‘Make the World Better for Someone Else’

“Oh, how we miss seeing you here!” cried the Right Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, standing alone in an empty Cathedral, offering a special Easter homily that was filmed and shared with the Cathedral schools this week.
“Someday, I don’t know when, we will be able to gather together again in our classrooms and gymnasiums, here in the Cathedral … It will be wonderful. We will be so grateful for things we may have taken for granted before.”

“But unfortunately, and you know this,” she continued, “there are some things that aren’t going to be the same … We may always feel sad for what we have lost — the things we have lost, the people we have lost, the opportunities we have lost. But God’s promise to us in Jesus is this: What feels like the end is never the end, the worst things that happen are never the last things. Even when someone dies, or a dream in us dies, there will be a life again, a new life, waiting for us on the other side.”

Bishop Mariann offered students practical advice: “For now, every day, strive to learn whatever it is you can learn now. Ask God to help you live each day with patience, kindness, and good humor. Practice forgiveness whenever you can, with yourself and other people. Look for good every day, and find the good in others. Be sure to listen to the angels when they show up in your life. I am talking about the human kind now, the ones who are always able to say just what you need to hear.”

And she offered inspirational advice: “Whenever you feel a stirring inside to do something really brave, something especially kind: to generously share what you have, to speak up for people who aren’t getting what they need, maybe to call someone that you fear is alone, pay attention. Pay attention to that stirring and do what it tells you to do because that is God inviting you to help make the world better for someone else … That’s how the Easter promise of resurrected new life takes hold not just for us but for the world, when people like you and me not only receive it for ourselves but go out and share that love for others. It’s something we can make happen.”