Cycle of Death and Resurrection

I wake before the break of dawn.

It’s still dark in my room.

Artificial light barely squeezing through a slender crack of my curtain.

Darkness still reigns.

It’s Easter Vigil morn.

Darkness reigns.

Darkness within and darkness without.

I feel like a piece of meat in a sandwich

Pressed together by the twin forces of darkness.

It feels tomb-like.

I twist and tussle in the tomb of my bed,

Grappling within the imprisonment of my abyss.

Every space of the abyss is filled with personal and social messiness.

I hear the screams of my human weaknesses, my infidelity in friendships, my self-absorbing tendency, my indifference, my jealousy, my intolerance to messy situations.

I hear the screams of abused children, struggling parents, grieving families, the rejected due to unorthodox sexual orientation.

In the darkness of the tomb, these sounds are deafening.

I remember it’s Easter Vigil.

I remember the Easter Candle processes through darkness.

I remember the fire will glow in the darkness of today’s ritual.

I remember the bells will ring, the gloria sung, the lights will conquer the darkness.

I remember the dawn will be victory over darkness.

But yet, the darkness of the tomb is still real.

Waiting in the tomb of darkness

I hear distant signs of a new day – birds singing, cock crowing.

Darkness of the tomb is still real.

I slip back into sleep

And dream of a new day, new beginning,

I dream of the possibility of the impossibilities of life.

Why?

Faith tells me, “Jesus is Risen from the dead. Alleluia”!