Easter

For Christians, this past weekend culminated the solemn and holy conclusion of lent and the joyous time of Easter Sunday.

The truths, of a teaching Jesus, amplify the redemptive belief of the crucifixion and remind us that choosing joy is also part of daily living.

His death on the cross was a Divine choice of unconditional love, not an action to engender sorrow or retribution.

In these times of fear and protection, let us not forget the many lessons of the Cross.

Jesus died teaching forgiveness. He preached that we should look at our world with compassion and love in our hearts, not with the narrowness of a blinded and dispassionate ego mired in retribution.

Through his own suffering, the Anointed One asked that we choose love as the celebration of life and the way to honor the Divine within ourselves and others.

It is often hard to embrace the centuries old message of Easter when we are mired in seeming fear and worry from terrorist’s threats. When we are occupied with concern for our service men and women and their safety in so many fields of harm and when the recession engenders a lack of hope.

Easter for Christians around the world is a time of renewal and rebirth, not only of one’s faith, but also of the joy and peace that is supposed to come from the practice of that faith.

In the practice of our faiths, no matter in what religion it is structured, we often talk the talk, but fail to walk the walk in honoring one’s God with compassion and unconditional love. Selfless and Samaritan acts of grace go by the wayside when fear replaces love.

There is good in all faiths, all religions, and in all beliefs. It is man who creates the differences and the conflicts, believing that is the way to worship the one God of many names.

I hope your Easter experience and earthly renewal was and is sacred and amplifies your hopes and wishes.