"Breathe" A Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, 19 April 2020

Easter 2, Year A, 2020

John 20:19-31; Acts 2:42-47

Easter is about the opening up and awakening of our spiritual hearts. It is about tapping into and living out of our deepest Self which is the Divine Heart of Love.

Yet, so many Christians and Western people “choose” to stay in the prisons of their minds.

In the mind is where fear is generated.

In the spiritual heart, love and freedom are generated. 

“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear” 

• not just fear of the authorities
• but a spiritual fear of surrendering, of surrendering to Love
•  
• And we find ourselves locked up now with fear of the Coronavirus, with fear of getting ill, with fear for our economy. 

As the “Teacher”, Jesus continues to teach the disciples even after his physical death and into his resurrection. 

The “Way” of Jesus, the path that he invites us into, is the opening up of the prisons of our minds, and the unlocking of our hearts in love.

So how does Jesus teach them to get out of the prisons of their heads and open their hearts for the life of love?

He “breathes,” he breathes his breath into the disciples. 

• as Easter people, Jesus invites us into his prayerful practice. 
• to follow Jesus is to die to self and rise to newness of life.
• to “breathe” with spiritual intention is part of the “how.”

It is our breath that gets us out of the prisons of our minds and into the abundant flow of love in our hearts. 

Not just our own breath, but Christ’s breath. When we breathe we breathe in Christ’s love, when we breathe out we breathe out Christ’s love. In doing so, we become forgetful of self and die to self. We fall into Love and we rise in Love.

In breathing Christ’s Love, we rise to newness of life with Christ.

We “become” Christ’s love. 

We become Easter people.

We become people of the Resurrection. 

We become conscious of the Divine life that we share in.

It is with this love that we are “sent” into the world. 

“As the Father has sent me so I send you”

To freely love and connect.

Let us not be locked up in fear.

Let us go deep into our hearts and know the image of Love that we are made in. And let us rise from our heart space, and breathe love and freedom on our families, communities, and on all of creation.