Emptiness and Bliss
This month we celebrate Easter which has at its very centre emptiness and bliss. Emptiness is an emotion all too prevalent in our modern world. We often feel undermined, unsure, emotionally drained and often in fear for the future; emotions that lead to profound fear.
So why can I link this with a sense of bliss which speaks of joy, pleasure and delight in a temporal sense, and blessedness and heavenly joy in a spiritual one? In the Christian sense emptiness is linked with the events of Good Friday on which we remember that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified.
Jesus experienced profound emptiness believing him abandoned; 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me' is still often the anthem of the tortured soul. But this agony of emptiness ends for Jesus at the mouth of an empty tomb on Easter morning to be greeted by Mary Magdalene, a woman who loved him dearly and knew about emotional rejection.
Jesus' suffering had been horrific and, to Mary, his final resting place had been desecrated – can it get any worse for her? Yes it can if belief ends at an empty tomb for we, like Mary, will experience bodily and spiritual misery and emptiness.
But please, take one more step of faith – Good Friday and Easter are two side of the same divine coin which brings the eternal promise that goodness and joy will prevail. Easter says to each who suffers, that the Risen Christ is with us always in all sorts of people in all sorts of ways.
The joy of Easter to you all.
