EASTER AND THE HUMAN CONDITION (Rev. Dr. Valson Thampu)
The best and worst we can do with anything, alas, is to ritualize it. The best, because ritualization is the most effective mode of preservation and perpetuation. More than diamonds, rituals are forever. That is also the problem. What is envisaged to last forever is also rendered petrified; or, as we say, like what’s written on stone.
To do justice to the significance of Easter, we have to recognize and respect its fixed and fluid aspects. What should be deemed fixed, or unchanging, is the fundamental pattern. What should be fluid, and therefore, undogmatic must be its paraphernalia. We, however, do exactly the opposite. We deify the superfluities and ignore the kernel of meaning.
Let us see how this works.
