The Living Tradition

I need to call it out – I am not in favour of the hot cross bun variations.  Salted caramel, apple cinnamon, chocolate, sour cherry!  Why mix with a tried-and-true tradition?  I was pondering this as I was shopping for the Easter celebrations.

As with many Catholics, the Easter world in which I have been formed is full of tradition.  It was never a going away time for our family – our traditions were home traditions.  A pilgrimage, of sorts, to the liturgies.  A family gathering on Easter Sunday.  I remember in my first year at university being surprised that not everyone was rushing home for Holy Thursday Mass!

The liturgical traditions shape Easter for many of us.  And once again, throughout these memory days, people of faith reached back through history to listen anew to the ancestral stories.  Of water and washing feet.  Of venerating the Cross in the solemnity of Good Friday.  The light of the Paschal candle gradually filling a darkened church.  The empty tomb.  The water of blessing.

And through it all, we placed our 2023 lives into conversation with this ancient story.  A story about a life of healing, teaching and preaching – the effects of which led to deep suffering, abandonment and death.  And then the perplexing event of the resurrection.  We may wonder how did Jesus come back to life?  And, perhaps more importantly, we may wonder why did God raise Jesus to life?

It is a story that has one constant – it is threaded with the presence of God.  The God of the living and the dead.  The God of dis-ease and ease.  The God who journeyed with the Israelites from wilderness to a land of milk and honey.  The God who surprises us all with new life.  The God who is with us.

And this is what I have been pondering over this Easter period – what now?  Because our lives are not static our ‘traditions’ cannot be either.  Through our experiences, reflection, and action we bring this sacred resurrection tradition to life.  In a 1983 speech American scholar Jaroslav Pelikan noted ‘Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.’  And as I thought about all the people who attended religious services over Easter, I was struck by how people of all faiths endeavour to be bearers of the living faith of their ancestors.  This is the great task we have as the next in a long line of believers – how do we live the inheritance of this precious faith?  How do we invite people into this world of the God of the impossible?

It is not an easy task and we will be witnesses to the challenges that beset even the earliest followers of Jesus.  There will be struggles with inclusion, with recognition, with grief, with persecution, with bringing people to belief.  About how God was revealed to them through Jesus.

Pope Francis describes Christ’s resurrection in this way: ‘not an event of the past; it contains a vital power which has permeated this world.  Where all seems to be dead, signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up.  It is an irresistible force.’ (Evangelii Gaudium n. 276).  The law of physics reminds us that an irresistible force cannot be forced or controlled.  In the world of faith the work of the Holy Spirit bears witness to this!

Perhaps this is what Easter prompts in us – a reminder to open our eyes to the signs of the new life upon which we can build.  To remind us that the stones of discontent, sorrow and disappointment can be rolled away.  To remember that light always illuminates darkness.  That when the time is right there is always resurrection – of a hope, a dream, a longing fulfilled.  That the hope that God brings is an irresistible force – and nothing, nothing in all of creation can separate us from this loving God.

So let us celebrate this living Tradition!

And those hot cross buns – well maybe the variations aren’t such a bad idea after all!

Easter blessings to all in our community.

By Cathy Jenkins