Hallelujah Can Be Our Song

 

I have learned over these past two years that each new season or holiday calls for a trip to my neighborhood dinosaur. The family always makes sure that their creature is appropriately attired and celebrates all special days in style. I especially appreciated the Easter hat this year. It seemed to me that this dinosaur was on his way home from church when I saw him yesterday.

This Easter has been celebrated in very difficult times. But, then again, it always is. The story itself was born in the midst of oppression and violence. The story itself was born in the deepest valley of the shadow of death. In these days of war and division and problems that seem insurmountable, I recall the words of Pope John Paul II who wrote, “Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”

Easter people can remind the world that there is hope, that even in the darkness God is bringing new life. We cannot always see it. We may not always feel it. Mary Magdalene wept at the empty tomb, unaware that her beloved Jesus was right there with her. Like this most faithful of the disciples, our pain and grief may blind our eyes to the resurrected Jesus. But that does not negate the truth. God’s love and grace cannot be stopped, even by death.

The apostle Paul writes, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This is how hallelujah can be our song, even in the midst of troubled lives and a troubled world. Let the Easter people sing it well for all to hear.

Peace.