Easter Conspiracy!

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

When I hear these words, I think of two spies meeting for the first time.  They're looking for their contact, whom they will recognize by their response.  

Psssst!  Christ is risen!

This is not too far off from the experience of the first disciples.  Their leader had been executed as a criminal, a threat to the Empire.  They were terrified.  Those who hadn't fled had gone into hiding together.  The terror turned to confusion, and then wonder and joy, as they encountered the risen Christ.  But this joy could not be widely shared without marking them as co-conspirators with the crucified one.  

Psssst!  Christ is risen!

When the imperial persecutions ended and Christianity was defined by empire, the conspiracy (literally, the breathing-with) of those who encountered the risen Christ continued.  It continued within the official Church as its breath, as its renewing source of life.  Sometimes the conspiracy was persecuted as heretical, sometimes it was ignored as "an idle tale" told by women (Luke 24:11).  Sometimes its passwords were co-opted by officials for their own purposes, leading to confusion about God's dream for us.  But the conspiracy, the breathing-together of disciples, continued.  It continues today.

The trauma of the Passion is vivid and enduring.  We see it today in the lives of those enslaved and those who enslave, in the tortured and the torturers, in the prisoners and those who imprison, in the hungry and the overfed, in homeless shelters and mansions full of drugs.  The Passion continues.

But so does Resurrection.  Every time the forces of "this world" think the conspiracy has been crushed it springs forth.  This is how the Spirit works.  It cannot be extinguished.  Like Jesus breathing on the disciples that first Easter morning (John 20:22), the Spirit breathes on us and through us as we carry the words of hope.  As Companions of Mary Magdalene, who first announced the password, we are conspirators - conSpiritors - of resurrection.   As Christians, we conspire to manifest the Kingdom of God.

Join the conspiracy.  Dare to look at your neighbor and say, "Christ is risen!"  Show them what that means through your life and actions.  And teach them how to answer: "The Lord is risen indeed!"

Alleluia!