There is no question when Baxter is excited. His eyes dilate; his ears perk up; he paces; he makes different sounds, a mixture of meows and chirps. His full attention goes to the object of his interest whether a bird, another cat, a bug, or the leaves blowing in the wind outside. When Baxter is on high alert there is no distracting him, and even food won’t deter him from following his focus for the moment. When whatever caused the excitement passes, then Baxter is back to his old ways—eating and sleeping with an occasional scratch and lick for diversion.
Does anything excite us? That’s an important question as we celebrate Easter. This feast of the victory of Christ over sin and death is the centerpiece of our faith. It is the source of our hope in a power that prevails no matter what life brings us. It is the sign of God’s unrelenting and unconditional love for us and the world despite our efforts to jilt this love. Easter comes into our lives with the energy of the Holy Spirit to encourage us to live our faith despite the obstacles and contradictions it encounters. It calls us out of the rut that routine, lethargy and sin can dig for us. As the first Easter was a surprise to everyone who encountered its evidence—the soldiers, the women at the tomb, Peter and the other disciples—so this Easter holds something unexpected and new for us as well.
But we won’t discover this new life if we don’t pay attention. We don’t have automatic instincts like a cat to alert us, but we do have a desire in our hearts that was placed there by God. We yearn for a better life, a meaningful life, a safe and just world, life after death. But all too often, this yearning shrinks. Life’s losses take their toll on hope and meaning. Life’s unfairness makes us cynical and skeptical about the possibilities for a better world. The threats and dangers we hear and see in the news make us fearful and suspicious of each other. Death touches us so personally at times, and in such a devastating and unpredictable way as well, that we can’t imagine something beyond it. Our heart’s desire grows cold.
The fire we light at the Easter Vigil is meant to rekindle the spark God placed in our hearts. This is the light of Christ proclaimed in the darkness and sung in the Easter proclamation. This is the warmth of God’s love moving through human history in the accounts of our faith in the scriptures. This is what moved our candidates to approach the Church to ask for full communion and the fire of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation. This is what draws us to the Eucharist to feed the fire of divine love often on the presence of the Risen Lord we share.
We need to allow Easter to waken us to the fire within, placed there by God and nurtured by His Spirit. It is more than candy and flowers and springtime. It is the meaning and purpose of our lives, and the reason we go on with hope and confidence when others may despair and give up. For Christian believers, Easter gives a jolt to our hearts putting them into rhythm with God’s ways and allowing us to walk together with the Lord.
Baxter gets excited over such silly things—birds, bugs, other cats and flying leaves. We have profound realities laid before us in the Easter mystery. Will we allow ourselves to get excited?
