Alleluia! I don’t know about you, but I feel so great after 40 days of Lent to be able to raise my voice and offer praise-filled alleluia once again. There are so many reasons to shout alleluia. Alleluia for flowers, green grass, and for the sighting of Robins or Cardinals, a sure sign of spring’s return! Alleluia for our family, or for the many people we embrace as our family, for dear friends, for love. Alleluia for Easter Ham and for the frosted sugary goodness that are Peeps, and as you can tell from my photo for this online reflection website, I do love me some peeps and Easter ham.
Alleluia, for the excited faces on children as they hunt for brilliantly dyed Easter eggs tomorrow, Easter Sunday here in the United States. Personally, I never understood what ham, dyed eggs, chocolate, and a bunny rabbit has to do with this day, and so, brunch and family and friend celebrations aside, but ALLELUIA most importantly for what is the reason for these celebrations.
A big alleluia for this day, when we celebrate once again the greatest celebration we can ever celebrate, Jesus, the one who came to save us has indeed risen from the dead. Alleluia then for our life and our world, that because of his resurrection, we and the world stand changed and changed for the good by a divine love that lives on forever. Now new beginnings are fragile moments filled with hope-filled expectation. Our alleluias are indeed real this weekend, yes, they are, but our readings and our gospel call for tempered enthusiasm.
We gather this Easter weekend to recall the first day, day one, day one of fifty days before Pentecost, day one of the start of this thing called Christianity, day one of something new. It is a day of bright beginnings, of hope-filled expectation. Yet we begin this Easter in the dark, for our Gospel begins that the ‘first day of the week was dawning’. Something new is here, but we groan into this newness with a light still arising. And I am guessing that does not mean all of our faith journeys begin in the darkness of confusion? Jesus’ death led to a kind of darkness, his resurrection, confusion.
Rev. Kent Beausoleil, SJ
Rev. Beausoleil, SJ, PhD, has lived in the Creighton Jesuit Community since 2020. Currently he ministers as the Market Vice President for Mission Integration (NE/IA) for CommonSpirit/CHI Health while continuing his ministry as a mission leader at five local area hospitals: Immanuel Medical Center, and Lasting Hope in Omaha, and Mercy Corning, Mercy Council Bluffs, and Missouri Valley in Iowa. Joining the Jesuits in 1997 and ordained in 2007 his Jesuit formation focused on three types of ministries: healthcare, spiritual direction and pastoral counseling, and higher education focusing on young adult spiritual development.
Rev. Kent A. Beausoleil, SJ has a PhD in Student Affairs from Miami University in Oxford, OH. He also possesses master’s degrees in public administration, philosophy, divinity and education. He loves to walk and be out in nature, cross-stitch and bake.
The ability to reflect on other contributors’ reflections as well as being able to provide a personal monthly spiritual reflection has become an important and integral part of my daily prayer.
