Easter and New Beginnings

We Christians have the audacity of revelation to believe that Love is the author, origin, meaning, and end of the universe, that God is Love, that Man is created in the image of God, and that Jesus is both Son of God and Son of Man.

As we read the Passion according to Saint Matthew this morning, it occurred to me that my mother's death was in some ways my own death and thus I am closer to Christ in His sufferings than ever before. The morning after her funeral I awoke before dawn in tears and prayed that Saint Mary Magdalene would teach me the truth of the resurrection; at the moment I feared greatly that it was a false hope and that my mother was six feet under the ground and going nowhere. I got in my car and drove to her parish to visit the perpetual adoration chapel. I was so distraught that if a police officer had pulled me over he would have considered me a candidate for the psychiatric hospital. But nobody bothered to look at me at that hour, and I briefly enjoyed the Real Presence. The following Sunday I visited with my priest, a young man who just lost his own mother. I confessed my sins, those sins that cloud one's soul during loss, and have been much better since.

My Lenten journey brings me to the Passion, and my mother was the most passionate and courageous woman I have ever known. Like the saints, she is more powerful in Heaven than on Earth, and I feel her presence. Better said, I see her shadow everywhere, and the light she marks is the light of Christ. I keep waking up early in the mornings, and something tells me that she will prod me if I try to sleep through Holy Week.

My link today is to my friend Linda who has lost her husband Jeff. http://jeffreport.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/i-can-s-clearly-now/