainy outside, but even the gloomiest of weather can't dampen the brightest Easter spirit.

Happy Easter - Rejoice, He is Risen

Reproduced and adapted with permission from the photographer.

We had a very interesting mass at our parish this morning...the fire alarm went off during the Eucharist (it seems a child just had to find out what pulling that shiny red and white plastic lever would do) but most of the congregation stayed inside the church, and the receiving of the sacrament of Communion was not disrupted, though the din continued through the rest of Mass.

(Apparently, only the Redmond Fire Department had the power to shut off the alarm. We were helpless and unable to do anything until the trucks got there. Perhaps it's time to reexamine some of our city ordinances so we can save our ears before they're permanently damaged by unbearable screeching).

That unfortunate incident aside, I greatly enjoyed the insightful homily (or post-Gospel commentary) from our pastor. He explained that recently he had been working on the programs booklets for the Triduum, and was looking for artwork to use. He found plenty of graphics for Holy Thursday and even more for Good Friday.

But when it came time to put together the Easter Day booklet, he found the selection of actual Easter images to be rather poor.

And he added that traditional art wasn't the only area where Easter had received short shrift, using the example of Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ... which devotes two hours to Jesus' agony and crucifixion but only a couple of minutes to the Resurrection - and that's ultimately the most important part of the story, for as our pastor said, We are a Resurrection people.

He joked that he was still waiting for Gibson's sequel.

It certainly seems to me like certain Christians (cough, the religious right) have tried to make Jesus' crucifixion the epicenter of the Easter story. Certainly, the solemnity of Good Friday is important, but it pales in comparison to the wonder of the Resurrection. The Easter story is supposed to be about Jesus' triumph over death and what that means for humankind.

It should be remembered that Easter is not a one day feast, like Good Friday or Holy Thursday; it goes on for an entire season, concluding at Pentecost.

Today is a day to be cheerful and joyful, not somber.

Rejoice, for He is Risen. Alleluia!

Comments:

Blogger Jason Black said...

> The Passion of the Christ... which devotes two hours to Jesus' agony and crucifixion but only a couple of minutes to the Resurrection - and that's ultimately the most important part of the story

Admittedly, my knowledge of all things biblical is hardly first-rate, what with having been raised in an agnostic household. However, I have always understood the crucifixion itself to have an important theological role. In that interpretation, it was important for Christ to freely undergo the crucifixion, to willingly sacrifice himself. That it was his choice to do so--to endure that suffering when, by virtue of his power and ability to create miracles, etc.--when he really didn't have to. That it was his own free self-sacrifice for the sake of flawed mankind that, in fact, enables us now to be forgiven our sins.

In that interpretation (which, even as a hard-core athiest, I can see the logic in) everything from the crown of thorns to the weight of the cross to the long trek to the mount to the suffering of the crucifixion itself is seminal to the power of that act to bring about mankind's salvation.

So, in that light, I can understand Gibson devoting 2 hours to it, even if the sight of that on screen was enough to turn many people's stomachs.

It's the same interpretation that is central to Salman Rushdie's The Last Temptation of Christ (which, for my money, was also an all-together more well crafted movie). I'll admit I really only went to see that movie because of the controversy, but having seen it, I couldn't understand what the controversy was about: for those who actually paid attention, there was nothing in that movie which mocked Jesus in any way. It was simply an attempt to give the audience an emotional peek into the context of Christ's choice, while hanging on the very cross itself, to save mankind at the cost of himself.

March 23, 2008 2:00 PM  

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