Easter and the Healing of Wounded Souls

This season, as our culture focuses on bunnies laying chocolate eggs and the festive reflections of springtime, is a powerful reminder of hope. It emerges to bless any soul in need of healing, including our warriors touched by the challenges of combat operations. In the course of our lives; any one of us can face personal trauma.

For our veterans, trauma from combat brings the conflicting feelings of grief, anger, embarrassment and pride. The grief and anger often comes from the loss of fellow warriors, of innocent lives and sometimes lost relationships at home. Embarrassment comes from a sense of weakness tied to needing help or of recurring struggles over tragic memories. Often missing in our culture is the sense of dignity associated with hardship – especially suffering for the sake of others –, and the strength discovered in healing. Easter offers a strong reminder of this, making the message of Redemption deeper and more joyful than Easter Egg hunts and bunnies.

Holy Week is the high point of the Christian calendar, even more than Christmas. This is because it is all about getting a second chance in life and not merely getting gifts. Holy Week starts with Palm Sunday, which commemorates Jesus' entry into Jerusalem and the events leading to His death on the Cross. Maundy Thursday focuses on the Last Supper, where Jesus washed His disciples' feet and then told them that He would soon die and rise again. Good Friday commemorates the most significant event in human history, the death of Jesus on the Cross – when the debt of guilt for the sins of all mankind was paid for, voluntarily, to fulfill both the justice and mercy of God once and for all. Easter overshadows Good Friday, because the Resurrection of Jesus proves this redemption and the life to come is real. Popular culture today portrays God as distant, arbitrary, even cruel. The mercy of the Cross proves otherwise.

Warriors I encounter in my ministry as a National Guard Chaplain, as well as parishioners with regrets from the past, often ask me how God could ever forgive them for mistakes from long ago. Some of these friends have hung onto these spiritual wounds for decades.

"What ifs" and "if onlys" haunt the soul, even the faces of lost friends or terrible scenes of the past visit those who have endured much. When we nurse our regrets, how can we possibly find a second chance?

The death of Jesus had to be terrible because our guilt is terrible. Looking on His suffering, how can anyone claim to be such a mighty sinner that such suffering is not enough? St. Athanasius, in the Fourth Century, taught that the divinity of Jesus shows His sufficiency to die for us, just as His humanity lets Him represent us on that Cross. This is more than symbolism and more than some mere example of love.

His death can't be loving anyway unless it achieves something. We call this transaction of Justice "Substitutionary Atonement". We owe the debt, but He paid it for us. It is the heart of the Christian Faith.

The Resurrection of Jesus shows this to be real, because it proves His sovereignty even over death. Thus Christians know that He lives, and when He promises new life, He delivers. This is why Easter is so important, and why every Sunday is a mini-Easter throughout the year.

What better antidote to the despair faced by a wounded soul. Warriors are reminded of the dignity of suffering for the sake of others. Grief from the past is healed by a relationship of faith that reveals mercy. A new life is built, gratitude known, and pain is translated into ministry toward others who are wounded too. This is what makes Easter special, and it is sweeter than all the chocolate bunnies in the world!

Fr. Wes Clare is the Rector of St. Jude's in the Mountains Anglican Church. He is also the State Chaplain for the California National Guard and the Wing Chaplain for the 144th Fighter Wing in Fresno. He hosts a veterans' fellowship dinner at the church every Saturday at 5:30 p.m., called "The Landing Zone". He is a combat veteran from Desert Storm and also deployed to Iraq in 2009 as a chaplain.

Holy Week Schedule

Maundy Thursday Holy Eucharist – April 17, 6:30 p.m.

Good Friday Service with the Stations of the Cross – April 18, Noon and 6:30 p.m.

Easter Sunday Holy Eucharist – April 20, 8 a.m. and 10:15 p.m.