When we began our annual pilgrimage called “Lent” six weeks ago, Jesus warned us about the hypocrisy of “false Lenten fasts.” These fasts focused us upon buffing up the appearances of an inauthentic faith—the veneer—and not what real fasts focus upon the hardwood of an authentic faith—rending the heart and returning to God. Our Lenten DYI woodworking project required stripping away the veneer—sadness, anger, pessimism, worry, complaining, bitterness, selfishness, and grudges—and sanding down to the hardwood to evidence authentic faith—gratitude, patience, hope, trust in God, simplicity, compassion, and reconciliation. Retrospectively, we learned over the past 40 days that the veneer of inauthentic faith shrouds in darkness the hardwood of authentic faith. Looking pretty good on the outside, those who live an inauthentic faith, as Jesus observed, are like mausoleums, “beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead bones and all sorts of impurity” (Matthew 23:27).
More substantively, this year’s Lenten pilgrimage was part of the broader catechesis we undertook on Christmas Day 2020. On that day, we left behind being “comfortable Catholics” and embracing the good feelings associated with the Christmas crib to begin the journey of leaving Bethlehem behind and becoming “uncomfortable Catholics” as we headed toward Jerusalem to embrace the Crucifix of Good Friday. Golgatha wasn’t our destination, however, but the point of destiny where, like Jesus, the angel of death would pass over us and God would raise us to new life in Christ Jesus on Easter Sunday.
Today—Easter Sunday—is the day to “rejoice and be glad,” not because Lent is over and our DYI woodworking project has been completed but,
instead, because we’ve personally experienced Passover “this is the day the
Lord has made.” God didn’t abandon us in the dark and cold tomb we hollowed out through sin but has
been ever-present, accompanying us throughout our pilgrimage and raising us from
the way we lived an inauthentic faith to expose—in its original glory—the hardwood
of authentic faith.
The success of our efforts evidence themselves today, this Easter Sunday, to the degree our hearts “rejoice” and we “are glad” because, as the Psalmist reminded us, we have personally experienced the Passover and risen to new life in Christ Jesus.
Just as God freed the Chosen People from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 20:2), so also has God freed us from slavery to sin. This gift of freedom—to live once again as God has commanded—makes authentic faith possible. Those who are enslaved to sin—their faith being covered over by highly polished veneer yet living in the darkness of the tomb—are neither free as God intends—nor do they live an authentic faith for the reason they serve a false idol. These comfortable Catholics say of themselves, “I am the Lord your God.” Violating the First Commandment, their inauthentic faith possesses absolutely no power and cannot possibly set them free. All of that veneer is fake, a false image of the real image—the “imago Dei”—God breathed into each of us when God created us.
As it turns out, when the Psalmist wrote “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad,” he wasn’t speaking about Easter Sunday. Instead, the Psalmist was identifying how free and faithful Jews enter each and every day…the Lord has made.
Faithful Jews construct each day, first, by calling to mind God’s sovereignty—the Creator—and their freedom—as God’s creatures—and, second, by making freely-willed choice this day the Lord has made to feast upon those actions that are good and to fast from those that are evil. When faithful Jews do the opposite, they sever themselves from the source of their lives—God—and create idols of themselves.
At the beginning of each day, then, faithful Jews dedicate themselves to live an authentic faith by calling to mind the Psalmist’s words—“This is the day the Lord has make, let us rejoice and be glad”—and making the investment to live God’s gift of freedom from slavery. While it sounds easy in theory, this investment is difficult to make in practice because God’s gift of freedom entails a grave responsibility: To express gratitude to God by living as God has commanded. It’s not surprising that many faithful Jews—just like many Catholics—turn away from this responsibility, voluntarily seeking comfort living the veneer of an inauthentic faith that Karl Marx once called the “opiate of the people.”
