Living with Strength and Kindliness

Easter Reflection

I used to think that we get the liturgical seasons wrong in the southern hemisphere; in the northern hemisphere, Christmas coincides with the winter solstice, and the days start to get longer - a symbol of the Christ-light coming into the world. Likewise, Easter - the celebration of new life and rebirth takes place a few weeks into spring, as the country flourishes back into its green splendour.

But down here, we miss out on those connections between the environment and nature. Christmas takes place and the days start getting shorter; at Easter, dead leaves are falling off the trees, harvests are being brought in, and we start to think about turning the heating on.

Now though, I realise that I was thinking in too black and white terms. Easter doesn’t cancel out the sufferings of the cross; it absorbs them into the Resurrection. The falling leaves don’t cancel out the beauty of the trees we’ve enjoyed - it is instead a further expression of that beauty.

Here’s what the great Dominican preacher Herbert McCabe had to say about it: 

“The cross does not show us some temporary weakness of God that is cancelled out by the Resurrection. It says something permanent about God: not that God suffers eternally, but that the eternal power of God is love; and this as expressed in history, must be suffering. The cross, then, is an ambiguous symbol of weakness and triumph and it is just as important to see ambiguity in the Resurrection.”

We can enter into the Easter season, no matter where our lives are. If we are wounded by pain and loss, we know that this, too, is part of the experience of God. If we are overcome by wonder and awe at the beauty of our lives and our families, this too is part of the experience of God. 

I wish you all a happy Easter, and I hope that, whatever it looks like, you are able to be with your family - and to take some time to be with self and God.

James Rogerson

For Kirrilee Westblade

Leadership - Catholic Identity