Daily Office Reflection: He Is Up And Around

Psalms 93, 98 * 66; Jonah 2:1-9; Acts 2:14, 22-32; John 14:1-14

OR

for St. Mark's Day: MP: Psalm 145; Ecclesiasticus 2:1-11; Acts 12:25-13:3; EP: Psalms 67, 96; Isaiah 62:6-12; 2 Tim 4:-11

Yesterday (and actually the last three days) have been very busy ones for Church-goers, Church-volunteers, and those who derive their livelihood from laboring for the Church. The Monday in Easter Week is always a bit of a let-down. The excitement and the glory and the majesty of these last three days (and really all of Palm Sunday and Holy Week) is now behind us and there can be, not only exhaustion, but a feeling of "what now" pervading our thoughts. There should be, also, a "job well-done" feeling in the mix, but that sense of let-down can pervade.

This sense to which I refer is like the one we experience when planning for and then living through a big life-event: like a wedding celebration. The day after there is this sense of, well what now. I have always found, not only the Monday of Easter Week but, all of the Easter Season has this sense about it. I think part of that is caused by the Jesus who was fully human and fully divine, has proven the divine part by rising yesterday morning, truly marking him as different from us. That human side that I find so enticing now takes a back seat, and the divine takes precedence, as it should. But that pecking order of Jesus' nature, even with him up and around and among his disciples, still leaves me yearning for that which was before, that fully human side, that felt (and feels) all that we go through. I know that understanding of us is still true, but, at least for me, there is a sense of loss as the divine takes its rightful place. Perhaps that is just the melancholy side of my personality yearning for the past, as opposed to simply accepting the greatness that was, and moving on to the beauty and majesty of what will come.

Christ is up and around today, always with us. That fully human and fully divine person proves that distinction that makes him our Christ by being up and around. We are called to be up and around with him, ever moving forward toward that which is to come.

jfd+

Copyright 2011, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Photo: The Happy 90s, jfd+, 2011