We Are an Easter People
~ Lucy Schultz, Cincinnati, Ohio
In the 4th century, St. Augustine of Hippo preached to his congregants that they were an "Easter people.” Bishop David Kagan, prelate of the Bismarck, North Dakota diocese since 2011, believed that what Augustine meant when he called his parishioners "Easter People" is that Easter makes a difference in our lives, that our faith in “Jesus crucified and risen means that we must imitate Jesus in our ordinary lives by the ways we speak, think, and act."
A powerful idea, that "Easter" is not for a day or even for a season; rather, it calls us to discipleship as Easter people who help our neighbors belong and feel cherished.
We live in a troubled world where thousands of innocent people in the Middle East are losing their lives, where homes are destroyed in seconds, where B-52 bombers and killer drones are readily visible in the skies. And our relationships with European nations are strained.
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In Cherished Belonging, a recent book by Greg Boyle, SJ, he argues that to live as whole persons, whatever our life circumstances, each of us needs to be cherished and to belong. Boyle’s work is with unhoused women and men; many of them come from violent or abusive homes and are active members of gangs. Many are former prisoners or still in prison. Father Boyle helps them start over--with personal and social education; with job-training; with recognizing their essential goodness, perhaps for the first time.
You and I probably cannot rebuild a home from the rubble, probably can’t help heal the victims of war. But we might recognize a woman in our parish who wishes she had someone to sit with at liturgy; a veteran, a recent widower, who can’t get used to eating dinner alone; a child who doesn’t like school because he can’t read as well as the other children can.
Perhaps each of us can be an Easter person who helps one neighbor, one sister or brother, to belong and feel cherished.
In Cherished Belonging, a recent book by Greg Boyle, SJ, he argues that to live as whole persons, whatever our life circumstances, each of us needs to be cherished and to belong. Boyle’s work is with unhoused women and men; many of them come from violent or abusive homes and are active members of gangs. Many are former prisoners or still in prison. Father Boyle helps them start over--with personal and social education; with job-training; with recognizing their essential goodness, perhaps for the first time.
You and I probably cannot rebuild a home from the rubble, probably can’t help heal the victims of war. But we might recognize a woman in our parish who wishes she had someone to sit with at liturgy; a veteran, a recent widower, who can’t get used to eating dinner alone; a child who doesn’t like school because he can’t read as well as the other children can.
Perhaps each of us can be an Easter person who helps one neighbor, one sister or brother, to belong and feel cherished.