As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, we are challenged to expand our Easter joy to more than just hope in eternal life. The resurrection is the pouring forth of the promise of the Holy Spirit here and now. It is the assurance of the presence of God at this very moment, not just about what we can expect when we leave this earth, but while we are still here. The bigger picture of the Easter story is that we have not been abandoned to hopelessness, ever.
Tell that to the poor. Tell that to the beaten and abused, the tortured and the unjustly imprisoned. Tell that to the terminally ill, and tell that to the lonely. Tell that to the hungry and the homeless who wander the scourged lands of the earth. Tell that to the people of this earth who feel in very real ways that they have been abandoned to hopelessness.
While our faith in the resurrection is certainly about God keeping us safe and the assurance of abiding in hope for our own lives, we also pray in Psalm 16 that God will also show us the path to life, and fullness of joys in the presence of God. So if the death and resurrection of Jesus was about our liberation from the hopelessness of our own deaths, why do we have to follow a path to life? Hasn’t it all been done for us already? Yes, it has. But life is not living unless it is experienced in joy, the joy of the presence of God. So there is something we can do in response to our joy to make it fuller.
To more fully experience the presence of God, we will tell the poor, the beaten, the abused, the imprisoned, the sick, the hungry, the homeless and the lonely that they too have not been abandoned to hopelessness. Christ is not just our hope, but the hope of the world. The resurrection of Jesus is the redemption of all of humanity. And it isn’t just about whether we believe it or not, it is about whether we feel confident enough to act on it.
As I reflect on these lessons, I think the reason why the first words Jesus said to the first people who saw him after the resurrection were “Do not be afraid.” I don’t think it was he thought they might be afraid of ghosts. I think he says this to us today, just as he did then, because his resurrection means that he is the fulfillment of the promises of God. It’s not our fear of death; it is our fear of life that we need to think about now. If Jesus really is alive, then God really meant it when he said he loved us and that we, meaning all of humanity, are worth saving. That means nobody has been abandoned to hopelessness. Believing in the resurrection means believing in the entire promise of God’s enduring presence with humanity.
So, yes, I feel great joy at Easter, but the fullness of joy that I seek in the presence of God is not just about the relief that the fear of death has been lifted. The joyful Easter Sunday celebration encourages me to identify with the suffering of others who don’t feel that hope. At least that is the path to life that has been shown to me in the good news. Alleluia! I pray today that I will not be afraid to stay on that path and share that Easter story by bringing hope and joy in very concrete ways to those who do feel abandoned.
Barbara Dilly
I came to Creighton in 2000 and retired in 2020. My twenty years of teaching, research and service in the Jesuit tradition enhanced my own life. It was an exciting time of celebration. I loved teaching and interacting with Creighton students because they responded so eagerly to the Ignatian pedagogical emphasis on the development of the whole person. It is this spirit of whole person development and celebration of life that I hope to infuse in my reflection writings.
My academic background is eclectic, preparing me well for the Liberal Arts academic environment at Creighton. I earned my BA in World Arts and Cultures from UCLA in 1988 and my Ph.D. in Comparative Cultures from the University of California, Irvine in 1994. My research focused on rural communities in the American Midwest, Latin America, and Australia. I taught Environmental Anthropology, Qualitative Research Methods, Social and Cultural Theory, and Food Studies courses.
I retired to Shell Rock, a small rural community in Northeast Iowa where I enjoy gardening, cooking, quilting, driving my 65 Impala convertible an my 49 Willys Jeepster. I have lots of fun playing my guitars with friends from the Cedar Valley Acoustic Guitar Association. But most importantly, I am still working to make my community and rural America a better place. I host a community quilt studio and serve on the Mission Board of my church. I also serve as the Climate Committee Chair and on the Executive Board of the Center for Rural Affairs.
