Jesuit Journeys
Spring/Summer 2005

BY FR.George Winzenburg, SJ

They stood silently facing east, side by side, their heads bowed in prayer. With open hands a Navaho couple visiting from Arizona greeted the morning sun and humbly offered their day to God. Raised to love the Church and to follow Jesus, Ralph and Claudine came to the Sioux Spiritual Center last year as catechists seeking new ways to pass on their Catholic faith. Their morning offering was as gentle as the morning breeze, their posture a reminder that honoring creation is profound prayer.

I wake each morning in western South Dakota, west of the Missouri River. The land is semi-arid and nearly treeless. So wide is the prairie that the sun seems to rise out of one distant edge and in the evening to set on the opposite edge. The weather is extreme and the winds so strong that one can feel their strength. Moisture is a topic of conversation every Sunday for church-goers from early spring through May. How much will it rain?

The land in western South Dakota is drenched with sun through all four seasons. Quite naturally, Lakota ancestors knew that the sun, like the rain, is essential to health and to all life. Oglala author Luther Standing Bear wrote many years ago that in the spring the sun’s warmth brought forth new grass; in the summer its heat cured the skins, dried the meat, and preserved food for storage; and in the winter the Lakota bathed their bodies in the sunshine. Without these life-giving rays all would be death.

Easter is the springtime of Christian life. We end 40 days of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in a celebration of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. We call this series of events the paschal mystery. Through the self-emptying love of Jesus on the cross and the Father raising him to new life, we enter a new covenant relationship of forgiveness and life with God. Through Jesus the kingdom of God is made present.

We began the Easter Vigil by praying, “Easter is the Passover of the Lord: if we honor the memory of his death and resurrection then we may be confident that we shall share his victory over death and live with him forever.” Our prayer continues in the Exultet: “The power of this night dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy; it casts out hatred, brings us peace, and humbles earthly pride.”

On a bright, sunny Easter day I began the 50-day Easter season by baptizing an infant boy in a small, wood-framed church in Cherry Creek. Lakota there call themselves Mniconju – “those who plant by the water.” Light and water are two powerful symbols in the Easter liturgy. Light dispels evil and water gives us rebirth through baptism. Christ is the light, and we are His beloved sons and daughters. He brings us through the darkness of winter to greet the morning sun and the promise of life renewed in the days and months ahead.

He brings us through the darkness of winter to greet the morning sun and the promise of life renewed in the days and months ahead.

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