Easter Sunday
BY MARIE DENNIS | April 9, 2023
Today’s Readings
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Our interpretation of the sacred story will be shaped by our contemporary context—by wars and violence, climate change and poverty, racism and refugees—but also by acts of courage and kindness, generosity and love. Our understanding of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ has to make sense in this contemporary context. That is the vocation of discipleship.
I just returned from Jerusalem, where pilgrims filled the ancient Church of the Resurrection, where we saw Palestinian houses recently demolished, and many places where the Israeli Wall separated families from their land, children from their schools, people from their olive trees. The stories of heartbreak are not old stories; they are ongoing. But the Palestinian people stay. They call their steadfastness “Sumud,” a powerful expression of nonviolent resistance to deep injustice, a way of life that is both personal and communal.
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!
This is the day when we see the power of life over death, of nonviolence over violence, of good over evil, of love.
This is the day when just peace replaces occupation, when the yearning of all people for dignity and voice is realized.
This is the day when the healing of the nations and of the earth begins.
As Jesus moved toward Jerusalem, deliberately engaging the powers and principalities of first century Palestine, he was building the beloved community to nurture the seeds of life and hope after he was gone. Fear and hatred stalked him all the way until, finally, betrayal, abandonment, torture, death—evil prevailed. But it did not have the last word.
Today, all we can do is stand in awe before the fact of the Resurrection and the hope it carries.
For Reflection:
- What acts of courage, kindness, generosity, and love move you to awe and hope?
- What is being Resurrected in your life, your work, or your community?
Marie Dennis is chair of Pax Christi’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. She was co-president of Pax Christi International from 2007 to 2019 and is a Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace. In 2022 she received the Robert M. Holstein Faith Doing Justice Award from the Ignatian Solidarity Network and the Peter Hinde Peace Award from CRISPAZ. Marie worked for the Maryknoll Missioners for 23 years, including 15 years as director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns. She is author or co-author of seven books, editor of Choosing Peace: The Catholic Church Returns to Gospel Nonviolence (Orbis Books, 2017) and co-editor of Advancing Nonviolence in the Church and the World (Pax Christi International 2020).
Non-violence is the Way. He is Risen. Alleluia. Praise the Lord. Happy Easter.
Thank you for your beautiful reflection. A blessed Easter to you.
Thank you for this Lenten reflection journey. I have been moved by many of the questions and comments during this Lent, when we have come together through this community.
Happy Easter and Easter season! We are an Easter people!
We all long for peace.
It was heartening to see the solidarity of the Arab nations for support for the Palestinian people in the world cup in Qatar.
There is always another war to proclaim the atrocities thereof and detract our eyes away from what the Israelis have and continue to do to the Palestinians today in an ever more violent and brutal way.
I admire those who have the strength to resist without violence and continue to pray for peace in the midst of war.