Around this time two years ago, a friend gifted me with an insight that was not hers, but rather from a line in Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, “The Wreck of the Deutschland”: “Let him Easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us.” Easter as a verb! Wow! Now there’s something to pray for and think about. I’m glad that Fr. Gerry McFlynn, an Irish priest, has done so. He writes:

Hopkins’ use of the word “Easter” as a verb instead of a noun, is instructive and pregnant with meaning. It reminds us powerfully that Easter is something that happens to us. It is about action, about living, about being transformed. Christ enters and “easters” in us, sharing his risen life with us. It reminds us, too, of St Paul’s famous saying: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me” (Gal 2: 19-20).

Christ eastering within us means we have a new centre and core from which to live. We now live Christ’s life. In this sense Easter is more than a day, an event, a remembrance, but rather a way of life.

Read the full article here.