The day after the day after Easter. I woke up feeling tired from Easter celebrations, and grateful for the love of family and friends, those gathered with us and those far away. And I woke up thinking that Easter would be a good time to mark the beginning of a new year. Celebrating Jesus’ resurrection seems like a good time to embrace the possibilities that come with leaving “the folded grave clothes” behind and stepping out into the light.
Spring is a good time to begin a new year as we wake up from a long winter night, to move and stretch and smell the flowers. Living in Boston means watching spring come in fits and starts. That is often how new life comes. In some parts of the country spring came this year with wild fires, floods, and tornadoes, while in some areas of the country spring came softly, and it was hard to tell the difference between spring and other seasons. Our internal landscape, like the weather has all of that going on too. Through whatever spring brings to us personally, we all need hope to surprise us. We need to find ourselves in the presence of love having the final word…for us and within us. It has happened and keeps happening.
Christians say in baptism , as water washes over us, that we die and rise again with Jesus. The words sound good but discovering what they mean takes a lifetime. I think they speak a universal truth. We have already died to death when we begin our journey on earth. Life is ultimately triumphant.
Jews observing Passover,. celebrating a Seder meal and the passing over from slavery to freedom of the ancient Hebrew people, also speak a universal truth. In that particular celebration is a recognition of our human longing for freedom and desiring to trust in a Divine force that wills and acts for freedom for all of us. A good time for a new year, that new beginning when those things or those people or systems who enslave us lose their power over us and we walk the liberation walk.
Of course, Christians imagine themselves on the side of Jesus and not on the side of the evil forces that killed him. And Jews imagine themselves on the side of their God and not the enslaving Egyptians. We all have a shadow side so we might as well recognize ourselves in those who caused Jesus’ death or held the Hebrews captive. Freedom from slavery and resurrection life is really meant for us in our complexity and complicity with good and evil. That is real good news.
Goodness, this seems like much too serious a reflection for spring and my imagined New Year. Its a time to celebrate life. I have a two new grand nephews and a grand niece and another on the way. And a friend has given birth to a baby boy.Children are being born all over the world. Two other dear ones have passed from this life to the mystery and grace beyond as they are doing all over the world. And we who live between birth and death are blessed to be able to continue to pursue our daily lives, our relationships, and our dreams with all of humanity. We are celebrating our spring. Giving thanks!