When I was relatively new to my work as a journalist, our Bishop shared his thought that “Easter is the greatest love story ever told.”
This description of Easter, the most important holy day in the life of the Church, has stayed with me for nearly 30 years and I’ve found no other description that suits it better. I understand it, because, like most of us, I’ve experienced the expansive, sacrificial giving of true love.
I’ve seen new life, transformations, and hope erupt in someone’s life because of another’s loving outreach. I’ve seen joy take root in a dark heart because someone took the time to plant the seeds of kindness. I’ve seen resurrections from myriad situations of despair because of another’s presence. These are Easter experiences.
Experiencing something is the surest way to understanding. As adults, we have many years and educational opportunities as we simply navigate life. Even then we are often still challenged when it comes to understanding our faith and religion. Imagine what it’s like for a child.
Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote about the “good ground of the soul,” saying that “we must prepare that ground so that a new life can grow up from it within us…” The image, of course, reminded me of what happens in a garden, where the soil must be prepared so the seed, hidden in the darkness, can take root and grow to a new life.
It seemed to be a wonderful opportunity to help my children understand Easter. I could explain it with words, or I could put them to work digging and fertilizing and dropping the seeds or bulbs into holes and tending to the plants until they broke through the ground to the light. Certainly, the doing would be more effective than the hearing.
In the process, there were opportunities to make mistakes and roll them into talks about sin and forgiveness. There were times of running out in pouring rain to save tender plants from a storm and talks about what it means to care for something or someone. Perhaps most important, there was the fundamental lesson which the Apostle Paul shares in Scripture: "What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind …”
And on Easter mornings, in the years that followed, when Tiger and Calla Lilies graced the altar with beauty and fragrance, my children remember their times planting bulbs and know that we are meant to be co-creators with God in bringing grace into the world.
The experiences of discovering Easter in a garden have stayed with my children through adulthood, and they now teach their children about resurrection, new life, hope, and sacrifice by tending a garden.
Today, they understand what it means to be an Easter people and once again sing, Alleluia.
Mary Regina Morrell is a Catholic journalist, author, and syndicated columnist who has served the dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton, New Jersey, and RENEW International in the areas of catechesis and communication.