And So We Must Rise: Easter Sunday
Call To Action's 2023 Lenten Calendar is a collaboration between the Anti-Racism Team (ART) and Indigenous Solidarity Collective. This calendar provides more than 40 days of prayer and study to guide our discernment of racial justice and lead us into solidarity with Indigenous communities. For each Sunday and holy day during Lent, we'll publish a reflection from an ART or Indigenous Solidarity Collective member. Following the reflection, we’ll feature a call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada as well as discussion questions for your own meditation.
Easter Sunday: April 9, 2023
“Faith forbids us from hopelessness.”
On behalf of the Indigenous Solidarity Collective, I want to thank each and every one of you who has enjoyed the Lenten and Advent calendars that we've created. Highlighting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's 94 Calls to Action has been an eye-opening experience for me and hopefully for many others.
It's fitting that an organization named Call To Action is uplifting these calls to action. We have spent all of Advent and Lent meditating and reflecting, asking hard questions about what we know about the history of our Church, the original people of this land, and our current relationship with both. With these calendars now complete, many of us may be wondering what to do next. Is now the time for action?
To answer that question, I want to highlight today's Gospel. The Gospel reading for today is, of course, the resurrection of Jesus. But instead of John's Gospel account, I want to point our attention to the Gospel according to Mark. It recounts the women finding the tomb empty and encountering a messenger that tells them that Jesus has risen from the dead. The last verse reads, "They made their way out and fled the tomb bewildered and trembling; but they said nothing to anyone, because they were so afraid."
They were afraid, and then the story ends. The whole Gospel of Mark actually stops there. (Two extended endings were added by other authors after the fact.) No story of the women witnessing a risen Christ and telling the other disciples, no Road to Emmaus or other post-resurrection appearances. Just bewilderment and fear, and then Luke's Gospel begins.
If I'm being truthful, I often find myself getting stuck in fear. Even at times when I am inspired by a powerful story or enraged by a horrific event, I look at the big task ahead and realize that taking action is a frightening endeavor. Like any anti-racist/anti-oppression work, solidarity can be scary. We are often paralyzed with inaction because we fear doing it wrong. We also live in a society so inundated with racism and phobias that being in solidarity with the marginalized risks punishment and isolation, further driving fear. However, we still must try. Inaction speaks volumes.
My Easter prayer for us individually, as a CTA community, and as a Church, echoes Tess Thompson's Christmas reflection: that faith forbids us from hopelessness.
Our faith tells us that the goal of our Lenten fasting and penance is not to proclaim our piousness from the rooftops. Our fasting is to rid ourselves and others of the chains that enslave us to injustice. It is to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and be a people and a church of integrity. The fasting God wants from us is real actions of repair, transformative healing, and holding those who oppress—including ourselves—accountable.
The Indigenous Solidarity Collective began with a book study, reading The Land is Not Empty by Sarah Augustine. At the end of the book, Augustine provides actionable items for people of faith to consider undertaking in solidarity and relationship with Indigenous peoples locally and nationally. As a working group within Call To Action, we must begin to think about acting, even if those actions are small. Easter, a season of renewal, is a perfect time to start.
I want us to live into resurrection hope by investing in Indigenous futures. I want us to live into resurrection joy by choosing to exist in ways that no longer lean into the despair that supports systems of death and the politics of extraction and violence. I want us to live into resurrection mystery by exploring the truth that we are, in ways that Indigenous wisdom teaches us and that Western ways of thinking are "rediscovering," connected to each other, our ancestors, and the land in deeper ways than we realize. We must act accordingly.
Lastly, with the recent news of the repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, the Vatican is left with a very real choice regarding reconciliation and solidarity. The repudiation is certainly a step in the right direction; however, the Vatican must take further action if it wants to right these current and historical wrongs. It has been far too long, and Indigenous peoples are still suffering under the consequences of a doctrine of domination.
The institutional church has nothing to lose but the things it has stolen. All of us—CTA members, the Church—cannot be afraid to be pushed into silence or punished. I pray that the pathway to reconciliation doesn't end with us being too afraid.
Happy Easter! Be not afraid. Christ is risen, and so we must rise.
—This Easter Sunday reflection was written by CTA Administrative Assistant and Indigenous Solidarity Collective member Revalon Wesson.
Suggestions for Almsgiving
As part of your Lenten practice, please consider donating to one or more of the following organizations:
Native American Land Conservancy
Shinnecock Kelp Farmers
About the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Between 2007 and 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada recorded the testimonies of more than 6,000 First Nations people across Canada either directly or indirectly affected by the residential school system. In June 2015, the commission released a final report with 94 calls to action directed at the Canadian government. The final 52 calls to action focus on reconciliatory policy implementation for the dismantling of systemic racism against Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
Call to Action 93 - 94
Newcomers to Canada
93. We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with the national Aboriginal organizations, to revise the information kit for newcomers to Canada and its citizenship test to reflect a more inclusive history of the diverse Aboriginal peoples of Canada, including information about the Treaties and the history of residential schools.
94. We call upon the Government of Canada to replace the Oath of Citizenship with the following:
I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada including Treaties with Indigenous Peoples, and fulfill my duties as a Canadian citizen.
