Celebrating Easter (for those of us who didn’t get it)

Have you ever been betrayed?

Have you ever suffered? Felt anguished, tortured, forsaken?

Me too. We try to figure it out, don’t we? Understand what’s the point, why go on when it’s so clearly hopeless?

I grew up in the Episcopalian Church. I loved going to church, watching the priests in their beautiful vestments, immersing myself in the splendor of the high ceilings and stained glass. But as much as I strained to understand, I never could figure out what the heck they were talking about. I went to my confirmation classes, tried reading the prayers and listening to the services, but what I heard was something like, “And Jesus said to the Apostles, ‘A-hooonah treelala fortokodia profala.'” Easter was a time of jelly bean hunts, bonnets, and extra pageantry at church, but had no actual meaning for me. I never got it.

But I know Jesus was a great teacher. I believe David Hawkins when he calibrated Jesus as coming onto our planet at the highest level of consciousness possible for a human being (1000, for you Power vs. Force aficionados, while the rest of humanity existed at a 100). So I’ve continued to puzzle over the symbolism of Jesus dying on the cross. Finally–with the help of the ideas of modern mystics Osho and Adyanshanti–I’m finally understanding that this Easter season has something to tell me, a message that I find comforting and inspiring. Since it’s so new to me, I thought I’d pass a bit of it along.

What if–Judas’ betrayal is what we all experience, at some time or another?

What if–Jesus’ humiliation by the soldiers speaks to us all of what it’s like to be spat upon, excoriated for who we are and what we believe?

And what if Jesus’ time on the cross shows us the extreme of suffering, but also inspires us all to simply be with what is happening?

As Jesus finally looks to God and wonders why he has been forsaken, isn’t that what we all feel at some time, that there is no one and nothing that can help us?

I now see the death and resurrection as what we all must go through if we are to truly let go of the prison of the ego (and Reactive Brain) and open to the new possibility of allowing our lives to be directed by spirit (and Creative Brain). For those of you who have walked through your own dark night of the soul, you recognize the ultimate lesson, don’t you? That you must give up your old ways of seeing the world and surrender to something you never knew before?

My mother loved singing the Easter hymn”Alleluia.” Hearing her alto voice booming out, “Ah-ah-ah-ah-le-aa-uuuia” anchored me into the whole Easter celebration. So I send out an Alleluia to Bejay, wherever she is.  And I feel happy to celebrate this season that sanctifies the human condition, that walks us through the darkness and inspires us to a new life in the light.  And I celebrate with you–life’s darkness, life’s suffering, and the renewal and resurrection of true connection to spirit.