Low Sunday?

Sunday, April 22, 2001

Philippians 4:4 – Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. (NRSV)

From about the year 1400 on, the Sunday after Easter has been known as "Low Sunday" in parts of the Church. After the joy and celebration of Easter, things calmed down again, and Low Sunday marked a return to regular worship services. Christ was risen, but life went on more or less normally.

My wife and I always decorate the interior of our home for Easter. We hang wooden rabbits from the light fixture in the dining room. The Easter eggs that are in various places around the house remind us of the new life of the resurrection. A dish of hollow plastic eggs sits on the dining room table. There is an egg for each day from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, each containing something that recalls one of the events in this special week. An Easter lily blooms in the living room, filling the house with its sweet scent.

Today we will take the Easter things down, and put them away in the furnace room for another year. The Easter lily will stay and bloom a bit longer, though its days are numbered. But there is a part of our lives that should not go back to "normal" (whatever that may be) following Easter. The joy of the resurrection is not something we can pack away with the rabbit ornaments and the hollow plastic eggs. The joy of the risen Lord is not something that we rejoice in only during the week after Easter. It is something that we need to keep with us throughout the year.

May this Low Sunday be the first of many high, joyful Sundays, as we journey from this past Easter to the next! May we all walk in joy, rejoicing in the power of the risen Lord always!

Prayer: God of love and joy, we thank you once again for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. May we live in the joy of the risen Lord, and may we share that joy with those around us through the coming year. Amen.

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About the author:

Alex Bisset <wabisset@rogers.com>
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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