The Easter season has arrived once again. It is a very uplifting season. But I am not so ready to forget about Lent. It leaves an imprint on us, or at least it should. It should all be connected. There are three main themes in the lessons today that I think sum up Lent, Easter, and the days that follow in a coherent faith response. They are “repent, rejoice, and report.”
So, let’s go back to the Lenten theme of repentance. We know that we need to repent of our sins every day. If we don’t, we deny the promises of God to assure our redemption. Peter reminded the Apostles on the day of Pentecost that it was necessary to repent to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and for the promise that was made to us to be real in our lives. Yes, Easter is here, but we still have work to do!
If we live in those promises, then, we will rejoice in the kindness of the Lord. Just like we need to repent every day, we need to rejoice every day also by focusing our hope in the Lord. The lessons today remind us that the earth is indeed full of the goodness of the Lord. It is good to rise every day proclaiming, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it!” On a very practical level, we are no good to ourselves or anyone else if we cannot rejoice every day! Our rejoicing practice is not motivated by how well things go for us, however, but by how certain we are that the Lord loves us.
And now for the third response to God’s love that is expected of us. Like Mary, we are to report what Jesus has told us. There is no need to weep! We have not been abandoned! God is with us! Easter is indeed about sharing that good news with all the world. We don’t have to go around reciting Bible verses to do that. It should be evident in the way we live our lives, that we are authentically real about our human shortcomings, but ever confident in our efforts to live loving good lives.
I will add one more term, “repeat.” If every day, we repent, rejoice, and report, it seems to me that we will keep ourselves living in the promise of the resurrection.
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.
