We are an Easter People
Since the beginning, VOTF has been an Easter movement
and we must continue to ground ourselves in the Paschal
Mystery that is the heart of our faith. Those of us
in Voice of the Faithful know that we are people of
faith; we know that ours is a most genuine movement
of the Spirit. As we leave the days of Lent and enter
into the blessings and understandings of Holy Week and
Easter, we find our hearts and minds full of the journey
begun three years ago and the journey ahead for VOTF.
For we have learned hard truths, living with despair
yet living with joy because we live in the hope that
is Jesus Christ… our Light, our Truth, and our Way.
Ours is the Paschal Mystery that is celebrated at every
Eucharist and in a very special way at Easter. There
is no understanding the life of Jesus Christ, without
understanding the passion and death of Jesus Christ,
without understanding the triumph and glory of his Resurrection.
How could we endure the death on the cross without the
knowledge of the Resurrection? What value the journey
without being grounded in the ultimate Truth? How could
we continue to face the horrors of the scandal of clergy
sexual abuse and cover-up without the companionship
of the Christ we find in each other within VOTF? How
could we continue to believe that We are the Church,
We are the People of God? We remain faithful to the
truth, which is Jesus Christ, and therefore we can remain
faithful to our mission and to the prophets and martyrs
of this movement, the victim/survivors whose courage
lifts us up always.
We are an Easter people. VOTF is an Easter movement.
In the truth and reality of every day, there are moments
of the journey and life, the passion and death, the
resurrection and the truth. Sometimes it seems that
the days and weeks are only about the journey, or are
only about the passion and death. But, in faith, we
know that we are grounded in the great hope of transformation
and new life. That is why we go forward. That is why
we are led forward.
In the Gospel reading from Luke on Holy Saturday, we
find ourselves one more time at the empty tomb. We join
with the women who first experience the truth of Christ’s
life and death. With Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary,
the mother of James, we are terrified by the truth of
that empty tomb; we bow our faces to the ground. Yet,
they and we “remember his words.” And because we remember,
and because we are confronted with the empty tomb, we
go forth as witnesses to the Resurrection and to the
Truth. How many times have we heard this Gospel? Yet,
we always bring a new self and a new life lived to
the living word of the gospel. These women go forth
in the Truth to tell the others the good news to share
their experience with the apostles. “But their story
seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them.”
(Luke 24:1-12) Why do we in VOTF continue to be surprised
that the truth of our experience of God’s action and
presence is not always understood, is not accepted by
those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ, those
who are bound to us most closely?
We are an Easter people. VOTF is an Easter movement.
May the blessings and wisdom of this holiest season
strengthen us for the journey; may the hope and truth
of the Risen Christ sustain and accompany us. May the
joy of the Resurrection enter the hearts of all who
suffer; may it enlighten us all as we go forward.
Susan S. Troy, M. Div., VOTF Prayerful Voice
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