Grief and Joy

It’s been said that grief and joy are the same side of the coin. Each Spring we see that celebrated in two of the major world religions. One religion, Judaism, mourns the loss of the land their ancestors called home for over four hundred years. They gave up the pain and security of that land to travel on foot across a desert to the uncertainties awaiting them in their ancestral home.

The second religion, Christianity, mourns the death of their primary prophet and rejoices in his resurrection. It is important to note that Jesus was not the first person to rise from the physically rise from the dead. The Hebrew Bible describes the instance when Elijah raised a young boy from death (1 Kings). Elisha also raised a boy from the dead (2 Kings) and a dead man was restored to life when his body touched Elisha’s bones (2 Kings). Unlike Enoch and Elijah, Jesus did not pass go, catch the A Train and ascend to the heavens without all the mess of a bloody death. Not to say that I don’t enjoy all the speculation to the contrary, but which of the writers of those books were present in Palestine for the events?

All religions celebrate great sorrows and great joys in their own ways.

The emotions expended by religious adherents at such times, and all spirited persons of good will, reflect who they are. Not only during religious holidays. They show their true faces every day when they allow their energies to touch and change themselves and their worlds. To expand the bounds of creation. It shows where they are, collectively and individually, in their…