by Reverend Sir Knight Donald C. Kerr
Both of these events speak of springtime and new birth. They suggest that nothing is ever ended but everything becomes new. Both speak to us of hope in this special season giving us reason to believe in the future. Everyone likes to see something new, and spring is a time of renewal.
We are heirs of an immortal hope and miracle. We belong to a tradition that allows us to believe that there is more to life than what we can see or know. We are the recipients of an immortal promise, knowing that there is another side to injustice and iniquity and betrayal. In the resurrection of life is the belief that God overcomes tragedy and evil and death. The resurrection of life can transform darkness into light and misfortune into thankfulness.
Passover, likewise, can tell of a people who were reborn out of fear and despair and slavery into freedom and hope and opportunity. In the Jewish festival, as in Easter, is the assurance of a new horizon. From dejection and rejection people looked to a promised land.
As the immortal St. Paul once wrote: "If Christ be not risen, then our faith is foolishness, and there is no hope." These two ceremonies of Easter and Passover urge us to realize that the Creator of time designed life to go forward not backward. As Alexander Pope once said "Hope springs eternal within the human heart."
That is what this season implies. New vistas are unfolding, and the evolution of time moves us to a new horizon of tomorrow. So let us have a happy Easter and a joyful Passover! Hope is on the way just as surely as spring follows winter.
The Reverend Sir Knight Donald C. Kerr, a member of Beauseant Commandery No. 8, Baltimore, MD, is Pastor-emeritus of the Roland Park Presbyterian Church in Baltimore. He resides at 700 John Ringling Boulevard, Apt. E202, Sarasota, FL 34236-1586