Thursday, March 24, 2016

Easter Seems so Far Away

There are so many thoughts and threads going through my mind today.  As usual I’d like to try to tie them up all in a neat little package but the world is far more complex than this.

I’m remembering a year ago when I was in Haiti.  An experience that I still don’t really have the words to describe or capture.  A year later I still struggle with the scenes of desperation and despair I witnessed.  And I have no hope of working out the tension between the glimpses of hope and the unmistakable hold death still has.  I constantly remember the smiles of the children receiving lunch at school as well as the pleas of the children waiting outside the school to see if there would be any leftovers for them.

On today’s date in 1980, the Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, was martyred for speaking out against the violence, poverty, and social injustice in El Salvador.  The legacy and stories of this man have shaped me and so many others.  As I remember his death, I also remember Romero’s remarkable faith and courage that were formed and displayed so vividly in his work of showing God’s love in word and action.

And today is also my favorite day of the church year: Maundy Thursday.  It is the day in which we remember the last supper Jesus had with his disciples in which he began the sacrament of communion.  It’s a day marked by a celebration of community, grace, and the connection we will forever have with Jesus and our fellow members of the Church.  After supper Jesus gave his followers a new commandment: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34).  I love the messages Jesus shared with his disciples and with us even as he knew his death on the cross was coming the next day.


With all this remembering I’m finding it difficult to move forward today.  It’s so frustrating to recognize that in the grand scheme of things, not much has changed since these events 1 year ago, 36 years ago, and nearly 2000 years ago.  The world is still heavy with pain, suffering, evil, and death.  In Haiti, instability and extreme poverty remain.  While there are certainly pockets of hope these oases are fragile and could be destroyed so easily.  In El Salvador the gang violence has reached an all time high, and so many of my friends and acquaintances there are forced to live in constant fear.  In our world, we continue to see more and more examples of people being divided rather unified.  We see this in our politics, on social media, in our culture, and most devastatingly in the Church.  There are an infinite amount of examples of how we fail to love our neighbors as Jesus loved us.


Even though Easter is only three days away, today it seems unbearably far away.

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