Dear brothers, sisters and friends in the Assumption family,
Recently, I have read a novel entitled “The Rocking Chair Prophet” by Matthew Kelly, an internationally acclaimed author of Catholic books. The novel tells us about the life of a thirty-three-year-old man called Daniel. After a tragedy that devastated his family, he went to the mountains. A few years later, Daniel returned to his hometown bringing with him a new way of being and thinking. Hearing about his extraordinary gifts and wisdom, many people traveled from afar to meet with him. Sitting on his rocking chair, Daniel listened to their life stories and gave them advices on different topics such as love and suffering, well-being and work, education and business, ambition and depression, midlife crisis and hopes. What he said about spirituality is particularly compelling:
“It is written: ‘No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.’
Spirituality elevates our consciousness. It allows us to see life’s problems and opportunities from a completely different perspective.
Prayer, meditation, and other spiritual practices raise our consciousness. They elevate every experience to its highest state. A glass of water tastes different to someone with finely tuned spiritual awareness. The ordinary events of everyday life, like reading a book, listening to the wind in the trees, walking along a beach, or having a conversation with a friend, can all be profoundly spiritual experiences […].
It is time to stop seeking worldly solutions to spiritual problems. When was the last time you felt amazing? The moment you decide to embrace spirituality like never before, you will be closer than ever to being fully alive. Spirituality enables you to share your most consummate self with the world.” (p. 129)
With what is going on around us, we have every reason to be disappointed. As children of Fr. d’Alzon, however, we cannot live without hope and commitment. We are always, and especially during this jubilee year, invited to be pilgrims of hope. Faced with turmoil at several levels, we need to strengthen our fundamental conviction and “go wherever God is threatened in man and man threatened as image of God.” (Rule of Life, #4) If we cannot help those in need from this side of the border, go to the other side, as our brothers in El Paso did. Above all, let us make our own d’Alzon’s conviction through an act of memory: “The world needs to be penetrated through and through by a Christian idea.” By Christian idea, d’Alzon means the Gospel and the demands of God’s Kingdom. Our world will be a better place to live in if we focus more on the dignity of every singular human being. Our society will be more peaceful and fraternal if we are convinced that we are all created from the same earth, from the same ground by the same Father. The dignity of every human being and the unity of all humankind are two Christian ideas that change the world for ever. We are together in the same boat. The safety, stability and prosperity of one depend on the safety, stability and prosperity of the other and vice versa. This spiritual conviction will solve worldly problems. It will transform society from within and establish a new world order. It will lead all human beings from the darkness of selfishness, violence and death to the brightness of selflessness, tenderness and life.
The Gospel chosen for this year’s Easter Vigil is from chapter 24 of Luke. Very early in the morning when it was still a little dark, some women went to Jesus’ tomb. With amazement, they found that the stone was rolled way from the tomb and the body of Jesus was absent. In the middle of their puzzlement, two men in dazzling garments told them that the Lord had been risen. When the women heard the two men, they remembered Jesus’ words. Before understanding what the resurrection was all about, they experienced the resurrection of memory. The fact that they recalled Jesus’ teaching urged them to announce the news to the other disciples. They could not pay their last respects by embalming a dead body as they had planned to do from a material point of view. But from a spiritual standpoint something good came out of that unexpected circumstance. They became the first heralds of the risen Lord. Unlike Mark, Luke did not mention the request of the angelic men concerning the transmission of the message to the disciples. It was their memory of Jesus’ words that made the women become the first messengers of the resurrection. By an act of memory, they became apostles to the apostles.
When he heard the news, “Peter got up and ran to the tomb” (v. 12). Peter got up from where he was and especially from who he was. This was a moment of spiritual amazement for Peter. This was a moment of resurrection for him. The last time Luke mentioned Peter was when he wept bitterly after betraying Jesus who turned around and looked at him. Probably the bitterness of having betrayed the master did not cease to torment him during Jesus’ crucifixion and after his burial. Now, in the wake of the Passion, Peter runs to the tomb in the hope that he can find something other than what he was told by the women. Indeed, he sees something different. When the women entered the tomb, they noted the absence of the body. Now Peter enters the tomb, he sees the burial cloths. There is a little progress between the absence of the body (someone could remove Jesus’ body from the tomb) and the presence of the burial cloths (the body was not stolen). But still, Peter returns from the tomb, not with joy but with amazement.
With Peter, we are to recognize that faith in the risen Lord is a long journey of spirituality. The Christian faith is not acquired once and for all. This faith always remains a questioning faith. This faith is fully alive through questioning. This faith is always accompanied by amazement. This faith always puts us on the way. Good Friday has already taken place, but Easter Sunday in its divine splendor remains forever the horizon of our expectation and hope. Between the “already” of Good Friday and the “not yet” of Easter Sunday, we rejoice in the “now” of Holy Saturday, a day of questioning and amazement. It is from this day that we begin to understand the greatness of our Christian faith. It is from the joy of this day that we are urged to take care of life, of every life in its singular dignity and universal connectedness. Jesus Christ continues to endure his Passion whenever a human being suffers. He is risen from the dead to make of us a people of hope, united in faith and charity. Christ is risen! He is amazingly risen! Happy Easter to each of you, to your community, and to your family.
Fraternally,
Chi Ai Nguyen, A.A.
Provincial of the North American Province
