Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. Mark 16:2-6
“The God of the resurrection provides resurrection people with an abundance of all they need to live resurrection lives and to be agents of God’s resurrection mission in the world. We have no need for family hold-back for fear of scarcity. The resurrection of our Lord is the paradigm of the way God works. Resurrection means fullness and abundance of life — all of life…
We are invited to learn gratitude. I am convinced that resurrection gratitude is a key component to maturity in the spiritual life. Once we begin to develop an awareness of the resurrection generosity of God, once we begin to trust and test the reality of the Paschal Mystery, the more we will understand that God daily gives us a multitude of reasons to be grateful people.
Learning to be grateful is not optional. It is part of the process of becoming mature people of the resurrection. Gratitude is the gasoline that powers our journey with and to the Risen One. Gratitude, however, does not come easily or naturally…We all have to work at gratitude to the God of the resurrection…It is a habit of the heart that we need to cultivate.”
C. Franklin Brookhart in Living the Resurrection: Reflections After Easter (Denver: Morehouse, 2012) 24-25, 27-28.
This question struck me this Easter from Mark’s Gospel account: “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” Then I began thinking about it this way. Who can remove the rocks in our lives that hinder our resurrection journey? Only God can. Only when we realize this and live in light of it with a profound sense of resurrection gratitude will our lives press on to maturity and exhibit resurrection generosity.
Those that don’t live life in light of the resurrection are slaves to fear. They hold back what they have because scarcity dominates their thoughts and actions. Will this Easter, for you, mark a time to chart a new course? Is it time to press on to maturity and “trust and test” the implications of the resurrection? But how exactly do we cultivate this habit of resurrection gratitude in our hearts? Brookhart offers a helpful idea.
“I have found that using prayer beads has been enormously helpful in my becoming a more grateful person. I begin by going around the circle of beads, using each bead to name someone or something, large or small, for which I am grateful. I am grateful, for instance, for my wife, but also for the comfortable chair in which I sit…Part of my discipline includes reserving a special bead to prompt an intentional prayer of gratitude for the resurrection of Christ.”
Cultivate resurrection gratitude to live out resurrection generosity because Christ is risen and we have been raised with him! Happy Easter everyone.