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With the richness of Pascha celebrations, we might be tempted to believe that Christianity has a rock-solid stability. The recent Royal Wedding was celebrated in a magnificent church that had first stones set in place 1,000 years ago. In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI will beatify his predecessor, John Paul II, in rites that have antecedents even earlier. We all like to live knowing that we have one foot firmly planted in the eternal.

We might be forgiven for concluding that this is how the world is, that "God is in heaven and all is right with the world." Sure, having a sense of plantedness and security is very important for all human beings. And when our sense of place and plantedness are shocked, our hearts are most moved to outcry. We all viscerally respond to alterations at the core of our living. One foot may be firmly set in paradise, but the other--whether we know it or not--rests rather tentatively on a banana peel.

The Japanese people after the earthquake and tsunami. The wandering children in Africa who migrate across the plains at night to avoid being taken and forced into armed service. Our fellow Americans in the South who saw entire towns across the states disappear in the whirlwinds.

Permanence isn't so much so, after all. To change is to be alive. To live is to change, and to change often. And these little sayings don't even begin to hint at the pain and suffering when abrupt, unexpected changes visit so suddenly. It is for that reason that we must be ready to respond--not from gratitude that our homes are safe and secure and we can return there, but because we know that all of us stand upon sand, and because we must at any time be ready to reach out to those who have lost their place.

In this time after Pascha, when for fifty days we celebrate the Eternal to which Christ leads us, we can be more generous with our time, talents, treasures, and prayers for those to whom life is more banana peel than a paradisiacal garden. Whether it be a donation to Red Cross or a Christian relief services appeal, a few hours spent at a soup kitchen or food pantry, or time spent away--and I don't mean just praying in the comfort of home--where focus is on prayer and recollection--these are all ways we can respond to those displaced and whose lives are endangered, and for those who go in harm’s way.

This also is a season when we can thank God for being with us in the person of Christ and in the Community of faith to which we belong.
Knowing that to live is to change makes our relatively modest changes more faithful when we are faithful to the exemplar, the Lord risen.

And when change comes in bigger doses, as change always does, we can reach out to others and savor what strength they share so lovingly and energetically.

Blessings and peace, always and everywhere.
Archbishop Peter