Easter

Today is Easter. We had stake conference so we were once removed from typical Easter observance such as they occur in the LDS church. We don't seem to be given to doing anything that would officially create "special days" (other than the sabbath itself) or "special places".

While I was in Austria I was aware of lots of "High Days" celebrated by the Catholic Church, where it was more expected than usual to be found in church. There were also lots of places where significant things had occurred, like an appearance of Mary, or a painting or some such that would do something (like bleed) at certain times. People would flock to these places, or gather at these special times under the belief that a petition to God or a saint would have increased potency in a particular place or at a particular time. I guess it was like the pool mentioned in the New Testament, where the people would go to be healed by being the first to jump in after the angel troubled the water.

While not wanting to belittle others' beliefs, I think my church is of the opinion that every time is the best time to petition God for our needs and wants, and no place is better to do it in than by the side of your own bed.

For this reason, while we observe Easter with the rest of Christendom, others may observe that we don't make as big a deal of it as they do. But in truth, every time we participate in the sacrament, we are observing Easter.

Elder Holland was at our conference this time around. He said he could count on one hand, the times he'd been assigned to a conference in Utah during his 14 years as an apostle. Not bad for us. It was a great bunch of meetings. The thing that sticks out most from what he and Elder Keyes said during the three sessions was that if there is any witnessing of Christ that is going to occur in our stake, we're the ones who are going to do it. We (speaking of the leadership specifically) have "signed up" for discipleship and what are we going to do about it? It was all quite inspirational and I really came away with the feeling that I want to more about being more successful in fulfilling my duties than I have been in the past.

What I really want to write about though is a thought I got the day before yesterday while on a hike. (I get my best thoughts on hikes.) Here it is: If I'm harboring hard feelings for another person--not being willing to forgive them of some alleged sin or other--then it's proof that I haven't received or maintained forgiveness of my own--decidedly unalleged--sins. Forgiveness is a package deal. It's a gift of God, and if we aren't possessed with the quality of forgiveness, then we are not forgiven for our own faults. It's not something God withholds from us because he's petty enough to hold forgiveness hostage until we offer it to others; It's just that when the gift of forgiveness comes to us, it erases the sins others' sins against us at the same time it erases ours. That may sound rough, but I'm convinced it's true. To believe otherwise I think would make God as small and petulant as we sometimes are.

Easter is all about atonement. We need to realize that it comes as a complete product, or it doesn't come at all.