Dear Ones of St. Columba's,

How are you feeling about Easter, now that Easter Sunday has passed? Perhaps you are still on a high, feeling grateful for the ways in which we were able to keep the feast together and the promise of more to come? Or maybe you feel a let down. The big day has passed and now what? 

I know how you feel. I often feel a bit of an emotional let down the week after Easter - all the work and emotional energy that gets put into Holy Week and the Easter celebrations and then what? 

Well, actually then we have more Easter. It always takes me a moment to remember that Easter keeps going, even after Easter Sunday has ended. In our church calendar Easter lasts for seven Sundays and all the days in between the Sundays are considered Easter, too. Easter is a season, not just a day. 

Does that sound exciting to you, or exhausting? On the one hand, we get to focus on and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus for weeks on end!! On the other hand, there is just no way we could maintain the level of excitement, celebration, and emotion we build up to on Easter Sunday for weeks on end, is there? 

This is why it is important to me, each year, to remember that Easter is more than one thing. 

Easter is celebration and hope, yes! But Easter is also change, transition, and at least a little heartache. Remember that for the human beings who knew and loved Jesus during his life, his resurrection was frightening and confusing. And, in the end, they still lost the friend they had known and loved. Jesus did not travel much further with them in the flesh - he ascended and their relationships with him were still forever changed. So, if you feel uncertain, or even afraid, during this season that is okay. You are keeping Easter in a time honored way, alongside the disciples and friends who were there when it happened. 

Sadness is also a valid way to keep Easter close, as we make our way through the season. Remember that the people who experienced the days after Jesus' resurrection when it happened had just been through the trauma of his death. They saw their friend not just resurrected, but scarred by what he had been through. We will hear Thomas, this Sunday, invited by Jesus to touch the scars in his hands and side. Jesus was scarred. Easter is about healing from trauma, not erasing it. 

So friends as we continue the journey through the Easter season together, I hope you will also continue to be kind to yourself and open to whatever emotions you are experiencing. Easter is big enough to hold every feeling we have about it, in it, and through it. There is no wrong way to feel as we walk the path of Resurrection together. The important this is to feel the feelings that are within you, and to know that because of the mystery of Easter, Jesus is with us in all the feelings and walks beside us in every season, Easter and beyond.

With care and gratitude,

Alissa