In this Easter message, Richard Rohr teaches that Jesus’ resurrection is a universal pattern we can trust:
Let’s try to get to what I think is something basic, because the basic is beautiful, but to most people, it’s utterly new.
We got into trouble when we made the person and the message of Jesus into a formal religion, whereby we had an object of worship; then we had to have a priesthood, formal rules and rituals. I’m not saying we should throw those things out, but once we emphasize cult and moral code, we have a religion. When we emphasize experience, unitive experience, we have the world Jesus is moving around in. Once we made Jesus into a form of religion, we projected the whole message onto him alone. He died, he suffered, he rose from the dead, he ascended and returned to God. We thought that by celebrating these wonderful feasts like Easter that this somehow meant that we were members of the club.
But you know what? I’m quite sure that was not intended as the message! Jesus was not the lone exemplar. Jesus was not the standalone symbol for the pattern of the universe. Resurrection is just the way things work! When we say hallelujah on this Easter morning, we’re also saying hallelujah to our own lives, to where they’re going, to what we believe in, and hope for.
Reality rolls through cycles of death and resurrection, death and resurrection, death and resurrection. In the raising up of Jesus, we’re assured that this is the pattern for everything—that we, and anybody who is suffering—is also going to be raised up. This is what God does for a suffering reality. What we crucify, what reality crucifies, God transforms. I don’t think it’s naive to say hallelujah. We have every reason, especially now, since biology and science are also saying this seems to be the shape of everything. It just keeps changing form, meaning, focus or direction, but nothing totally goes away.
Of course, it’s an act of faith on our side. In our experience, our most cherished people, pets, and even places, fade away—but Jesus is the archetype of the shape of the universe. To believe in Jesus is to believe that all of this is going somewhere and that God is going to make it so. All we have to do is stay on the train, stay on the wave, trusting that by our crucifixions, we would be allowed to fail, fumble and die, and be transformed by grace and by God.
Easter is the great feast of the triumph of universal grace, the triumph of universal salvation, not just the salvation of the body of Jesus. What we’re talking about creates a people of hope, and a culture of hope that doesn’t slip into cynicism and despair. Easter is saying, we don’t need to go there. Love is going to win. Life is going to win. Grace is going to win. Hallelujah!
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, “Death Transformed,” Daily Meditations, Center for Action and Contemplation, April 12, 2020, video, 7:01.
Image credit and inspiration: Krista Joy Montgomery, Unknown (detail), 2019, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. We carefully tend the blooms of bright resurrection after the pain of our Good Fridays.
Story from Our Community:
Easter, the Resurrection, is not just today or yesterday, nor last week, nor thousands of years ago. Easter is always now, cannot be past. It is a constant resurgence, an ever Now, as the eternal Christ rises within me to an ever-renewing love and joy.
—Rosalie K.
