Christos anesti!

Alethos anesti! Happy Easter! Truly risen! Risen indeed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDlCFqy7KG4

Early on the first day of the week, while it was yet dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 

Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” 

Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. (John 20:1-18)

++++++++++++++

Easter Day, story, songs and memories are different for everyone, and life has a way of stirring reminiscences, 

this morning of Easters Past. In the living room of the house where we grew up, standing at the heavy oak door, anxiously

waiting for our father to open the door so we could see if the Easter Bunny had left our baskets on the front stoop. EB always had done. I've told it here before, my sister and brother enjoyed their chocolates and other candy pretty much the same day. I hoarded mine, nibbling slowly until they were molded and unfit to eat, another time hid them in an upstairs closet only to forget them and, remembering weeks later, return to find them eaten away by roaches and mice: you couldn't eat your candy and have it too, in fact if you didn't eat it, the little creatures made sure you couldn't have it either.

Easter was teasing my eager children by having them wait behind me while I peer out into the room where they placed their empty Easter baskets the previous evening, then turn and look at them sadly shaking my head. I think they grew to expect that. This morning I miss each child terribly, long grown and gone! 

Another year, another Easter generation, a picture, I have a picture here somewhere. Nicholas is about eight. He's standing in the front yard of the rectory in Apalachicola, in his new light blue suit, white shirt and tie. He looks up at me and exclaims, "Grandaddy, don't I look nice!" 

Linda and I get up well before dawn Easter morning, lift the heavy wooden cross I made of ancient timbers from the Macy's house that had served as a hospital during the Civil War. The cross is laden with flowers as she finishes decorating it, and we carry it, a burst of springtime, out the rectory door and down the sidewalk beside the church, to place it by the church's historic marker in Gorrie Square. You can just catch the faint fragrance of the pale pink azaleas planted around the front corner of the church building. Apalachicola is still quiet, will be for a few hours more.

In Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, the wooden reredos behind the Altar of Mount Calvary Episcopal Church holds dozens of Easter lilies that Linda has arranged, banked five or six feet high against the mahogany, each blossom tilted to nod out facing the congregation. Their aroma greets each worshiper entering the church front door.

Linda managed such a floral splendor on the reredos of the Altar at Trinity the years we were there as well.

Easter is lots of things, many things, family traditions, gatherings and feasts, hymns and a story. Fragrances, aromas, greetings. Love. One year, lamb shanks for Easter dinner with a beloved little family who are now moved away, and though broken and no longer together, still loved.  

This year I picked up on an email ad from Snake River Farms for their incredible hams at 20% off and free shipping from Idaho if I took delivery on a Saturday. Waiting too late, I ordered at the last minute and they were out of boned ham so I ordered whole bone-in. SRF promised it would weigh 14 pounds plus or minus half a pound: it arrived weighing 20.1 pounds, the biggest I've ever received from them. Looks like a ham for the Duration. Ham for Easter dinner after church today, an orange or green vegetable. Glass of red. Bit of bread pudding from the Kringle factory in Wisconsin, the last item from that order.

E-Church from Holy Nativity later this morning, five or a half dozen of us, giving wide berth, serving whoever turns on and tunes in.  

Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Easter will come again.

Easter: tangerine blossom!

Grandfather Tom+