Thinking Holy Week

I have never read it, but all this past half century, since a professor of mine, who had completed a short course at Oxford and became, and still is, a Carmelite nun, mentioned  the Gerald Vann lecture on The Two Trees, I have been captivated by the image. Gerald Vann,  a Benedictine priest, was a celebrated British  theologian. 

In 1948, he delivered a series of  broadcast lectures entitled The Two Trees. There are two trees in our lives: the first  in the Garden of Eden,  from which we fell from grace, and the other, the tree on Calvary, where Christ met his martyrdom.  

We struggle through life, with our imperfections and sins, allured by the glow of the first tree.  Its green boughs and refreshing shade entice us and we reap unearned riches, lose our honor us human beings, and "die in a ditch like a dog" (Pasternak). 

Or, with faith and grace, we win the salvation of the second tree. We suffer for our sins, but we are given the means  and the power to renew ourselves. 

The beautiful thing about the Passion of Christ and the joy of  Easter is that they are ours to garner and be enriched with. 

We do not have to  be saints or heroes; we just have to be our humble, believing and paying-our-dues selves. We have to be giving and forgiving folks, generous with our belief in the goodness of others and contrite when we make fools of ourselves, which is most of the time.

I was a boy when I first  heard of the Two Trees. The two trees stand tall, each with its promise, and a beautiful picture of the sadness, and also, and finally, the glory of the life and passion of Christ. Happy Easter!