Jesus gives us a key to experiencing Easter in our daily lives when he says to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14–15). Easter is experienced in the serpent and in the cross, in those things that could kill us or in situations that we are most afraid of.
When we confront the reality of fear or death in any form, we begin to get an insight into what life is all about and how we can live our lives most effectively as an Easter person. The loss of a relationship or a job, failure in an exam, or a terminal illness throws us into darkness where we can experience life as it really is. In darkness, we go beyond the thoughts in our minds or the feelings in our hearts. We experience an intuitive insight into the mystery of life.
In the Gospels, it is the women who, through their intuitiveness, experience without a doubt the reality of Easter. The women venture out to Jesus’ tomb when darkness hovers all over the earth. It is this same darkness in the very first verse of the Bible, the darkness where the Spirit and energy of God is alive. It is also in the night sky that the Magi discover the source of Eternal Life, and so do the shepherds.
A holy person once sat at the entrance of a cave and promised that anyone going into that cave would see the face of the Divine. But there was one condition: they had to have their eyes plucked out before they entered the cave so they could have a clear vision of Reality without the influence of their past beliefs, traditions, and prejudices. So it was with Paul. When he was struck blind at Damascus, he experienced the Divine and, when something like fish scales fell from his eyes, he lived like a new person with a new vision of himself and of life. He experienced every human as a Divine heir, and he made no distinction between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female.
Paul Coutinho, S.J. is the author of Just as You Are and How Big Is Your God? for more information visit Paul's author site.