Easter Vision

David Odom, writing in the Faith and Leadership blog of Duke Divinity School, offers some wise insights and powerful examples of how creative imagination canย help us to cooperate with God’s grace in building the kingdom.

When Jesus was suffering on the cross, he could see the kingdom. He told one of the thieves who hung beside him that they would be together that day in paradise. Christians share this Easter vision and believe that the faith, hope and love of a life with God can begin on this earth. Nurturing this vision in the midst of difficulty requires committing to a community of believers, embodying the life of faith through sustaining Christian practices and cultivating imagination through border crossing.

This hopeful vision of the โ€œendโ€ also affects what Christian leaders can see in their midst.

Hisย essay is called โ€œCultivating an Easter Vision.โ€ You can read it all here.

Editor

Katharine E. Harmon, Ph.D., edits the blog, Pray Tell: Worship, Wit & Wisdom.

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Comments

9 responses to “Easter Vision”

  1. Daniel McKernan

    Question: “Many Christian institutions are facing decline in their attendance, giving, missionaries and students. Amidst the decay, what would it mean to have an Easter vision for a Christian institution? What is required to carve away the decay and find redemption?”

    My thought: Fidelity.

    Reply
  2. Joe O'Leary

    Daniel McKernan, are you not aware that the US bishops made a statement on the differences between the EF and the OF, stressing particularly that the OF uses much more of the Biblie?

    You say my testimony of my experience of Vatican II from 1962 on is emotive and empty. Not at all. And for your quest for scientific proof and definition, I can only refer you to the polls cited by Anthony Ruff.

    Reply
  3. Joe O'Leary

    Sorry, that should be on the “weary from within” thread.

    Fidelity is indeed a key factor; but let it be creative fidelity in the spirit of Vatican II, not fidelity to an image of the preconciliar church.

    Reply
    1. Matthew Hazell

      “Creative fidelity”? What does that mean? Seems like a bit of an oxymoron to me…

      Reply
      1. Rita Ferrone

        It is a term coined by the twentieth Century French philosopher, Gabriel Marcel (1898-1973). Marcel, a “Christian existentialist,” converted to Catholicism in 1929. His writings have been influential.

        For a rather technical, philosophical description of creative fidelity, see #13 of this essay in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
        http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcel/

        A quick web search also turned up this concise and more popular summary of points concerning creative fidelity, which the author derives from Luke T. Johnson’s book, The Living Jesus:
        http://www.publicchristian.com/?p=196

        There is also a recent book by Fr. Francis Sullivan SJ, of the Gregorianum, by the same name: http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Fidelity-Interpreting-Documents-Magisterium/dp/1592442080

  4. Bill deHaas

    Wonderful gospel story in the rural realities of life. Apologize to those whose journeys of faith have been criticized by Daniel and on Easter morn…no less.

    Daniel – my favorite Easter homily from a priest Shakespearean teacher……old man who took his time getting to the podium to preach. He then paused – for a very long time and then proclaimed loudly – “The joke is on death!” (another long pause) and he repeated: “The joke is on death” and then slowly returned to his station.

    Your response above shows little insight into the dying/rising of the Triduum in each of our lives. It is not a test – it is a journey.

    Reply
  5. Joe O'Leary

    Fidelity is a central biblical concept and few would deny that we have fallen short of it — failed the test or strayed from the path or discontinued the journey.ใ€€I think the fashion for panning the notion of progress is unchristian, since the Gospel point us to a glorious future and calls itself a new life. I also think that laudatores temporis peracti are in danger of straying from the path that moves forward and of leading others into a timewarp ghetto, as I see in the initiatives of Summorum Pontificum and the hijacking of the translation process. Sorry to be so scathing, but it’s no longer Easter Sunday here in Japan.

    Reply
  6. Joe O'Leary

    In fairness, we must take account of the rage and disappointment that many feel with the current liturgy. I admit that I myself would just love to have a liturgy all in Latin, with much silence and tasteful old music, People are bored with our wordy liturgies in unpoetic English. There is a deep problem here, I can only suggest we consult the Anglicans, The 1998 translations were a step in the right direction and would have been receieved with joy. Their suppression was a crime, The new translations are another crime. People who think the new translations are what they have been longing for are in for a very dismal let-down, and then their rage will turn from the “dissenters” in the Irish association of Catholic priests and on the Ruff and Ryan websites to the perpetrators of yet another liturgical mess.

    Reply
  7. Gerard Flynn

    Thank you for the post, Rita! Q.E.D.

    Reply

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