There are no eggs in this post. However you will find a feast of images, text and music that I am mulling on during the great season of Easter. This is a post that will be added to and developed as we explore the themes, the stories and the mystery of this celebration.
On Easter Sunday my Facebook feed included this beautiful set of images of the L’Arche Community in Syria:
فإن كنت وانا السيد والمعلم قد غسلت ارجلكم ، فأنتم يجب عليكم أن يغسل بعضكم أرجل بعض . يوحنا 13:14 غسيل الأرجل في السفي…
Posted by Alsafina – L’Arche Syria on Saturday, 26 March 2016
Image above: Mikhail Nesterov “The Empty Tomb,” 1889
Eastertide Reflection (Mk 15:40-16:2): The Women’s Witness of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection by Ched Myers
Welcome to Easter Monday, one of the strangest public holidays we claim in the land of the long weekend. In fact Tasmania even gets to have a holiday tomorrow for Easter Tuesday.
It doesn’t quite have the feel of Boxing Day with the sales and family BBQs. There are no Myer windows to watch a diorama. In fact whereas Christmas has a bit of cuteness with the Bethlehem creche., Easter is a bit hard to market with the image of an empty tomb. The Myer window in Brisbane that usually hosts a Nativity setting is plastered with an Easter sales poster this week.
Even the music is muted. Bing Crosby put “White Christmas” into the standard repertoire for December but his rendition of Irving Berlin’s Easter Parade is now just a curiosity. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir have outviewed him with their rousing rendition of Christ the Lord is Risen Today, but you won’t hear it at your local shopping centre.
The eggs and chocolates will be half priced today and will drop off the shelves by the end of the week to make way for the next eye catching marketing ploy for our holy dollar. Pity really that those advertising gurus don’t realise that there are 50 days of Easter and a pretty sizable market of Greeks, Russians,Serbs and assorted Orthodox will be doing it all over gain on May 1 without the advantage of aisles of edible bunnies.
So, the challenge is to baffle friends by wishing them a “Happy Easter” over the next 49 days as you catch up at the footy, the pub and the supermarket. You can really cause chaos by wishing the staff at checkouts a “Happy Easter’ as they have probably been re wired to chant “Have a nice day” for the rest of the year.
Today’s reading: The Challenge of Easter James Martin SJ The Wall Street Journal
Tony Robertson Social Media Highlights 