A Personal Story of My Passover/Easter Experience, 2022

This weekend—Passover and Easter weekend—I spent in a special way.  I flew from California to Chicago (my first flight in 2.5 years due to COVID) to attend my brother-in-law’s memorial service.  It was held in a large basement room in my niece’s and husband’s home in Indiana.

It was, as family reunions often are, rich and exciting, interacting with several generations of relatives and their partners, relearning their struggles and achievements over the years since we last gathered.  And sharing stories—and lots of laughs—from the past and about the future.   Gathering too were neighbors, co-workers, friends, an ex-husband of my sister and other persons who knew the deceased, some back to the days they attended high school together. 

The emphasis of course during the actual memorial service was on the stories about Buzz, my brother-in-law.  It was very moving to see so many people testify to how Buzz touched their hearts and lives—a reminder that we all touch one another often much more deeply than we realize—and that we all want to “leave behind a gift” as Otto Rank puts it.

It was beautiful that Buzz left behind so many gifts and especially for the younger generations for he deeply loved—and was loved by—his step grandchildren with whom he had a special bond and mode of communicating.  He laughed a lot and got others to laugh a lot and would light up a room when he entered, a kind of pied piper of joy, wherever he went.

Buzz was Jewish and his wife, my sister, is a Catholic, so part of their life was navigating, and succeeding in, an ecumenical marriage.  Thus it was especially fitting to have his memorial service (he died about one week previously) on this special season of the year. 

In my opening blessing I invoked both the meaning of Passover and the constant need for the Liberation it promises from Pharaohs of our day and the slaveries of our times and not just the Egyptian times.  And, of course, I spoke to the Resurrection promise that death does not have the last word.  A young Jewish woman on the platform with me followed up my blessing by singing a Hebrew prayer for the dead in Hebrew and beautifully so.  It felt like Passover and Easter really came together.

We meditated in yesterday’s DM on the “First Resurrection” as understood by Paul, Aquinas and Eckhart as Christ rising in us and waking up.  The memorial service I attended this weekend in the mid-west was designed and planned with immense work and creativity, the making of food and decorating of spaces, that in turn invited heart-felt toasts and memories to one man named Buzz.  He clearly practiced the virtues of Joy, Compassion and Humor in a special way (along with his day job as a lawyer).   

We learned anew what a powerful reminder a person’s life can be.  These virtuous archetypes, these universal teachings, are with us always. 

Each of our lives can be a unique statement about the virtues, values, resurrections that we are good at and that move, motivate and excite us.  And bless others.

See Matthew Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas, pp. 167-172, 97-100, 37-44.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.

Banner Image: “Circle of Love.” Photographer unknown.

Queries for Contemplation

What are your most prominent virtues and values?  How are they blessing others?  Are there more ways to get them into the world?

Recommended Reading

The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times

A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book!  Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit