Why this "Resurrection Day" is For More than Christians!

"Weeping may endure for a night, but Joy cometh in the morning!"

Psalm 30:5


Today we celebrate Easter Sunday.

This day of "Resurrection" comes after 40 days of Lent, which started on Feb. 17 and ended on Holy Thursday, which was las week.


This year, Lent seemed much longer than normal, especially with heavy rains in the Bay Area and other places and heavy hearts of many around the country.


In the Catholic tradition, Lent is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter.

The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

The 40 days represent the time that Jesus spent in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry and where he endured temptation by "Satan."

Forty days in the desert.


ONLY 40 days!?


For many people who are going through years of seeming "suffering," 40 days seem like a raindrop in a life where there is a heavy downpour of rain each day, every week...and for years.


Only 40 days for Jesus.


To him, too, it may have seemed like a lifetime.

That's when we know for sure that each individual will have his or her own unqiue experiences in life to expand one's Soul. The manner and time of those experiences can and will vary, indeed, from days to months to years.

It's all in "divine order" and for a divine purpose.


Those g(r)o (w) ing through the experience cannot see the way out or even the benefit of this time in their lives...with long, dark days and nights.


Yet it is in this period that the Spirit within gets to do its mighty work.


It is during this period that many can, if they are discerning point to an awakening from within.


It is during this "incubation" period that we can and should and must give our human strivings a rest and learn to be carried by grace...THE GRACE of God that passeth all understanding.


Those looking on from the outside fear more than the person walking through the desert or through the heavy rainstorms. That's because they cannot FEEL the stirrings from within that Soul.


Like a baby going through its gestation period, protected in the mother's womb by God's grace, so, too is the Soul awakening to the PRESENCE within.


Life is filled with dark moments.

There are many seasons of Lent in many lives.

St. Therese, the Little Flower:

"I must remain little, and become more and more little--to the point of becoming this 'little one' whom God fills with His motherly love."

We must learn to recognize these seasons as truly the gestation period for new birth...new awakenings.

We must learn to stay hopeful throughout the dark days and nights, knowing that like the rising sun, covered over by clouds on some days, the Light surely will follow the Night.


We must learn to release these periods of trouble into God's tender care, looking forward with certainty to the Resurrecting Light.


Jesus suffered 40 days in the desert, a period of temptation.

It is because of those 40 days of "overcoming" that he was fortified to carry his cross to his cruxifiction and death.


He knew what he was g(r)o (w)ing through would ultimately lead to the Light.

He had faith.

With us all walking through our "40 days of Lent," let us also, whether Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu or other, also look to this Easter Day as a day of HOPE and RENEWAL.


Let us celebrate the Light of the Lord gl (r)owing more brightly within us ALL, even as we walk through... downpour or ...desert.

Heavy rain or desert: Let it rain or be dry.

Heavy rain or desert: Let it rain or be dry.

Heavy rain or desert: Let it rain or be dry.


It all leads to our Resurrection Day!

Let's all celebrate.

Happy Easter.


Namaste',

Che'