Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
Happy Easter!
..I'm saying that again for two reasons:
- Orthodox Christians, who use the Julian calendar to work out when Easter is each year, are celebrating Easter Day today, rather than last Sunday!
- Easter is not just a day, but a 50 day-long season, that lasts all the way up until Pentecost (which is on 31st May this year)
(We have a tradition in our family to save enough small chocolate eggs to be able to have one each Sunday throughout the whole season! It's a fantastic reminder of us particularly celebrating the Resurrection over the next few weeks.
Eggs, of course, are possibly the most famous and recognisable symbol of the Resurrection. They resemble the stone that was rolled over the tomb Jesus' body was laid in. They are also symbols of new life - life that emerges from something that looks lifeless.)
This Sunday the Gospel reading set by the lectionary is also the one about doubting Thomas. How often, that story makes me wonder, do we doubt or reject things just because we haven't seen them with our own eyes? - we don't understand them, so we dismiss them or even work against them.
We only have to look as far as Thomas to see how naturally that comes to us... it's not Thomas, but 'doubting Thomas'. We don't have 'denying Peter' or 'ran away naked Mark'...but it's always 'doubting Thomas' - as this cartoon shows.
It seems an unfair name for Thomas to have been landed with. Maybe it's because doubt is so relatable? It makes me wonder what other names and stereotypes we have (good and bad) that we simply take for granted, though.
♫ Two musical suggestions today:
- An Orthodox Christian chant for Easter, the Paschal Troparion.
- A hymn about the Risen Christ: Crown him with many crowns
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