 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Leadership. Character. Commitment. |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
April 11, 2003 |
|||||||||
"The Promise of Easter" |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
The Senate will soon recess. Members will travel. Many will go home, meet with constituents, visit with friends, and attend Rotary Club lunches, Veterans of Foreign Wars rallies, and other important civic events. Some members will travel overseas, visiting U.S. troops and military facilities around the world in order to get a first-hand look at conditions and morale, or meeting with U.S. embassy personnel for detailed assessments of world events. After the contentious debates and harried schedules of past weeks on Capitol Hill, some Members may just relax and enjoy the beauty of spring. Spring is such a gentle season. The air is soft, the earth is moist, the new leaves and blades of grass are tender, not like the superheated air of summer that parches the
earth, toughening leaves and drying lawns into crispy, crunchy deserts. Even the colors of springtime are gentle, all soft purples, buttery yellows and pale pinks of lilac, daffodil, and hyacinth. Only later, in the summer sun,
come the vibrant oranges, deep reds, and gaudy color mixes of sun- and heat-loving flowers like marigolds, zinnia, and geranium. In this most gentle of seasons, the contrast between the beauty outdoors and the images
saturating the airwaves is difficult to reconcile. Images of war waged in distant cities in a distant land, of gunfire, bombs, and ambushes, of sudden death and the loss and anguish of families both here and there, do not seem to
match the mood of springtime, with its message of birth and life and growth. But the holiday that Christians celebrate this season contains all of these paradoxes. Easter is tragedy and loss, capture and death, as well as
rebirth and new life, everlasting. The story of Easter is monumental. It is theater for the ages, unmatched by Sophocles, Euripides, or Shakespeare, because it is true. Easter is the history of one man, his life and
death highlighted in the annals of history as few individuals are. Though full of miracles beyond wonder and betrayal beyond believing, the story of Jesus of Nazareth ends on a stirring note of hope. His death, the price of life
everlasting for mankind, offers solace and hope to the families who have lost sons and daughters, husbands and wives, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Indeed, the Easter story offers comfort to all of us. When you have
lived as long as I have, and have been as blessed as I to have and have had many good friends over the years, you must also live with the loss of those friends and loved ones. Not a day passes but that the untimely loss of my grandson
Michael does not make my heart ache. Recently, my colleague and good friend, the former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, passed away at the age of 76. I miss him. I miss my faithful and loving little dog Billy, who died
last year. All things in this life must pass. But their memories warm my heart and their friendship is etched in the laugh lines on my face. My belief in the Creator hand in his promise of life everlasting in his presence
gives me support and comfort.
Though nothing can bring back the hour The poet William Wordsworth wrote that, in his ode, "Intimation of Immortality." This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, marking Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is a joyous day, but shadowed now by the
foreknowledge of what is to come on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday -- dark, sad days relieved by the miracle of Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday, our spirits are lifted by the wondrous news of the resurrection and the
ascension. Those are uplifting words: resurrection and ascension, rebirth and, for Jesus, a homecoming to sit at the right hand of the Father, His Father. On Easter Sunday, surrounded by fresh spring
flowers, pretty Easter dresses and baskets of brightly colored Easter eggs, we again see Spring in its best light. We see it in the light of renewal and hope. We see it in the amazing story of Private Jessica Lynch of Palestine,
West Virginia. The State of West Virginia, and the entire nation, rejoices in your safe recovery. Your homecoming will be a day to remember forever. My thanks, and the nation's, go out to the brave and honorable Iraqi
nationals who risked so much to bring her aid and the daring service personnel who rescued her. You carried her from a dark and awful fate into the bright spring of reunion and homecoming. A poem that I first
memorized long ago, when I was a child growing up in West Virginia, reminds us all of how we are touched by the presence of others. The rose that has perfumed this humble lump of clay is my sweet wife, Erma. In
just under 50 days, we will celebrate 66 years of marriage. They have been good years, filled with many Easter mornings. Now, as I look forward to watching my great grandchildren hunt for their Easter eggs in the green grass, I
am grateful for the opportunity to see so many generations grow up. My sense of hope for the future is redoubled, as it is each Easter time. In the midst of war, there is life. In the midst of uncertainty, there is
faith. After each winter, there is Spring. |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||