Dear Friends,
Our Easter Vigil Service was quite a celebration! Our liturgy began with our procession with the Easter Light and moved to Stan’s gloriously singing a modern version of the Exsultet (the longest extant Christian hymn we have). Our readings were from prophets both old and new, including an inspirational reading, “Resurrection,” from the work of Mary Rice, a member of The Spirit of Life Community who died this past year.
We have included Mary’s reading below for your reflection. Together, we renewed our baptismal vows using a formula which invited us to renounce violent or abusive behavior which “destroys, damages or diminishes another” and affirmed our belief in the One God…whose divinity infuses all of life with the sacred.” Having reaffirmed our baptismal call we were invited to approach the bowl of ‘living water” blessing ourselves with the new Easter water to our lively music “O Healing River.” Our celebration concluded with the song “I Danced in the Morning,” which of course meant we truly DANCED throughout the sacred space celebrating the risen Christ!
I (Jean) had the opportunity to attend the Stations of the Cross outside the State House on Good Friday, organized by The Agape Community, Occupy Boston and Pax Christi among others. This was a profoundly moving experience for me, and I was deeply touched by the personal stories which served as present day experience of the Passion. I was particularly moved by Pat Ferrone’s (a participant in Witness Against Torture) sharing of the 14th station “Jesus is laid in the tomb” in which she poignantly shared the experience of a man held at Guantanamo since 2001. Here is an excerpt which I’ve been holding in my heart since Friday, and used in my homily at the Easter Vigil. There are many forms of “entombment,” perhaps worst is that of one who is among the living:
“Today, as we wait outside Jesus’ tomb, let us witness to present day entombments, not of those who have died, but of the living. Take the story of Shaker Aamer, the longest held prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, now entering his 11th year of confinement, with no end in sight, especially with the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act. He has never been charged with a crime, and in fact, was cleared for release by a military review board in 2007. He is originally from Saudi Arabia, but a resident of London since 1996; he is married to a British woman and the father of 4 children. Swept up in the early days of the invasion of Afghanistan where he was working with a human rights organization, he experienced torture at Bagram Air Force Base before being shackled and hooded and dispatched to Guantanamo. His “tomb” has been a 6x8 ft cell where he has spent the greater part of 10 years because of his activism and demands for human rights on behalf of other prisoners. One advocate for his release said that he is the “most well loved man” in Guantanamo, a hero known for his courage and “standing firm.”
Some time ago, even in the midst of force-feedings and persistent and capricious ill-treatment, he held to hope when he wrote to wife, “My soul’s got the biggest wings to fly and help others to fly. I am a lot wiser, a lot more patient…a lot more merciful…a lot more helpful. I feel I can change the world to be a better place. I feel I can restore justice so we can have peace and love amongst each other.”
This story, and others like it, invite us to deepen our awareness of the ‘entombment’ of others and to consider how we might use our voices and our freedom to “roll back the stones” for those unjustly imprisoned. For me, it defies logic to think that the mistreatment of others will in anyway guarantee our safety as a people. I believe, that Mary Rice’s poem below might offer another paradigm. (If you are moved by the story of Shaker Aamer, as was I, Pat Ferrone invites us to visit the various websites devoted to freeing him, check out www.andyworthington.co.uk) and consider writing to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Special Envoy Daniel Fried of the US Department of State demanding the release of Shaker Aamer.)
Resurrection
Michelangelo drew again
and again images of the risen Christ
as a beautiful, nude man,
wholly flesh yet floating, about
to ascend to heaven and the Father.
But what the women saw
when they came to tend, as women do,
to the dead as well as the living --
what they saw
was an empty tomb
and an angel, who said, He is not
here, he is risen.
And maybe the point is
the empty tomb,
the space inside
where miracles can happen
when the stone is rolled away.
- Mary Rice ©
At The Spirit of Life, through our time of prayer and sharing together, we work together to grow in our self-understanding and in our relationships with God and with God’s people. We celebrate the gift of our faith and the responsibility that is ours as followers of Jesus Christ. It is our prayer that what we as a community experience in our praying together will overflow into the rest of our lives, making us more fully human and more ‘whole’….holy! We invite you to join us in this endeavor and journey with us as we seek to grow in our love of God and to grow in our capacity to be living expressions of God’s loving peace and justice in our world.
May Easter rise within you!
Jean & Ron