Mercy Mondays: A reflection on Easter hope
“Hope does not tell us that soon life will be the same again as it was before the loss. No, hope tells us that life will go on, differently, yes, but go on nevertheless. Hope tells us that the pieces are there for us to put together, if only we will give ourselves to the doing of it.
“When Jesus dies on the cross, something entirely different rises. And that something is the call to us to make the best in life live again.”
-Joan Chittister, O.S.B., “The Way of the Cross: The Path to New Life”
This Easter reflection from Sister Joan Chittister is so apropos! We are here on Easter Monday, not quite one week past the start of Passover, and we want to be celebrating. This reflection invites us to remember that we can have hope, we can celebrate, but we must be ready to pay the price.
Hope, Sister Joan seems to be telling us, looks at Good Friday and believes in Easter Sunday. Hope looks at a people enslaved in a foreign land and believes in freedom and a land flowing with milk and honey.
Hope looks at grocery store clerks, postal workers, doctors and nurses (and so many others) and sees heroes … and so we put our lives in their hands.
Hope says, take your awkward self online, (which will only accentuate the awkwardness, trust me), and those that care about you will be overjoyed to see you.
Hope says, take a University community and send them all away to their own corners of the world, and they will still be a community and they will still do the vital work of education and formation.
Hope sees these things and says, it will not look the same, but we can make the “best in life live again.”
You’re doing it, Salve Regina! Keep it up!
Blessed Easter! Blessed Passover! Blessed Spring!
Reflection offered by Amy Cady, Assistant Director of the Mercy Center for Spiritual Life (April 13, 2020)
Each Monday and Wednesday, SALVEtoday will provide a prayer of reflection for the University community to reflect upon during this time of remote living and learning. #salvesgotthis #mercymondays
