Easter is a time to remember there is another world waiting for us
Carol Frost
Suddenly, with a trumpet blast,
Since He is as I am, I am at once Christ and
This is Jack, the joke, the poor pottery piece, the patch, the matchwood, the immortal diamond,
It is an immortal diamond.
Here poet Gerard Manley Hopkins talks about the Resurrection of the Dead, the moment when Christians believe the Earth will cease to exist and humanity will finally join its loving Creator.
Hopkins’s vision of the “immortal diamond” that Jesus became through his life on Earth is one we all experience from time to time. Sometimes it can be extraordinary people who awaken a sense of spiritual dimension in everyone. A person who, like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, saw the immortal diamond in every poor piece of pottery that came her way and subsequently followed her vision in her life’s work.
Or Margaret Oates, the Collingwood Angel who walks the streets with a Jeep filled with food and other necessities for anyone in need. When she dropped off her belongings, he also stopped by for a coffee and a chat. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has a soup truck named after him.
Beauty can often be what overwhelms us. Music that takes our hearts out of ourselves or natural beauty that takes our breath away. Full and silent, we are reminded that we do not live by bread alone. We all need to satisfy the spiritual hunger within us.
It is often difficult to see beyond the mess and dirt of daily life. But Easter makes Hopkins’ vision a reality. Just as Christians believe that Christ rose from the dead after being crucified, they are shown the other life after death that awaits us all.
Jesus promises the Good Thief, “Today you will be with me in Heaven.” And we listen because we know he means us too. This is the Kingdom to which Jesus repeatedly invites his followers.
And maybe that’s not such an impossible task after all. Christ’s life on earth and the saints among us remind us that there is the possibility of goodness, generosity, justice, and love at every moment of our lives.
And when we fail over and over again, there is a God who reassures us that even our struggles and stumbles are worthy of his love because “that was me.”
Easter reminds us that there is another world waiting for us and that our souls are straining on their leashes for Home while we labor in our small slice of time on Earth.
Carol Frost is a writer from Melbourne.
