Easter under a cloud

It might be me, but this Easter hasn’t felt much like Easter. We seem to be stuck in a crucifixion loop, and our sure and certain hope of the resurrection no longer feels so neat and tidy.

I’ve been plodding through the 14th century mystical text The Cloud of Unknowing. The anonymous author advises us to climb above our usual way of thinking of the kindness and worthiness of God:

’… thou shalt step above it stalwartly, but listily, with a devout and pleasing stirring of love, and try to pierce that darkness above thee. And smite upon that thick cloud of unknowing with a sharp dart of longing love.’

But this is no longer just the spiritual aspiration of the individual contemplative, as it was for the writer of The Cloud. It has become our shared position in these plague years. That central great Benevolence to which we all looked, whatever we called it – is it really so benevolent now? We find ourselves faced by a thick cloud of unknowing, onto which the soul can only heave itself in its ignorance. We must step stalwartly above our assumptions about goodness, and go where there is nothing.

And when the cloud lifts, things may look very different.

If you can’t have a happy Easter, I hope you have a blessed one. And if you pray in any way, shape or form, please pray for the people of Myanmar.