easter musings

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The Prayer of St Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
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Whatever else you think of the Easter story, you must admit that it makes a real page-turner. Perhaps not the way it's been written in the Gospels - because the Gospels were not written to be page-turners. But if you just look at the plot elements, it's got all the makings of a good Hollywood movie. Celebrity, prophecy, angst, betrayal, courtroom drama, torture (lots of fodder there for human rights activists), a public execution (call in Amnesty International!), lots of blood and gore, weeping women, an earthquake, an eclipse, then tomb raiders (or so the rumours went), numerous mysterious appearances in locked rooms and the like, forgiveness and reconciliation, and finally a dramatic ascent into the heavens, much like a balloon (as CS Lewis put it), or, for us 21st century readers, as if He had been beamed up by Scotty himself for an intergalactic holiday on the Starship Enterprise.

Forgive me. i am being flippant.

Seriously, though. The heart of the Easter story lies in the miraculous recovery of hope from the depths of despair, in the returning of love for hatred, pardon for injury, in doubt turning to faith ("My Lord and my God!"), in sadness turning inexplicably into joy.

Go read it if you're curious. At the very least you'll be treated to one heck of a good story.
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