Easter is upon us. Literally, in the Far East as I (and bugsey) write. Unless you're Orthodox, in which case it's next week, not this week. Don't ask me. The whole idea is that this unorthodox and countercultural Jewish rabbi got himself killed and then resurrected into life, in accordance with his (or his group's) interpretation of the oracles of Isaiah. He had a cup of coffee with his disciples and then was transported into Heaven. Where he should have been in the first place. Maybe he left his wallet on the Last Supper table, like I do when I drive to the supermarket, and he had to come back to get it. Amazing, the things that an editor can choose to leave out of a story. This resurrection into eternal bliss after death is promised to all who claim to be witnesses of what happened to Jesus. So I have a question: why is anybody here?

The Gnostics, as you've heard all about thanks to gnosisquest, believe that humans are on Earth as the result of a mistake in the divine order, that with enough knowledge we can rectify that mistake and reclaim our lofty domain in the cosmos. I had a minister once who was heavily Gnostic in his interpretations of Christian scripture, who spoke constantly of "going home". So I have a question: why is anybody here?

I mean, really. If eternal bliss is all it's cracked up to be, what the hell am I doing sitting here sweating over tax forms? Is that where Dante's Inferno comes from? "You'd better stay right here with your nose to that grindstone, buddy, because you never know." Is that why Calvin argued predestination? "Even the saint can go to hell if that's what God wants - and I need you here paying tithes. So ..."

I reckon that living your life in the hope of paradise is one of life's great gambles. A possibly futile one. If it's true, why are we here? If it's not, why do we have people who believe it? Why do we even talk about it? Why isn't the holiday all about a bloody free-for-all over who can bite the most ears off the most chocolate bunnies?

I argue that we celebrate the resurrection less for what it tells us about eternal life than what it tells us about our earthly one. Right here, right now. What was the principal point of the healing acts of Jesus? The second chance. The lifting up of one thought eternally condemned, and hence deformed or terminally ill, back whole into the community. "So that you will see that on Earth the Son of Man has the power to forgive sins ..." Ladies and gentleman, in the stories, the Son of Man was interpreted to mean Jesus of Nazareth. I submit to you that Jesus himself would have taken it to mean "humanity". You and me. The shackles of sin are the ones that we ourselves impose. "How many times am I to forgive my neighbor?" "Not seven times but seventy-seven times". "In America, you always get a second chance."

Maybe that's why we keep Easter around. Think about it.

   - O Ceallaigh

Copyright © 2006 Felloffatruck Publications. All wrongs deplored.

All opinions are mine as a private citizen.