ON THE THIRD DAY

 A REFLECTION FOR EASTER SUNDAY

The triple aspects of joy, sorrow and glory we find in the Rosary are reflected in the timeline of our Lord’s life, death, and resurrection.  In the Joyful Mysteries, the world had enjoyed thirty-three years of the Saviour’s presence.  For three of those years he was made manifest to us in his daily life, his miracles and teachings.   Then in the Sorrowful Mysteries, during the three days of the Triduum, we keep watch as for three long hours he hung on the cross of salvation, until his death at three o’clock in the afternoon.  And now after three days of darkness in the tomb, with the world empty and seemingly deprived of hope, the sorrow of despair is suddenly turned into everlasting joy as news of the Resurrection is spread abroad and the Glorious Mysteries begin.

 

This repetition of the triple element of time is no accident, and is meant to reflect the three basic elements of our existence.  When Christ became man, he not only dwelt amongst us, but he was one of us, a human being.  He shared the same joys and sufferings we do, and by his Resurrection, he showed us that we too will share in his glory.  It is this intertwined triple pattern of give-and-take between God and man that makes sense of our existence on this planet.  The joys of Christmas, of Christ’s birth and childhood, allow us to make sense of our own fleeting happiness, one that comes and goes with the vicissitudes of life.  The sorrows of Holy Week, on the other hand, show us how our own sufferings can make sense: by following our Master as he carries his cross, as he suffers death on that cross, our sufferings empower us to make some small reparation for our own sins, and better yet, to offer them up, like him, for the sins of the world.  And finally, the glory of the Resurrection provides us with that most important virtue of hope, a hope that we too, having shared in his joys and sorrows, may finally share in his glory.  It’s a most beautiful and perfect plan for us.  If only we would stick to the plan!

 

The trouble is, we don’t like the suffering part.  We devote our entire lives to avoiding it.  We take pills to take away our little pains, we spend a fortune on medical insurance and doctors’ bills, consume vast amounts of alcohol to try and stay happy, relaxed and mellow—so very many ways to stave off the miseries of life.  And yet, our Lord warned us that if we would be his disciples, we must take up our cross and follow him.  It’s not wrong to want to be happy and pain-free, but there again, we shouldn’t necessarily try so very hard to avoid not being.  The sorrows we sometimes face are a great opportunity to make sacrifices for God.  Such self-sacrifice doesn’t come naturally, as our fallen human nature constantly seeks natural happiness, but suffering should be embraced, at least when there’s no other choice, when our health fails, or an act of God or man robs us of a little happiness now and again.

 

Above all, let’s not do as the pagans do, and that is, to center our entire life on the search for pleasure.  For if we don’t see suffering in its true light, we are doomed to continually seek the opposite.  And the pleasures and joys of this life do not last very long, and can never truly satisfy.  Our Easter joy, on the other hand, is an altogether different kind of happiness.  It is a joy that illuminates our very souls with the knowledge that the gates of heaven are open to all who accept their crosses and follow Christ.  And as heaven is a place of everlasting happiness, then Easter is our annual reassurance that if we seek heaven as our only meaningful goal, we will be assured of a happiness the godless and wicked will never find, a joy that never ends.