“Early in the morning, on the first day of the week…..”  This is how the Easter narrative begins. There is something beautiful and strange about this simple matter-of-fact sentence. The beginning of another week, another day; the familiar cycles of life and time continue. Its ordinariness is oddly comforting.  When the security of our world has been shattered by violence and death, we long for the ‘ordinary’, the ‘normal’, the familiar, even the banal.  Yet, this sentence is anything but ‘ordinary.’ It quietly opens into a new time and a new world: a world that is now defined, saturated, by the resurrection. 

The deep purples of Lenten repentance and sorrow are changed to a delicate rose colour. They signal that for today the rigours of our Lenten journey can lightened.  This Sunday we can stop to rest for a moment and contemplate the goal of our journey – the homecoming of Easter.