AMC Spirituality: From Annus Horribilis to Easter

ANGELA MERICI CENTER: EASTER From Annus Horribilis to Easter

BY GINNY SCHAEFFER

We must learn to be able to think and behave like Jesus… This becomes a journey of great love and great suffering. These are the two normal and primary paths of transformation into God. —Richard Rohr

In 1992, Queen Elizabeth, speaking to the people of the British Commonwealth, described that year as her own annus horribilis or horrible year. In that one year, three of her children’s marriages, including Prince

Charles’ to Princess Diana, came to scandalous ends. Her beloved Windsor Castle was heavily damaged by fire. The cost of its repairs raised many questions about the Queen’s finances that led to the opening of Buckingham Palace, another of the Queen’s homes, to the general public as a tourist attraction. The funds raised were to be used for repairs to Windsor Castle.

We, too, have experienced our own annus horribilis. I am weary of recounting all the crises that have erupted this past year; but, as then President-elect Joe Biden reminded us on the eve of his inauguration, in order to heal, we must remember. So, here goes: • The COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 with over 28 million confirmed cases and over 500,000 deaths in the United

States alone, and became the leading cause of death in the U.S.

The death toll from COVID-19 totals more lives lost than all the

U.S. lives lost in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam

War combined. • Economic inequity: While millions lost their jobs and were

forced to sit in food lines for hours just to feed their families and faced evictions through no fault of their own, the wealth of millionaires and billionaires grew at a staggering rate. • Four hundred years of racial oppression and injustice came to a head following the killings of

Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor,

George Floyd and other people of color. The resulting protests called for an end to systemic racism and the overhauling of police tactics, with much work still to be done. • Climate crises continued to exact a toll on the environment, as well as human life, property and local, state and national economies. • Divisive politics fed by false claims of a rigged election culminated in an insurrectionist mob taking over the Capital and attempting to stop the legitimate transfer of power.

To borrow a thought from Sister Jean Anne Zappa, the shutdown last year began as we were in the middle of Lent, and it has felt like Lent ever since. Yet, here we are, turning our faces toward Easter once again. We are mindful,

perhaps even more now, that there would be no Easter without the triduum—the pain and passion of Holy Thursday and Good Friday, and the mystery of Holy Saturday.

This is not our way, though. We would only have Easter Sunday if we could. We would forgo the suffering that is part and parcel of life on this planet. We would live in an eternal spring and summer.

Sadly, this eternal spring and summer is not our reality—the miracle of Easter is that God, with our consent and cooperation, is able to take our pain, suffering

and million little deaths and bring out of it a new life, to convert our darkness into light, our despair into hope, our fear into faith, our grief into joy and our foolishness into wisdom.

To do so, we must follow the way of Jesus, even when it takes us into the “valley of the shadow of death,” into our own personal triduum.

Jesus did something amazing on the night he was betrayed, something that often goes against the grain of being human. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he poured out his heart to Abba, begging to be spared an unimaginable agony. In that prayer, Jesus refused to ignore his feelings or the unfolding situation. He invited God into his fear, despair, betrayal and grief; and God did not abandon him. Instead, God created a way (we sometimes call it grace) for Jesus to face what was coming. He did not flee into the mountains and he did not fight the temple guard when they came to arrest him. It’s as if he opened his arms and said, “Here I am.”

Life inflicts wounds, whether from a global pandemic or the addiction of a loved one, the consequences of climate crises or the diagnosis of cancer, the inhumanity of racial injustice or the dissolution of a marriage. Instead of falling back into our old patterns of avoidance, denial or numbing out, we need to follow Jesus—we must turn toward our suffering, “take up our cross,” and find ways to give the pain expression to walk through that dark valley. It is only then that we can truly experience the transformative power that is Easter.

This is not the way of the pansy or doormat, as some might think. Choosing the way to Easter requires the humility to admit when we are not in control, the courage to open our hearts and experience the gamut of emotions, the resolve to stay on the path as the going gets hard—and it will get hard—and the willingness to let go.

Of course, this would not be possible without great love. Beginning with his foundational experience of God’s unconditional love and acceptance, Jesus stayed connected with the Source of love and life. He often went off alone to pray, finding direction, a deeper understanding of God’s way, an opening of his own heart with compassion. Jesus knew, in his heart-of-hearts, that he was loved.

To experience the power of Easter, we too, must stay connected to the One who is the source of all love, to be open to and aware of any expression of that love. Only then can we take up our cross and walk through the “valley of the shadow of death” in a way that is life-giving. Only then are we able to open our hearts, even the dark places—especially the dark places—to the Lover of us all who heals, forgives and transforms.

Allowing God’s transformational grace and power to work in us and through us, brings us into a new and abundant life that is the promise of Easter. May you know it in all its fullness.

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