Easter

A quote from the Penguin Dictionary of Saints* (or as my Serpentine friend likes to say, "The Dictionary of Penguin Saints");

The English word 'saint' is derived from the Latin epithet sanctus, which represents the Greek hagios and the Hebrew qâdosh. These words, sanctus, hagios, qâdosh, were applied to God himself, to people, and to things. When applied to people and to things they meant hallowed, consecrated, set apart for a sacred purpose or office, made 'holy to God'; they did not necessarily connote that high moral quality which is now inseparable from such words as saint or holy when applied to a person.

That's what we are dear reader, "set apart for a sacred purpose or office, made 'holy to God'." That's wonderful if you ask me. Only what we are is also what we are supposed to become. That is our goal in life—to become what we really are.

As to high moral quality, what tends to happen is that the high moral quality becomes an end in itself, it just becomes another idol; not just a distraction from our real purpose but a sin against God. That high moral quality that is "now inseparable from such words as saint" should be separated from it.

Have you ever held a knife above a cake and momentarily hesitated because the cake was so beautiful in its untouched state? That is what it is to want to have your cake and eat it too. Be aware of those who would have you treat your life on this earth that way.

"Did you ever see an amusement park?"

"No, Father."

"Well, go and see an amusement park." The priest waved his hand vaguely. "It's like a fair, only much more glittering. Go to one at night and stand a little way off from it in a dark place—under dark trees. You'll see a big wheel made of lights turning in the air, and a long slide shooting boats down into the water. A band playing somewhere, and a smell of peanuts—and everything will twinkle. But it won't remind you of anything you see. It will all just hang out there in the night like a colored balloon—like a big yellow lantern on a pole." Father Schwartz frowned as he suddenly thought of something. "But don't get up close," he warned Rudolph, " because if you do you'll only feel the heat and the sweat and the life."

-F. Scott Fitzgerald, from Absolution

Christ is Risen. Go ahead and feel the heat and the sweat of and the life.









* Very highly recommended!