My understanding of Easter

The first thing I would say is that this is a big topic, an immense topic, an almost overwhelming topic. I am reminded of a Brett Whitely documentary that I have seen many times. He is asked to talk about Van Gogh, and he starts to answer, and then gets very agitated and loses his cool. Brett Whitely calls the interviewer a bloody idiot, expecting Whitely to be able to just launch into the immensity of what Van Gogh means to him. He concludes by saying that Van Gogh is too big a topic and an off the cuff response would not be eloquent enough to do Van Gogh justice. Easter and the Christ in the world is my Van Gogh. Whatever I can say about my understanding of Easter will not be eloquent enough. Easter must be an experience, an inner reality.

Easter has to do with human evolution and the union of the Christ Forces with the Forces of the Earth. From that first Easter, the Earth became fertilised, impregnated by the Sun Being. Previously we beheld Christ from afar, now Christ is present, in our midst.

Since ancient times Easter has been a time of initiation and initiation has always been an experience of death and resurrection. Every Easter we have the opportunity to die again and be revived into greater spiritual consciousness. The Christ, whose dwelling place is now the Earth, assists in this process of magnifying and elevating our consciousness. We are advancing step by step into our own power, as we become more and more Christ-conscious, more and more aware of the enormity of our I AM.

The Gospels can be a guide in our initiatory process and we can distinguish between Old Testament Yahweh and New Testament Christ, the Father God who gave us the Law and the Son God who liberates us. To go from being bound by the law to being free in Christ is an Easter initiatory process. It is a rebirthing process. 'Truly,' He said to Nicodemus, 'I say to you, unless one is born anew he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven.'

Calvary must be made real to us so that we can become conscious Christ-bearers. Jesus the man fully relinquished his body to the Christ. We are the bearers of a ray of that light. We don’t have to look up to the heavens to find it. We can look at the eternal now of Golgotha and perceive Christ at work and we can look all around us, in nature, in natural processes, in the Earth and in each other and observe the working presence of Christ who transforms death into life.

The ray of light within us is a luminous seed and all seeds fall and die to germinate into new life. It is our highest calling to nurture that seed, to provide fertile soil, to nourish it with spiritual food and water so that it grows and irradiates us, generating within us a lightness of being and greater ability to give love and compassion, to bless, heal and teach.

Easter can be for us a revelation of the Divine in action, the reinvigoration of love and life and light. On Good Friday we can contemplate a body hanging on a cross and we can know that it truly is a Good Day. We can see not a death, but something being born. We can see pure and absolute love being born. A new power floods into the whole world, a power which we only glimpse, but is transforming us, so that eventually and by means of gradual initiation, step by step, we will eventually share in the fullness of the Christ.

Metaphysically, Easter is our story. We each take the road to Calvary, alone and willingly we lay down our life, let go of ego, of self-will, to be resurrected as a new creature in Christ, empowered, energised, uplifted and initiated.