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Easter Message from the Office of the Presiding Bishop
Dear Beloved,
May the grace and peace of the Risen Jesus be with you!
Though we might find ourselves inundated with local and world news that speaks of violence, war, and death...
Though we are called to place our hands into these wounds
and feel this pain...
Though we experience the sometimes-frightening changes
in our climate…
this Easter Week, we choose to remember and find comfort
and even joy in the Resurrection of the One who lived for us
…and continues to live with us.
“On the evening of that first day of the week, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side...The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. He said to them again,
“Peace be with you.”
This peace that Jesus gives is something that I know we hunger for especially in our times of pain and loss.
During this past year many of us have grieved the loss of a loved one. We might wonder....
“Where are they?”
“How are they doing?”
Even perhaps..... “Are they?”
I would like to share with you a story from Brennan Manning in his book, Abba’s Child:
"Late one Saturday night, I returned home from ministry. The message on my answering machine was brief and pointed: “Frances Brennan is dying and wants to see you.”
The next day I flew to Chicago, took a taxi to San Pierre, Indiana, and arrived at the Little Company of Mary nursing home around 9 p.m. I went up to the fourth floor and asked the night nurse if Mrs. Brennan was still in her old room. “Yes,” she replied, “Room 422, straight down the hall.”
This ninety-one-year-old woman, who had been a second mother to me the last forty years and whose surname I adopted when I legally changed my first name in 1960, was lying in bed with a nun sitting beside her and praying softly.
“She’s been waiting for you,” the sister said.
I leaned over the bed, kissed her on the forehead, and said, “I love you, Mom.” She extended her right hand and pointed to her lips. After a few seconds of uncertainty, I sensed what she wanted. With the little energy she had left in her frail sixty-two-pound body, she pursed her lips, and we kissed three times. Then she smiled.
She died a few hours later.
With a heavy heart I drove to Chicago with friends to make the burial arrangements. I decided to stay at a motel on Cicero Avenue because of its proximity to Lamb’s Funeral Home. After checking in at the desk, I took the elevator to the fourth floor, walked down the hall, glanced at the key, and inserted it in the door.
Room 422.
Stunned, I dropped my bag on the floor and sank into a soft chair. There were 161 rooms in the motel. Sheer coincidence? Then, like a bell sounding deep in my soul, these words rose inside me...
“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”
Outside a cloud passed and the sunlight burst through the window.
“You’re alive, Ma!”
My face split into a wide grin.
“Congratulations, you’re home!”
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How do we experience the Risen Christ today
in the midst of the deaths of our loved ones?
How is the Spirit of the Living One
giving us peace,
hope
and even joy?
What signs have we received
that point to a life in God that never ends?
During this Easter season, I pray that we may be open to receive in the depths of our hearts the peace of Jesus that surpasses all understanding.
May we grow in our faith, to believe through our memory and experience that the Risen One walks with us and desires to fill us with God’s Spirit anew…making us witnesses and God's compassionate presence, even to the ends of the earth.
Paz y amor!
Bishop Paul "Pablo" Burson
Presiding Bishop
Ecumenical Catholic Communion
BishopPaul@ecumenicalcatholics.net
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