Mark Katrick faith column: Amid doom and gloom, Easter is a time to be on top of the world

It’s Nov. 11, and I’m celebrating an early Easter even earlier in Vermont. My sanctuary is the 2,409-foot summit of Hogback Mountain with its spectacular 100-mile view.

What has brought me to the Green Mountains is a birthday celebration my children have planned for me. And I can’t think of a place in this whole wide world I’d rather be. When it’s one of those birth dates with a zero at the end, you want to be around your loved ones.

Whatever the calendar says and however a person my age should be acting, I only have one thing to say: ALLELUIA!

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Allow me to repeat that, and shout it from the mountain tops: ALLELUIA!

CHRIST THE LORD IS RISEN TODAY!

Easter Sunday is when the darkest, gloomiest clouds get parted and the weightiest, thickest blanket of fog gets evaporated by the brightest, most glorious sunshine a person could ever envision.

Scripture gives no indication of the elevation at the site of Jesus’s tomb, near the Garden of Gethsemane. But Mary of Cleopas, Salome and Mary Magdalene, who came by there to anoint his body, must have felt like they were on top of the world when his resurrection was announced.

The Good News began to spread amongst the divine-human One’s disciples and friends. Then, he started making appearances in his brand new, resurrected body. I can only imagine the elation and joy those courageous and determined women, who never left Jesus’ side during his passion and death, must have been experiencing.

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The only thing that comes to mind are words we typically use at Easter-time — rejoicing, renewal, and rebirth — to describe a truly untypical event; the raising from the dead of our Lord and Savior.

The Risen Christ’s words came to light for me that day on Hogback summit and echoed across the peaks and valleys into Massachusetts and New Hampshire. And as another year passed me by, these timeless verses came to life, right before my very eyes.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” John 11:25-26.

And that “(neither) height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:39.

ALLELUIA! AMEN!

Mark Katrick is a pastor and spiritual guide.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Mark Katrick faith column: Amid doom and gloom, Easter offers hope