We will be hosting a physically distanced meeting – with an option to zoom – on this Wednesday, May 27 at 7:00pm. If you are interested in joining us, please send an e-mail to ancientstreams10@gmail.com please also indicate whether you wish to attend in person or via zoom, and we will give you the physical location of the meeting or the necessary link and instructions to log on and be a part of this time of connection.
Easter Season – Paschal Mystery
For our May and June Ancient Streams monthly meetings we will be looking at the process of transformation we go through as we are being conformed to the likeness of Christ. This process, known as the “paschal mystery” describes the profound mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb. Through His death and resurrection, a way has been opened up for us to experience loss and death, not as an ending, but as a doorway into new life.
As the first followers of Jesus, the disciples experienced this process. They went through all the horror and trauma of watching Jesus crucified on Good Friday. They witnessed the finality of his death and felt the pain and loss of all that they had hoped for. However, on Easter morning the tomb was discovered to be empty, and Jesus appeared to the women and later in the day to several others. By evening of that first day of the week, Jesus appeared to the group of them that were gathered together behind locked doors. Can you imagine their overwhelming joy at seeing Jesus in the flesh right there before them? The intensity of those past three or four days must have been completely overwhelming. Their very hearts and minds had tasted cruel death, and then they were astounded by His resurrection!
The disciples were living in the midst of and witnessing first hand the paschal mystery of Christ. The interesting thing as we follow their story, is that this mystery is in reality a process. It’s not just Good Friday and a quick Easter three days later, and they understand it all. We read in the gospels how it took a season of time and many appearances of Jesus for them to start to grasp what was happening. They went through weeks of adjusting to this new reality. I wonder what it was like. Did a painful memory of Jesus on the cross come back to them, causing them to cry, “No. It’s impossible. I saw him there limp and dead in Nicodemus’ arms!” Then he would appear again, and joy would flood through them. Back and forth for many weeks, their minds were slowly adjusting to the truth of his resurrection and a whole new reality.
Eventually they had done enough adjusting and readjusting that their minds and hearts were ready for a fuller letting go of their expectations and hopes for what following Jesus was all about. They were finally ready to let go of their hope of Jesus living on the earth in the flesh as a man, bringing about a political reign. God had moved them along sufficiently so that Jesus could lead them once again to the Mount of Olives area–the same area where this paschal mystery had begun in the garden. Would they ever pass that area without reliving the memories of hearing him crying out, surrendering his will to the Father’s will? Now, 40 days after his resurrection he led them to that general area again. However, this time it was they who would release their wills and submit themselves to God’s way as they received his blessing and watched him ascend up into heaven and disappear into the clouds. Luke concludes his account of the Ascension, “Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” They were undergoing a profound transformation.
What about us, as followers of Jesus Christ all these many years later? How do we undergo this process of transformation? What do our “dyings and risings” look like as we seek to follow our Passover Lamb? We all experience loss, disillusionment and confusion in our journey of following Jesus Christ and seeking His kingdom in our lives, but do we embrace the paschal mystery inherent in each loss? Do we even recognize that we are in a crucial process that is conforming us to Christ’s life and character? For the next two meetings we will be considering these questions with the help of Ronald Rolheiser’s understanding of the paschal mystery in his book, Holy Longing. He writes, “The paschal mystery is the secret to life. Our happiness depends on our properly understanding it…Ultimately our happiness, peace and maturity depend on our appropriating this mystery into our lives.” Join us as we explore these questions and seek to “appropriate this mystery into our lives” that we may more completely follow our Lord and Saviour.
Ancient Streams 