Easter: We Are Joyful, Alleluia People!

By Paul J. Ashton, Psy.D., D.Min. 

Consultant to the VIRTUS® Programs

We worship you Lord, we venerate your cross, we praise your resurrection. Through the cross you brought joy to the world. 

—Good Friday Liturgy

Have you ever known someone filled with joy? Not those someones who are so sweet and happy all the time that cause you to be suspicious and uncomfortable, but those certain persons who embrace life fully and count it all as joy. These folks are great to be around. They make you happy from the inside out. They cause you to be mindful about your own joy and propel you to be your best self. They don’t do so by chiding, admonishing or telling jokes or singing songs (Although some of these things may be a part of their “m.o.”). They do it by embracing the fullness of life—all of it, even the sad and difficult parts. What does that mean, you might ask.

Embracing the fullness of life has much to do with acceptance of the reality of their situation, no matter what it is. It also means making the best of it and wanting more. Not wanting more in the sense of yearning for material goods, but for understanding, truth, acceptance and growth. It means seeing the good, searching for God, and finding meaning in the fullness of creation. Remember the phrase, “Stop and sniff the flowers”? That is it exactly. 

So these are the folks who help you find the silver lining in the many gloomy clouds you lay at their feet. Moreover, these are the people who are patient, kind and nonplused when you refuse to see and accept the silver lining.

Easter is the great feast day for these wonderful people. They are “Alleluias from head to toe!” And they are indeed “Easter people whose song is Alleluia!” (attributed to St. Augustine). They attract others and they bring life and light to a room. They embrace the fullness of their Faith and don’t look for excuses to fall away from expressing it. They are proud to profess their Faith and not shy to correct situations that cause injustice and pain for others. Easter is all about reminding us of the great joy of our lives—that we will love forever in God’s love. It is a wonderful opportunity to recommit to that joy and to make the promise to move forward with the fullness of joy in all of our encounters. When the world gets to be a heavy place, we have a Sunday each week when we can vividly reconnect to the Great Feast of Easter Sunday at the table of the Lord.  

Some in our Church are weary, hurt, angry, upset and forlorn. The world has become a place of burden, and the gardens of their life are filled with overgrown weeds. Easter eradicates that in a pure and simple way. Jesus’ victory over death negates the need for chaining ourselves to sadness and sorrow. Wearing our faith like a heavy pall, burden by rules instead of being liberated by them is not the sign of a Christian. Who would ever want to join in our mission if that is all they encountered? 

Thank you, God, for the Easter People You send our way each day. We thank you for these Alleluia People who remind us of Your great love for us, especially when our corner of the world gets dark. Thank you for the blessing of every Sunday each week to strengthen our resolve to count it all joy.

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