Classic & Contemporary Excerpts from April 05, 1999

Easter

Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing His praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With Him mayst rise:
That as His death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much
more, just.

Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art.
The cross taught all wood to resound His Name,
Who bore the same.
His stretched sinews taught all strings what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.

Consort both heart and lute, and
twist a song
Pleasant and long:
Or, since all music is but three
parts vied
And multiplied,
O let Thy blessed Spirit bear a part,
And make up our defects with His sweet art.

—George Herbert

Easter Love Prevails

Easter means—hope prevails over despair. Jesus reigns as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. … Easter says to us that despite everything to the contrary, his will for us will prevail, love will prevail over hate, justice over injustice and oppression, peace over exploitation and bitterness.

—Desmond Tutu inCrying in the Wilderness

Those Who Love, See

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the glorious manifestation of the victory of love over death. The same love that makes us mourn and protest against death will now free us to live in hope. Do you realize that Jesus appeared only to those who knew him, who had listened to his words and who had come to love him deeply? It was that love that gave them the eyes to see his face and the ears to hear his voice when he appeared to them on the third day after his death. Once they had seen and heard him and believed, the rest of their lives became a continuing recognition of his presence in their midst.

—Henri Nouwen inA Letter of Consolation

Life and Death

The risen life is not easy: it is also a dying life.

—Thomas Merton inHe Is Risen

Immortality

Christ gave us proof of immortality, and yet it would hardly seem necessary that one should rise from the dead to convince us that the grave is not the end. To every created thing God has given a tongue that proclaims a resurrection.

If the Father deigns to touch with divine power the cold and pulseless heart of the buried acorn and to make it burst forth from its prison walls, will He leave neglected in the earth the soul of man, made in the image of his Creator?

—William Jennings Bryan inThe Prince of Peace

Live in His Life

Each time we see the empty Cross let it remind us of the suffering of Jesus, but also the victory. In the words of Peter Marshall, “Let us never live another day as if He were dead!”

—Joan Winmill Brown inMy Heart Sings

Eighth Day

Resurrection! It happens in the dark with no witnesses, just the Father bending over the Son and breathing the Spirit back into his flesh. And everything is shattered. The sabbath is over. It is the first day of the week, the eighth day of the week. It is the new creation, and it is just dawning . …

Resurrection sends Jesus back into the world, and it sends us back into the world, unafraid now, still seeking the crucified One who is now raised up in glory and hidden in our midst.

—Megan McKenna inLent

Resurrection Answer

The edges of God are tragedy; the depths of God are joy, beauty, resurrection, life. Resurrection answers crucifixion; life answers death.

—Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki inBearing Our Sorrows

I in Life

Alleluia! I see thee, and I do not die! I see me in thy seeing eye! As thou art life, in Life am I, In Love, in Christ and crucified. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Amen.

—Walter Wangerin, Jr., inReliving the Passion

History’s Watershed

The resurrection cannot be tamed or tethered by any utilitarian test. It is a vast watershed in history, or it is nothing. It cannot be tested for truth; it is the test of lesser truths. No light can be thrown on it; its own light blinds the investigator. It does not compel belief; it resists it. But once accepted as fact, it tells more about the universe, about history, and about man’s state and fate than all the mountains of other facts in the human accumulation.