Tag Archives: Easter

Religious Art

“Risen” and the Joy of Being Christian

Leave a comment

Although last Sunday was the 2nd Sunday of Lent, still a long way off from Holy Week, I had two experiences of Easter joy, one at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan and the other at the Showcase Cinema in Yonkers.

Family Time in the Cathedral

The experience at the Cathedral was the Rite of Calling for the candidates preparing to be received into the Catholic Church this Easter. Several hundred candidates from all over New York City went to be presented to the Cardinal and to be ceremonially called by him to deepen in their conversion in these last weeks before their acceptance into the Church.

We were all expecting a simple ritual in which the candidates would stand in their spots when their parishes were announced, but they ended up doing something different this year: every single candidate and his sponsor were actually invited up into the sanctuary to be with Cardinal Dolan. Since there were several hundred candidates, it took well over twenty minutes for everyone to get into the sanctuary, but no one seemed to care. Everyone seemed to be thrilled to have the opportunity to be close to Cardinal, and the gesture of allowing the candidates into the sanctuary was a nice symbolic anticipation of their upcoming entrance into the family of the Church.

The Cardinal characteristically enjoyed the opportunity to be close to his flock. At one point, he took a little infant named Elizabeth into his arms and held her for a few minutes explaining to her what was going on, “See all of these people, Elizabeth? They’re coming into the Church!” Later on, he let two boys hold his crosier and then he had them wait until the end of the ceremony to process out with him. He shook hands and patted folks on the back – you could tell that he was enjoying himself and that the people were equally thrilled to be with him.

The whole experience was familial and joyful, and the candidates were very excited and energized. They left realizing that they are coming into a big Christian family this Easter, one that goes beyond the boundaries of their parishes. Cardinal Dolan, the spiritual father and shepherd of this Catholic family of New York City, had welcomed them with warm words and beaming happiness that communicated to them the joy of Christ and his Church.

For me too, it was encouraging to see so many people so excited about entering into the Church. I think sometimes I take for granted how beautiful it is to be a Christian, but seeing those candidates so enthusiastic about their new faith renewed my own appreciation for it.

Risen

Later that evening, I joined other New York seminarians to watch Risen at a local theater. There too, as I watched the artistic re-telling of the Resurrection, I felt anew the joy of being Christian. The movie follows the fictional story of a Roman tribune named Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) who is charged with the task of finding the body of Jesus. The most powerful parts of the film  were the moments in which we were given imaginative glimpses of the Easter joy the apostles. Easter is something that we can take for granted, and we often forget how intensely emotional and exciting it must have been for them to see the risen Christ. The movie does a good job at helping us imagine what it must have been like.

Risen draws the viewer into the Easter experience through the character of Clavius who goes through his own spiritual journey as he reconciles the fact that the very man he helped kill on the Cross is somehow still alive.  Make sure you see it sometime before Easter, and let yourself be drawn into the story. Good works of art allow the viewer to vicariously experience a reality otherwise imposible to have. Risen will allow you experience the shock, joy, amazement, and love that the Twelve must have experienced when they saw the Risen One.

I returned to the rectory on Sunday night filled with new energy and eagerness to continue my preparation for priestly ministry. Both the experiences at the Cathedral and the cinema refreshed in me the joy of being Christian. God used both events to remind me of that amazing Easter mystery that happened 2,000 years ago but even today continues to inspire great personal conversions and artistic retellings, as it will continue to do until He comes again.

Eternity

“Unbearable Beauty”: Your Upcoming Resurrection

1 Comment

20140417-161738.jpgHappy Easter, everyone! As we celebrate our Lord’s victory over Death, I would like to  share a post that I wrote and published a year ago during a difficult time: my mother was dying of cancer, and as I aided her in her final weeks, I was struggling to keep strong my own hope in the Resurrection in the face of her imminent death. 

The thoughts that I share below came to me in prayer as I asked God to strengthen me and prepare me for what was about to happen.  I found great consolation in knowing that my mother was about to experience her own resurrection, which our Lord granted her two weeks into the Easter Season.

