Time to transform

Easter can be a time of transformation.  During the Easter season we celebrate the paschal mystery - the death and rising to new life of Jesus so the Spirit could be released into God's creation.

There is need for transformation everywhere; from our biggest, most complicated systems to our own individual selves.

Sisters of St. Joseph all across the planet are committed to living and working that all may be one.  This is a mission of converting (transforming) what is disparate into one.  It is letting what is not bringing about the common good die so that God's spirit can shine through.  Our society needs to be transformed from one that is increasingly polarized and caustic to one where we see each other as traveling together toward a common goal.  Our civic divisions stretch from the corridors of Congress to the Tea Party groups.  Harsh rhetoric abounds.  Our church surely needs to be transformed.  The sexual abuse scandal obscures and taints all the good that the church does.  The inability of the Roman hierarchy to scale its own defenses and speak to the hearts of those who suffered and are still suffering is taking an awful toll.

Easter can be a time of transformation.  Transformation and conversion begin in our own hearts.  Joan Chittister, OSB, puts it this way:  "(Easter) is a day of decision.  What is really to be decided is whether or not we ourselves will rise from the deadening grip of this world's burnt-out systems to the light-giving time of God's coming again, this time in us."  Transformational work to be sure.