“But chiefly are we bound to praise you for the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; for he is the true Paschal Lamb, who was sacrificed for us, and has taken away the sin of the world…”
For most of Easter, this paragraph has been a clanging gong. It is of course the “proper preface” for the Easter season, inserted into the Eucharistic Prayer. For some reason this year, it has acted like the proverbial dope-slap to the back of my head. “Yo! Pay attention! THIS is why you are here.”
One phrase in particular reminds worshippers that while there are many, many good reasons we should praise God, “CHIEFLY we are BOUND” by the supremely mysterious and astoundingly good news of Jesus’ resurrection. Those two words, “chiefly” and “bound” offer layer upon layer of Graceful insight into God’s nature, and our own.
This little bit of liturgical turn-of-phrase reminds me that THIS singular event — the bursting forth of new and unexpected life from a lifeless tomb — is the MAIN reason, the highest priority, the ultimate showing of Divine Purpose and Love. And even more, this prayer says to me that if I can even come close to recognizing the awesome glory of the Resurrection, then I am “bound to praise…” Such a response naturally and inexorably flows from such realization in my mind and from my lips and in my life.
Indeed I do at times feel “bound” — wrapped up tight in things that are far, far beyond my understanding. The Nativity, Jesus’ baptism, the Transfiguration, the parables and miracles and stories of compassion all spark incomparable feelings and insatiable desire to know more and more. They all lead me, however hesitantly, to let go my lawyer’s quest for more evidence and rational, reasoned explanation, and to believe and trust the glimpses of Truth that are revealed in those stories.
But, there is nothing — NOTHING — that comes close to stirring that pot of faith like the Resurrection. To believe in THAT mystery is to be radically different. To fully fathom that this one solitary human is the “true Paschal Lamb” for all of humanity is to be quite set apart from the normal ways of this world. To truly buy into the notion that a fellow member of our species walked, talked, laughed, loved, lived and died among us, but then overcame death, is to be changed forever.
I wish I could say that I was fully there. I wish I could say I have utter confidence to jump off the swing into the abyss, to Trust that my flight — and my landing — will be in safe, Graceful hands. But I’m not. Yet.
But Lord knows I’m trying. Lord knows.
With Gladness and Singleness of Heart 