Easter

We had a call today, the first since Christmas, with my mother and all of my siblings. I noticed them older this time, as I'm sure they did me. Despite this urge to avoid contact with anyone except my children, I know that it's good to maintain connections. And it did feel good to see and hear from them.

Though Catholic in my DNA, I have no relationship with Jesus Christ today. I admire him as a self-sacrificer and a man with a lived commitment to social justice and to love. A fighter on the right side in the good fight. But the resurrection of the body? Saving us from everlasting death? The gift of eternal life if you accept that he accomplished these things? You lost me there somewhere. 

And the Catholic Church is a deeply flawed institution corrupted by wealth, power, and human politics. It's comprised of ordinary men with ordinary weaknesses. As an institution, despite an increasingly revealed history of filth, it continues to oppress and subjugate around the world. 

I spent a sunny and mild Easter afternoon walking in the woods. And I didn't need a risen Messiah to see, hear, smell and feel the beauty of nature. Of creation. To be walking out there in contemplation is a sort of local and abbreviated pilgrimage. The idea of making a pilgrimage has been on my mind for most of my life. There has always been a mysterious appeal there for me. 

Easter seems like a good day to make a commitment. So, I commit to make a pilgrimage on El Camino de Santiago when the borders open again and I can do so without putting people in peril from Covid-19.  I hope to be able to walk for a full month and to begin sometime within the next twelve.