Love with all the gladness

It's a week since I wrote about the Sacred Heart being Good Friday without all the sadness; a week since I wrote: Today, may we remain with and centre our own hearts on Love with all the sadness... and then prepare to celebrate the Love which is the source of all our life, all our hope and all our rejoicing. And since Sunday, that is precisely what we have done! Every day this week has been another Easter Sunday; another day for being surprised and reassured and gladdened by the sudden, unexpected presence of Jesus among us. Every day, through the Gospels, we have been invited into intimacy with Jesus and to mission: to know him better, in all his wound-bearing, peace-bestowing, tender and glorious risen life, and to make him known. 

This, surely, is a week for Love with all the gladness!

And of course, until Pentecost, we are in Eastertide - a time to celebrate the Resurrection, and to share the joy of new life. But this is no longer an intense, immediate joy; rather, it's a joy which needs to quieten and mellow, as it makes its home in us. And inevitably, it's a joy which can be knocked aside or diminished by setbacks, anxieties and frustrations. The other day I read something about this in a parish newsletter, suggesting that sustaining this joy can be more challenging than following Lenten resolutions - and it's true! Grumbles and discontent can so easily set in, alongside so many trials, hard times and disappointments - and all aided by some cold, wet, very un-springlike weather!

But Eastertide is about knowing that Jesus is with us; walking alongside us in these setbacks, gently loving us back to hope, and to joy in him... And whilst we might not be turning cartwheels, or singing in the rain, we can nonetheless celebrate, quietly and surely, the Love with all the gladness which is indeed and at depth the source of all our life, all our hope and all our rejoicing.