I listened to this several times during the past few days. What struck me most during the first couple of hearings were the lines, [[Love unknown walked beside them, come back from the dead. And they knew he was risen, in the breaking of bread!]] How often in these past months I have tried to remember that Love Unknown walks beside us!!! A small drawing of two stick-figure girls, one named Grief and one named Grace had been given to me a number weeks ago by my Director; it captured where I was in my own faith journey. Under the names it said, [[Companions on the journey/ "Grief goes as deep as the gift"]] Later, the lines from the song that struck me most were, [[When the road makes us weary, when our labor seems but loss, when the fire of faith weakens, and to hide seems the cost, let the church turn to its risen Lord who for us bore the cross, and we'll find our hearts burning at the sound of his voice!]]
This Triduum, most of the liturgies I attended were done by ZOOM. They included small, intimate house churches, liturgies done in somewhat more moderately sized convent chapels, and Easter Sunday Mass at my old college chapel (this I attended in person), as well as services here in the hermitage or the parish chapel (also in person). None of it was what I expected Triduum-Easter liturgies to be. And each celebration stunned me in one way and another by being exactly what God willed it to be!!
In one liturgy the Exultet was sung by the presiding bishop as another participant did an accompanying liturgical dance. I had never seen/heard this before. The gestures were exquisitely well-choreographed and I found myself in tears several times during the chant. In another, the readings were framed by a continuing narrative (commentary) of God's unceasing and unconquerable love --- while the readings were done in a contemporary translation that took us from creation to the proclamation of a new creation in Christ's resurrection. Others I love were also attending via ZOOM so we shared this unique intimacy at a distance --- as we could during such unsettled days in the church.
In every celebration Love walked beside and shone within us; in every liturgy, despite distances, differing time zones, illness, and isolation, the risen Christ brought us together as his newly constituted body and we found Him in the breaking of bread. No, there were no huge choirs, no churches piled high with flowers. Instead, we each brought our whole selves and the gifts (and grief) we carry within us and what God did with and within us was Eucharistic through and through. Love unknown (and now known very well) walks beside us!! Continuing Easter blessings!
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