April 12, 2009
By Solange De Santis

FLORENCE, Italy – Referring to the earthquake that devastated the Italian town of L'Aquila in the Abruzzi region six days earlier, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori marked Easter Day here by asking whether men and women can always recognize the risen Christ.

"The Easter question for us is always, do we recognize what we're seeing? Can we see newly risen life in L'Aquila? . Can we see Jesus in unexpected joy?" she said in a sermon delivered at St. James Church, the so-called "American church" in Florence celebrating the end of its centennial year.

Referring to the day's Gospel reading from the book of John, Jefferts Schori noted that the first two disciples to discover that Christ's body was gone from the tomb returned home and did not understand what they had witnessed. Mary Magdalene, who stayed by the sepulcher to grieve, saw the resurrected Christ, but at first did not recognize him. When she did, she then went to tell the disciples.

"In Easter, God has reworked the nature of creation. Death is no longer the end of things. We live in the assurance that the deaths in Abruzzi are being turned for life, even though we may not see or recognize it for a long time. That hope is sustained in communities like this one – where the resurrected one keeps that hope lively in some so that it may inflame and infect others' despair," she said.

The death toll from the 6.3-magnitude earthquake on April 6 has risen to 293, with 40,000 homeless. On Good Friday, flags in Italy flew at half-staff to mark a day of mourning as a mass outdoor funeral service took place in L'Aquila. Pope Benedict XVI, at the traditional outdoor Easter mass in St. Peter's Square, said, "May the risen Christ . inspire in all the necessary wisdom and courage to proceed united in the building of a future open to hope."

After the St. James service, Jefferts Schori noted in an interview that Episcopal Relief and Development, the church's disaster-relief and economic development agency, is accepting donations for earthquake victims and intends to funnel them through the Italian Red Cross.

She referred to ministries at St. James, asking, "Can we find the presence of the risen one in those who come here to St. James to be fed? . The Italian families who are served here at St. James each week are finding a glimpse of new life as they wait for the kind of dignity that will let them feed their families in an ongoing and reliable way. The students who come here for dinner on Wednesday are eager for community that will tell them they matter, even as strangers in a strange land." St. James runs a food bank and serves about 100 families. It also hosts a weekly low-price dinner for young people in Florence on study programs.

The full text of the Presiding Bishop's sermon can be downloaded at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/041209_PBEasterSermon.doc.

Episcopal News Service
Solange De Santis is the editor of Episcopal Life Media.