17Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new.
(II Corinthians 5.17, CEV)
A colony of grubs is living on the bottom of a swamp. Once in a while one of the grubs feels an urge to climb a stem to the surface. The grub does so and never returns.
All the grubs wonder what happens to the grubs that disappear above the surface. They agree that the next to go to the surface is to return with a report.
Not long afterward another grub feels an urge, climbs a stem, goes above the surface, and sits on a lily pad. The grub enjoys the sunshine and, soon, falls asleep.
During sleep, the outer carapace of the grub breaks open. Out comes a beautiful dragonfly. He spreads glorious wings and soars into the sky.
After enjoying flying for a time, he recalls his agreement to return to the colony. Yet, he knows he cannot return. They would not even recognize him. Likewise, he realizes going back under the water would kill him, for he has now been transformed to live only above the water.
At first, the thought of not being able to return distresses the dragonfly, for he wants much for all his family and friends to know the joy of being a dragonfly. Then, he is comforted with the thought that they, each, will someday feel the urge and climb to the surface. They, too, will realize, each in his own time, their innate destiny to know the majesty of the sky.
Easter speaks of our sensing the inner call to a New Life, which is part of our longing to die to our old life. We each hear this call in different ways, and our ways to it are different. However, our common longing is to this New Life. And, once we become a new being with this New Life, we know we will never be the same again. We know that we cannot ever go back, even though we might appear to for a time. We, intuitively, come to accept that regardless of our efforts at sharing this New Life, each person must sense the inner summons and follow it. We cannot give this transformation to someone else, regardless of our love for that person. Our enjoyment of this Life, indeed, may be tempered by our compassion for persons we know who are living apart from the Grace we have come to know. We learn, nevertheless, that our greatest influence on others becomes our example of this New Life and the way it continues to lead us to deeper expressions of love, joy, and peace.
Easter, for us now, is our Eastering, or our being Eastered, in ongoing transformation into the ever-unfolding mysteries, glories, and beauties of the Resurrection Life. Easter is the eternal impartation of New Life, a giving from the Heart of Life Itself, a Self-Oblation of our Common Source, for from the Being of God we share in the Life of God.
|