While anyone can claim to be “free,” no one who’s enslaved to sin can make any significant decision in the same way truly free and independent people make even the smallest of decisions. Instead, those enslaved to sin—who live an inauthentic faith—distract themselves in the vain attempt to fend off what they fear most: Accepting personal responsibility to live each day the Lord has made by rejoicing and being glad in it.
To overcome the fear that freedom engenders in those who are enslaved to sin, our 40-day DYI Lenten project required fasting from the idol we’ve made of ourselves by living in the darkness of sadness, anger, pessimism, worry, complaining, bitterness, selfishness, and holding grudges. Our goal was that on Easter Sunday and having stripped away that veneer of an inauthentic faith and sanding down to feast on gratitude, patience, hope, trust in God, simplicity, compassion, and reconciliation—the hardwood of an authentic faith—God would raise us from the darkness of our sinful past to live in the present so we would rejoice and be glad because “This is the day the Lord has made.”
Contrary to what many people believe today, freedom isn’t being able to do whatever “I” wish—the idol being me—but doing what God commands. That’s what scares those who are enslaved to sin: Freedom requires consenting to God’s dominion by living each day so that they will experience faith’s goal—the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.
Yet, and as a wise rabbi once observed, “You can take the people out of slavery, but you cannot remove the slave mentality from the people.” To be free, this rabbi noted, requires faithful Jews to demonstrate authentic faith by making the personal investment that’s needed to look upon themselves each and every day as having been personally freed, through God’s grace, from the bondage of sin.
Once again, the Psalmist has reminded us this Easter Sunday how that’s done: “Let us rejoice and be glad…this is the day the Lord has made.” Nothing of yesterday matters to God whose mercy has raised us from the death of sin.
From this day forward, the authentic faith requires opening our eyes each morning the Lord makes for us. Accepting the responsibility to rejoice and be glad in this day will keep us free—as we make each day a “holy day of obligation” springing up from within by leaving yesterday’s exodus from slavery to sin and embracing today’s opportunity to live as free and responsible children of God. Opening our eyes in this way seizes the moment to experience God’s grace at the beginning of each day and to cope with its many challenges. Not only that: The way we live this day the Lord has made will inspire others to search for meaning in the days the Lord has made for them, perhaps even motivating them to begin the DYI project of stripping away the veneer of an inauthentic faith and sanding down to the hardwood of authentic faith so that it will gleam in the light of this day the Lord has made for them and they will rejoice and be glad in it, too.
For Jews, the freedom from slavery in Egypt is summed up in three short phrases: “They tried to annihilate us. We survived. Let’s eat!”
But, for Jews who possess authentic faith, the freedom they celebrate each Passover integrates the mind, the emotions, and the body today in a festive meal that serves as a living reminder to live “this day the Lord has made” as free men and women. How? By bearing personal responsibility for giving meaning to this day the Lord has made possible by calling to mind “I am…the One who brought you out of the slavery in the land of Egypt.”
During the Easter Octave, the Church invites us to do the same by celebrating each day this week as another Easter Sunday, making “this day the Lord has made” a “holy day of obligation” springing up from within.
That represents our challenge from scripture this Easter Sunday: To start each day this Octave of Easter by leaving behind yesterday’s exodus from slavery and anticipating with rejoicing and gladness knowing “this is day the Lord has made.” This day represents the opportunity to be free and responsible children of God who feast on gratitude, patience, hope, trust in God, simplicity, compassion, and reconciliation and, in doing so, are the Bread of Life others around them who, as Jesus prayed form the Crucifix, “know not what they’re doing.”
On Christmas Day, the manger revealed God being made incarnate and we sang the traditional Christmas carol, “Good Christians all rejoice.” Having left the comfort of the manger behind and having embraced death to sin on the uncomfortable Crucifix, today the same carol can be rephrased:
Good Christians, all, rejoice!
With heart and soul and voice!
Give ye heed to what we say,
“Jesus Christ is ris’n today.”
Come ye one and come ye all,
for he is in the tomb no more!
Christ is ris’n today!
Christ is ris’n today!
Alleluia!
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