Mountain Moments
Read Time: 4.5 – 5 Minutes
At this time of year when the seasons change, winter is over, and after a couple of false starts, spring has arrived and summer is on the horizon. So it is with the Church seasons.
We have gone from the darkness of Lent to the light and joy of the Easter season.
The contrast between Lent and Easter is so great, it is almost difficult to handle. During the Octave of Easter we are in joy-filled shock because Jesus has risen. We are surrounded by beautiful singing and beautiful flowers. During this week we are instructed not to fast or abstain from meat on Easter Friday because this is such a joy filled time that fasting and abstinence are not appropriate behaviours. Wow! (I only discovered this after watching a presentation on Formed.)
To help us reflect on our journey through the Church seasons from Lent to Pentecost, we have been given a beautiful visual from the parish called “Mountain Moments.” I picked a copy up from the back of the Church and was so impressed.
The Mountain Moments are illustrated as Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Ascension Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi and stretch from March 2nd to June 15th.
Our Parish theme for the year is “Walk with me” and so far this year, walking together as a parish, we have experienced five Mountain Moments on our journey from the Ashes to the fires of Pentecost and beyond. It was a struggle to climb the Ash Wednesday Mountain, but with persistence and company we got to Palm Sunday. Then Holy Thursday, where we were reminded about being servants to each other, and through the darkness and sorrow of Good Friday until at last we arrived at the joys of Easter and the risen Lord.
If Easter morning was a Mountain Moment for us, how much greater it must have been for the three women who went to the tomb early on Easter morning with their embalming spices. When they arrived they found the stone rolled away from the cave. They couldn’t figure out what had happened. They thought maybe someone had been there before them. Then they saw the angel and they were afraid, but the angel reassured them. He explained that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead and the women were told to go and tell Peter and the other disciples. They were amazed, the first to know that Jesus had risen. What a Mountain Moment for them!
So now we as a parish, walking together, continue our joyful journey through the Easter Season for fifty more days, passing through the Mountain Moment of Ascension Sunday and arriving at last at the end of the Easter season, Pentecost.
We are so blessed to be able to freely journey together as a parish, when others are not. I am thinking this Easter in particular of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. How almost impossible it seems for them to celebrate Mountain Moments!
And yet, in spite of bombardment, death, suffering, cruelty and everything else that goes along with war, Easter celebrations are still being held, flowers are still being planted, candles are still being lit, Easter bread is still being baked and brought to the church for a blessing. Only when the sirens sound are the baskets of bread taken away and people go back to the shelters. What an inspiration for the rest of us!
As we continue our Easter journey with ease, let us think of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters on their very difficult Easter journey and let us pray that peace will soon come to their land.