A Srouce of Theologically Emo Tendencies
"From Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday, the daily liturgies contain wildly different emotional focal points. Good Friday is the saddest day of the year for a Catholic; Easter is the happiest." - from an article about working for a Cathedral during Holy Week.
It's true; as Catholics we embrace in our holiest week of the year a nearly bi-polar spirituality. When I grow frustrated at my emotional ups and downs as being detrimental to my own desired practice of Christianity, I need only remind myself that such ups and downs were not only shared by my Savior and the earliest practitioners of my faith, but embraced by them. The cycles of the world, the things we perceive as suffering and the things which we make evil, are subsumed by the Creator's eternal mercy and gift of Self. It's the humanity of these cycles that allow for us to have any salvation at all! They are part of our nature- senses and feelings, desires and attractions. And they are, at times, excrutiating until fulfilled in our ultimate purpose, that is, co-creation of the cosmos.
So, for Holy Week, I will not be running from my wants and excitements. I will be exploring them to the best of my ability, with the added assurance that my Creator is personally concerned for their development.
IC XC Nika Alithos!
It's true; as Catholics we embrace in our holiest week of the year a nearly bi-polar spirituality. When I grow frustrated at my emotional ups and downs as being detrimental to my own desired practice of Christianity, I need only remind myself that such ups and downs were not only shared by my Savior and the earliest practitioners of my faith, but embraced by them. The cycles of the world, the things we perceive as suffering and the things which we make evil, are subsumed by the Creator's eternal mercy and gift of Self. It's the humanity of these cycles that allow for us to have any salvation at all! They are part of our nature- senses and feelings, desires and attractions. And they are, at times, excrutiating until fulfilled in our ultimate purpose, that is, co-creation of the cosmos.
So, for Holy Week, I will not be running from my wants and excitements. I will be exploring them to the best of my ability, with the added assurance that my Creator is personally concerned for their development.
IC XC Nika Alithos!