Rev DavidWe are now spending our second spring at the Center of Light, New York.  There is not much real estate room in this city, so our Center is small and our chapel is nestled on the lower level, completely underground.  It has brick walls, painted a soft white and it feels much like an early Christian catacomb.  As the weather gets warmer and the ground begins to thaw each spring, the chapel takes on a subtle earthy smell that is sometimes sweet and other times pungent.  Last year this continued until late spring, when the earth had discharged all its trapped gases.  And as time went on, the smells became less pungent and more sweet.  Finally, there was no odor at all, just the pure smell of the incense that we use.  Today, as the first pungent smells of spring entered the chapel, I was noticing how this is just like hearts.

We spend years in spiritual winter, with the frozenness of our hearts locking in many feelings and experiences.  When the warmth of real love begins to melt away our protection and bracing, these feelings come to the surface.  Early in the spiritual life, the warmth of this love feels good.  It is pleasant and hearts rejoice as they begin to relax and open.  But inevitably, the sadness, anger, fear and resentment that have been locked within for so long begin to loosen and come to the surface.  These feelings can be hard to face, address and let go of.  But if we have the courage to let this happen, we start to feel better.  We get more comfortable with the process, see positive results and do it some more.  Eventually, however, we come to a point where we have the opportunity to let go in a much deeper way and to become a completely new person.  We intuit that we are on the verge of tremendous transformation.  This threshold is usually frightening because we do not know who we will become, how to do it and what the process will look like.  We cannot control it or manage it.  We can only let the old person die so the new person can emerge.  This is the “eye of the needle” through which we must pass to really experience the love of God and there is no other way.

It is no coincidence that the season of Lent precedes the season of Spring and that this symbolic play of scents happens in our chapel at this same time of year.  On Sunday I spoke to our students and community about this.  They have been in the process of courageously letting their hearts thaw, receiving the warmth of God’s love and letting long-held feelings go.  And many of them are getting to the point, where if they really want to become new, if they really want to know the love of God, they need to jump from the precipice of what they have been and what they have known, into the love of God.  I encouraged them to let this miraculous process of death and resurrection happen in them.  I say the same to all who are willing to die to themselves in order to come into the love of God.  There would be no room for new growth on the trees in spring if they did not let go of their leaves in the fall.  And the trees do so with quite a celebration of color and beauty, don’t they.  It is more joyful in God’s sight when WE are willing to let go and die to the old so that God can draw us close and fill us with the life and love that we have always wanted.  So take a lesson from the seasons and from the thawing of the ground around our chapel — take courage, really let go, JUMP…and let the miracle of Easter happen in you.

By Rev David, Priest, New York