Chapel Post

Easter Muse

Here is an article that my mom posted in her blog. I thought you might like it:

Kate Braestrup is the author of a book about her experiences as chaplain for the Maine Warden Service.

"Here If You Need Me" starts as a chronicle of her life leading up to her decision to become a Unitarian Universalist Minister and a Warden Service Chaplain. Her husband, who had plans to go to seminary, was killed in a car accident. She makes a decision to carry on where he left off and attends seminary herself. In the book, she describes in detail her grief experience. She doesn't sugarcoat the pain. It is tough to keep reading at times due to the deep sadness she describes both with the grief she felt at the sudden loss of her husband and the grief she witnesses time and again in her work as a chaplain.




This past Easter week-end I read an interview done with her on NPR's "Speaking of Faith." When asked about her work, one of her quotes was this, "Sometimes the miracle is a life restored, but the restoration is always temporary. At other times, perhaps most of the times, a miracle can only be the resurrection of love beside the unchanged fact of death."

Easter celebrates the miracle of bodily resurrection after death. Christian hope is in the belief that one day we'll be reunited with loved ones who have died. I think for most people that means a physical, bodily presence of some sort. But, who knows? Sometimes I need a "God with skin on". Often, I'm not spiritual enough to find much comfort in "some days", as in "some day we'll be with God". I get impatient in the waiting room that life is. Braestrup, in her book, explores powerful ideas about comfort and the power of presence. As a chaplain she is to many suffering folks, "God with skin on". She doesn't provide false hope or meaningless platitudes and cliches. She sits with humans in their pain and despair. She serves as a channel for healing to begin. I think that's what she means by "a miracle can only be the resurrection of love". Healing begins and is nurtured with love and healing is always a miracle.

That, for me, is the Easter Story.

By Pam Brewer

http://pamsnewsmuse.blogspot.com/

Posted by Sam at 8:30 AM