In his book The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis recounts a fictional visit to heaven. During his tour of paradise, he encounters numerous holy men and women, but one in particular leaves a deep impression. He meets a spectacularly clothed woman and is absolutely entranced by “the unbearable beauty of her face.” Impressed by her appearance and by the large entourage of angels and saints who accompany her, Lewis asks his guide if she had been a woman of particular importance on earth. It turns out that by worldly standards she was just a simple old lady named Sarah Smith. But the guide goes on to explain that “fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.”

Sarah Smith may not have been a celebrity, but she spent her life doing good for others – she spent her life loving: “Every young man or boy that met her became her son – even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter.” Sarah was a mother to everyone, and in heaven she is accompanied by a procession of her spiritual children. She is even joined by the animals who benefitted from her generous heart: “Every beast and bird that came near her had a place in her love…Now the abundance of life that she has in Christ from the Father flows over into them.”

20140417-161754.jpgRecently, we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus, an event that is so huge that we do not limit our celebration to Easter Sunday. Throughout the Easter Season, which will continue until the Feast of Pentecost, we commemorate and celebrate Christ’s definitive victory over death.

How important it is to remember that in celebrating Our Lord’s Resurrection we are celebrating our own! As baptized Christians, we have a share in Christ’s new life and it is only a matter of time before we are in heaven with our own resurrected bodies. In 1st Corinthians 15, Paul reflects on the beauty of the resurrected body:

It [the natural body] is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

Our future resurrections give us a special dignity, on which C.S. Lewis offers an interesting reflection:

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal…It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.

20140417-161728.jpgThe character of Sarah Smith is a symbol of “the risen body of maternal love.” If motherly love is so beautiful on earth, we can only imagine how it will be manifested in heaven! But not just mothers – anyone who truly loves during his time on earth will be rewarded with a risen body, the ultimate fruit of his love. The beauty of your love on earth will flow into your resurrected body, and since God is never outdone in generosity, don’t be surprised if your resurrected body is one of “unbearable beauty.”

Eternity

“Unbearable Beauty”: Your Upcoming Resurrection

Image 6 Comments

20140417-161738.jpgIn his book, The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis recounts a fictional visit to heaven. During his tour of paradise, he encounters numerous holy men and women, but one in particular leaves a deep impression. He meets a spectacularly clothed woman and is absolutely entranced by “the unbearable beauty of her face.” Impressed by her appearance and by the large entourage of angels and saints who accompany her, Lewis asks his guide if she had been a woman of particular importance on earth. It turns out that by worldly standards she was just a simple old lady named Sarah Smith. But the guide goes on to explain that “fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.”

Sarah Smith may not have been a celebrity, but she spent her life doing good for others – she spent her life loving: “Every young man or boy that met her became her son – even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter.” Sarah was a mother to everyone, and in heaven she is accompanied by a procession of her spiritual children. She is even joined by the animals who benefitted from her generous heart: “Every beast and bird that came near her had a place in her love…Now the abundance of life that she has in Christ from the Father flows over into them.”

20140417-161754.jpgOn Sunday, we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus, an event that is so huge that we do not limit our celebration to Easter Sunday. Throughout the Easter Season, which will continue until the feast of Pentecost, we commemorate and celebrate Christ’s definitive victory over death.

How important it is to remember that in celebrating Our Lord’s Resurrection we are celebrating our own! As baptized Christians, we have a share in Christ’s new life and it is only a matter of time before we are in heaven with our own resurrected bodies. In 1st Corinthians 15, Paul reflects on the beauty of the resurrected body:

“It [the natural body] is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”

Our future resurrections give us a special dignity, on which C.S. Lewis offers an interesting reflection:

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal…It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.”

20140417-161728.jpgThe character of Sarah Smith is a symbol of “the risen body of maternal love.” If motherly love is so beautiful on earth, we can only imagine how it will be manifested in heaven! But not just mothers – anyone who truly loves during his time on earth will be rewarded with a risen body, the ultimate fruit of his love. The beauty of your love on earth will flow into your resurrected body, and since God is never outdone in generosity,  your resurrected body will be one of “unbearable beauty.”