Steve Frey
This week is one of the most solemn of the year, and tomorrow is the holiest day of the Christian calendar—Easter Sunday. Tomorrow, Christian churches throughout the New River Valley will celebrate the Risen Christ.
Sunrise services, hymns of celebration and churches filled with the faithful in their Easter finery will be familiar sights throughout the area. Like those sunrise services, there will be the sense of a new day, of new beginnings.
It is a time of renewal.
The warmer weather and transformation from the darkness of the long, dreary winter to the rebirth and sunshine of springtime has lightened hearts. The world seems filled with a sense of possibility.
Just as Jesus’s followers experienced the depths of despair on Good Friday and the later exultation of Easter Sunday, we all have the chance to view life with new vision.
Easter is about more than the clothes and the brunches, the painted eggs and the candy, or joyful hymns of celebration and that sunrise service. Yes, it is certainly about sacrifice and redemption, but it is also about awakening to all of the Good News that is sometimes neglected in the aftermath of the holy day.
Just as spring brings a sense of vibrancy and rejuvenation to our spirits, Easter can bring renewal to our souls.
It is a time to put aside the fear of the stranger, the foreigner, or those who are different in any way and remember the compassion of the Good Samaritan.
It is a new opportunity for all of us to reinforce values like honesty and justice and the fact that truth shall set us free.
We can choose between chastising and forgiving those who have learned life’s painful lessons, as with the Prodigal Son.
It is the chance to discard self-righteousness and judgment, and, when confronted with the awareness of “he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone” drop ours.
Instead of choosing the first place at the table and reveling in power or control, we can humbly be the last, recognizing the grace of humility.
Yes, it is the opportunity to be the one leper who returns to share his thanks. Or the woman who gives what she has to help the poor. Or to be the one who remembers the sick, the cold, the hungry or the prisoner and decides to do something to help “the least of these” brothers and sisters.
It is a new chance to love one another and to do unto others that which we would wish for ourselves; something that seems so simple but is sometimes simply forgotten.
By tomorrow night, the sights, sounds and emotions of another glorious Easter will begin to fade, but our sense of renewal could be just beginning. Our opportunity to put into practice the important lessons we have been taught in church, synagogue, mosque, temple and elsewhere are always there for us to reference.
There is a connection between the words that are spoken in a place of worship and our actions once we leave the sanctuary. Too often, obligation or custom motivates our relationship with the church rather than the people sitting around us, the people we meet in our community or even people on the other side of the world.
Religious creed isn’t about the rituals and traditions of services alone; it is also about relationships. The world can be challenging for all of us in one way or another, but by thinking and acting upon the needs of others, we have the opportunity to reduce some of that difficulty and those hardships. By caring for others, we make the world a better place for everyone.
Loving our neighbor is a universal lesson, but instead of following up with action, we often get caught up in the who, what, when, where, why, and how of doing. Let’s simplify: Who—everyone; what—that which is needed; when—now; where—everywhere; why—because we are guided by love, kindness and compassion; how—by finding a way.
Hopefully, tomorrow we will awaken to a greater understanding that we have the opportunity to alleviate suffering near and far. We have the chance, through our words and actions, to raise up others.
Yes, this is a time of new beginnings, and all we have to do is walk out from the darkness and into the light—together.
Steve Frey is a writer and CEO of Ascendant Educational Services based in Radford.
