Moonday Musings

We Are Risen, Indeed!

After having coffee with my soon-to-be housemate, I took a leisurely stroll back to my current place. As I did so, I passed St. Raphael's Orthodox Church. The lower left corner of the sign in their front lawn reads "Christ is Risen!"

This of course reminded me that yesterday was Easter, which the Orthodox call Pascha ("Passover.") Most Christians in America don't call it that, though. We call it Easter. I had in fact brought this up with my friend earlier. We agreed that the word "Easter" is the last bastion of a time in which Western Christianity attempted to merge with the Astrological world.

The term is a Pagan one, derived from the name of a Goddess, and — unlike any other Holiday, really — the date of Easter is determined based on the stage of the moon.

But what really got me thinking was that it said *Christ* is risen. That word, meaning "anointed one" (literally, "he worthy of having precious oil put upon his head"), is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word "messiah."

I like to think of the resurrection less as the resuscitated body of Y'shua of Nazareth, and more as the dawning of the idea of a redeeming figure in the worldly cosmos. So I like that word as an abstract concept — a word that suggests we all embody a corporate entity, the "living church." "Where two or three are gathered in my name," Y'shua is alleged to have said, "I am in their midst."

I'm bringing this up because I had such a nice time with my friend. We had a lovely little breakfast, and then sat outside for quite a while talking. When the Mindfulness Bell app on her phone would go off, we would both quiet and center ourselves to the sound of the bell and, once it had rippled out, we began to talk again.

The fact that we both naturally enjoyed that spiritual practice bonded us intensely. I told her that I am very excited to share a space with someone else who celebrates the same sort of spiritual disposition. That mutual support and respect is something I value highly.

That two or three people imbibing the Holy Spirit together is (I think) what that idea of Christ is all about. Even when mortals leave this earth, in a very real sense they remain. Not only do we not forget them, but their values live on in the way we breathe and act.

Tracy has many pictures of Thich Nhat Hanh in her home. He died just last year, and our Sangha practices in his style of Zen. But he didn't die. His body is simply gone. He lives, like Y'shua, in the way in which we work together to help one another in crisis, and enjoy one another's company.

I am blessed to be in their presence.