This is a homily that was enclosed in a letter from a friend in 1991. It is not mine, but I wish it was. Here it is for you.
“Interruption is the story of Easter. God interrupted death, interrupted the power and flow of evil to demonstrate that divine love and commitment to humanity was stronger than anything else, no matter what the present moment may seem. Nations and people could have gone on as before, drawing near to God and then falling away in an assertion of their own independence in a never ending cycle, had not God interrupted in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and interrupted supremely by raising his from the dead.
In a profound sense, God interrupts our lives whether we like it or not, but the question for us is how do we respond to the interruption, particularly the news of Easter. Is it only an interruption in the sense that we feel somehow compelled to be in church, to wear new clothes and sing familiar hymns and gather with family, as pleasant as those are? Are we willing to realize that our lives have been interrupted with the assertion that power, money, and status are but short-lived symbols which we have allowed to take hold of us? Are we willing to accept the interruption that we are not in control of nature, of the lives of others around us, or of even our own lives no matter how tightly we hold on or try to force our wills? Are we willing, more simply, to be interrupted by the needs of others around us, the needs of housing and food, of healing and forgiveness, of justice and peace, or would we rather ignore them, as if they would go away?
The news of Easter Day is that God has interrupted and continues to interrupt our lives with unending, undeserved love for us. It is our task to acknowledge that good news and to go forth into tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow with a renewed sense of our own ministry of interruption, as ones who are agents of the love of God breaking into our world.”
Happy Easter season, to all of you, my sisters and brothers in the ministry of interruption!
~Joan Sobala, SSJ
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