Lift Up Your Hearts . . .

The Lord be with you.

And also with you. What if the Lord doesn't seem anywhere close, especially after the hassle of trying to get here on time this morning?

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord. What if we don't want to lift our hearts? What if it's been a long cold winter, our savings are toast, and we're worried about the next mortgage payment?

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise. What if we don't feel thankful? What if we've heard the words "Alzheimer's" and "dementia" and "autism" too many times? What if we want some answers about why life is so cruel to such dear people?

Maybe it's the time of year, which is the late side of Lent, after all. Maybe the old tradition had the right idea, using these late winter weeks for fasting and penitence. Everyone is already feeling gloomy; we may as well drag out the sackcloth and do it right.

Before the Protestant Reformation, the entire Christian world observed the Lenten fast, that represented Jesus' 40 days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness. In addition to fasting and penitence, the faithful were also expected to increase their alms to the poor and to practice self-denial. This last was pretty much assured by the rules of the fast, which generally required abstention from all meat, eggs, butter and fats, and in some places, fish, dairy products and honey, too. Devout married couples abstained from sex, and in some places, alcohol was forbidden as well - a serious matter when most water was not safe to drink.

But all was not as grim as it appears. The six Sundays during Lent were considered mini-Easters, and therefore exempt from the fast. When special needs arose in the church - a new cathedral or such - donations to the project could be offered in lieu of the fast. Good meat and dairy products were naturally in short supply at the end of winter, so the requirements of Lent made virtue of necessity.

Then there were all those eggs going to waste. Long before the Christian era, eggs were symbols of Spring, fertility and rebirth. So it is no surprise that the Church adopted and transformed the meaning of the egg along with many other Pagan symbols (and the Pagans themselves) for Christian purposes.

One legend tells that when Mary the Mother of Christ heard of her son's arrest, she bundled brilliantly colored eggs in her apron and took them as a gift to Pilate, pleading for her son's life. When the governor gruffly dismissed her, she burst into tears and the eggs fell from her apron and rolled out to the far ends of the earth. Another legend says that as long as Pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs) are made during Lent each year, God will know that goodness still exists and will refrain from destroying the world.

One Easter egg to save the world? Why not? One gesture of kindness to erase the devastation of a war? One man's life to redeem all creation?

What does it matter if we don't feel the presence of God?

In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.
Thanks be to God.

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