Wednesday, May 28, 2014

LONG EVENINGS

Don’t you love the long evenings of late spring and early summer? Baxter does too. It gives him more time to look out the windows and admire all the exciting things he sees-birds and rabbits, tree limbs moving in the breeze, flashes of the sun off a car window. It doesn’t take much to amuse Baxter, but he does perk up and go on alert when something catches his fancy. And it’s the light, the long light of the fresh season of growth that makes this all possible for him. He can see more for a longer period of time and enjoy the view for hours.

Easter is a season of long light for us as Christians. Liturgically, it extends itself for fifty days, up to the celebration of Pentecost. Theologically, Easter sheds light on our lives in every aspect. We need to learn to see ourselves, our world and our God in this light.

We are a people redeemed in the death and resurrection of Christ. Our sins are now “happy faults”, forgiven in the self-sacrificing love of Jesus. Our lives are transformed by what God did for us through Him, because now we share in our own lives the very Spirit that moved in Jesus’ life. So we are adopted children of God, brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus, and heirs to the Kingdom with Him. We are called to be witnesses to this great mystery in which we share by the lives we live, acting like people who live in God’s Kingdom where forgiveness, healing, generosity-especially to the least in our midst-hope, confidence, care, respect and love describe our lifestyle.

In the long light of Christ’s resurrection, the world looks differently as well. It is not just a place of doom and gloom with threats around every corner. It is fertile ground for the Spirit to take root. But we, Christ’s disciples, have to plant the seeds of that Spirit. We have to engage the world on God’s terms, not to condemn it but to redeem it by showing what the marks of the Kingdom can do when people put them into practice. A new heaven and a new earth were introduced when Christ rose from the dead, but we often only see things in the light of past wrongs, prejudices and failures. A new world is possible, not by our own devices—as marvelous as some of them may be-but by God’s grace working in and through us. If we just show off our own talents and ingenuity, nothing will finally change, for our pride will lead to arrogance,our arrogance to selfishness, and our selfishness to competition, conflict and destruction. But if we show God at work through us, there are no limits to the goodness, virtues and transforming relationships we can generate in our midst.

Finally, in the light of the Risen Lord, we see God anew. No longer a sinister judge or cynical cop, a rescuing parent or convenient crutch, an hour-long habit on Sundays or a voice of neurotic guilt over trivial matters, God is a mysterious power, most intimate to us yet never exhausted by our  understanding or practices. He is a personal communion of life and love, always extending His communion to more and more of His creation. God is beyond closer to us than we are to ourselves. He is the alpha and omega; the beginning and end of all that is; the Way, the Truth and the Life; He is Love. The pictures for all of this were drawn by Jesus when He spoke of the Good Samaritan, the Father of the Prodigal Son, the Master of the vineyard; when He healed the lepers, the blind and the lame; when He forgave the adulterous woman and His executioners; when He gave the multitude bread and fish and His disciples His body and blood. What a wondrous God we see in the light of the Risen Christ.

The Easter season soon draws to a close, but the light remains throughout the year. Its symbol in the paschal candle marks every baptism and funeral we celebrate, life’s beginning and end. It opens new vistas in this world and leads to the vision of glory in the next. It extends the hope of day and shortens the nights we have to live through. The light of Christ’s resurrection gives us a glimpse of heaven, and it looks like a long summer evening sharing food and company with friends and family on the porch or patio. We see things differently in grace, and this vision makes us grateful. Baxter loves the long light of early summer. Easter teaches us to love the light of eternity shining in our midst.