It’s been a busy week of bad news. It happens sometimes. A friend texted to say she’s a bit overwhelmed by all the things happening at once. Fair enough.
But it’s Holy Week, and somehow that makes it more jarring. Or, somehow, it makes it more fitting. If ever we needed good news, it’s now, and we’re headed for it on Sunday morning. No circumstance of this day or any day will keep it from happening.
Easter will dawn. Jesus Christ is risen. He’s risen indeed.
And, as hard as that may be for our postmodern ears to hear, it’s the truth, and it’s not some idle, speculative, philosophical, theological, epistemological truth. It’s truth, personally and practically, for me and for you, because it’s not only truth. Truth is a means to an end. Faith, hope, and love abide. Truth is for the sake of faith, and of hope, and of love. It’s about God’s love in Jesus Christ, and we need it.
I’ve been reminding people, right and left, of that image we keep seeing of the empty cross over the rubble inside Notre Dame cathedral. “The cross rises above it all,” I keep texting and typing and saying. Yes. And yes, and yes.
To the tired, to the frightened, to the sick, to the grieving, to the wounded, to the aching, to the confused, to the unbeliever and believer alike: Gethsemane will happen, and so will Calvary. A week of bad news happened then too. But a dawn is promised, and an empty tomb. And all really shall be well.
