Christ's rising can inspire healing ways

Peter "bent down and saw the grave cloths but nothing else," (Luke 24:12).

And so the empty tomb became a symbol for the spiritual healing and reconciliation of humankind with their Creator; the thoroughfare through which we can come forward from our own tombs of self-righteous ways and broken relationships with God and our neighbor into the eternal light and peace promised by Christ to His followers.

"My favor will shine on you like the morning sun, and your wounds will be quickly healed" (Isaiah 58: 8).

In the Risen Christ, we will find our solace, our peace and our healing. This past year has been rife with wounds in need of healing: the victims of sexual abuse, the conflicts in Iraq and the near East, the terrorist attacks in Spain and elsewhere, and the attacks on the reputations of the Church's leaders.

The spirit of the people of our Diocese and the very soul of our world are surely in need of a cure that can be accomplished only within the heart of each individual.

Healing and peace often come in the form of a kindness shown to someone who has inflicted hurt or through the softening of a hardened heart by an honest approach to understanding.

The people who reflect the healing aspect of the divine bring the "quality of mercy that droppeth as a gentle rain" upon wounded hearts in need of spring's new life. We can create a new heaven and a new earth by being healing witnesses to the miracle of God's transforming love in our world, which Christ's Passover from death to life has made possible.

As we celebrate again the glorious resurrection of Our Savior, let us bring His message of peace and healing into our everyday lives. We can mirror His unconditional love in our life situations and, like the prophet Hosea, "be to the people like rain in a dry land" (Hosea: 14:5), from which will spring the healing and peace that surpasses our human understanding.

We, too, can rise and empty our tombs of all that defiles the beauty that Christ's sacrifice has brought to our human condition.

May this Paschal Season be rich in the "gentle rain" that brings forth the best in us, anointing our troubled and wounded world with the balm of Christ's Paschal sacrifice.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Howard J. Hubbard
Bishop of Albany

(4/8/04) [[In-content Ad]]