***
When we grieve, our world becomes black, hyper-focused on the one we’ve loved, and lost.
Thousands of families have discovered this since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, some for the very first time.
It feels like the lights have been turned off inside.
***
Such was the feeling of the disciples on Good Friday.
Jesus was everything to them – their best friend; their leader; their Lord.
Then poof! He was gone in an instant. Darkness.
Terrified, the disciples rush into hiding, fearing for their own lives.
***
Why, then, did Peter open the door in our first reading and begin preaching to the very crowds who put Jesus to death?
“This man,” he says, “you killed…But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it.”
Why the sudden change in attitude?
***
Peter’s seen the Risen Lord! He’s so convinced of this that he risks his own life to tell others about it.
Jesus has transformed Peter’s sorrow into joy. You might say, the lights have been flipped back on. This time, permanently.
***
But what about me? Has my experience of grief turned the lights off inside, leaving me in the dark, stuck on Good Friday?
It’s a real possibility as the Coronavirus wreaks havoc on our world. People mourn for their loved ones just as Peter mourned for Jesus.
Or has my experience of Easter turned that sorrow into joy?
***
An Easter faith turns the lights back on inside, so to speak.
It transforms lives, starting with our own.