Easter Blessings from the Dean

March 21, 2024

Alleluia Christ is Risen!

My dear siblings in Christ, I’m writing this looking ahead to Holy Week with the anticipation that the road to Golgotha will once again lead us through the cross to our final destination, the freedom of the Resurrection. 

When we imagine freedom, what do we think of? Do we say, ‘I am free because this person or that institution cannot keep me from doing what I want.’ Is that true freedom? Or is freedom about the ability for us to act deliberately in line with God’s ultimate wish for this creation?

St. Augustine tells us that true freedom requires us to take into account the end of human life and the destination of all creation. We are free when we act with a purpose that aligns with what God ultimately has in mind for us and all of creation. Thomas Aquinas explores this further saying that “humans have dominion over material things only as regards their use.” In other words, the world is God’s, and we are simply stewards of it. Aquinas says we “ought to possess external things, not as [our] own, but as common, so that [we] are ready to communicate them to others in their need.”

These thinkers help me to see Christ’s resurrection as bringing us the freedom to act without fear to promote the well-being of all creation. We are gifted freedom from fear, freedom from death to work with God to make the World as it Is more like the World as it Should Be.

This Easter in celebration of our freedom, I invite everyone to consider designating an Easter portion above and beyond what we already give in common to further Christ’s work in transforming the world. This could be a financial gift, a gift of volunteering time or presence, or something else that we steward on God’s behalf.

Some suggestions include:

1) Financial Donations: to general Cathedral ministries, to Veterans/Regimental Ministries, the Maundy Cafe, or PWRDF.

2) Volunteering Time Donations: Serving at the Altar, Greeting on Sunday, mid-week Narthex Greeter, serving as intercessor, volunteer receptionist, or at the Maundy Café.

Our clergy, staff and ministry leaders would be delighted to support you in your discernment.

May this Easter be a time to step into the freedom God has given us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Easter Blessings,

The Very Rev. Christopher Papas
Dean and Rector