Column: The Fragrance of Easter

(Columns often contain opinions which belong to the author)

At first, I thought that I had finally contracted COVID.

I had purchased an Easter lily, and one bud had finally broken into bloom, but I couldn’t smell it.  I knew that one of the signs of COVID was loss of smell, so even though I didn’t have any other symptoms of the disease, I thought that was the explanation.

It wasn’t until Good Friday that five of the seven blooms on my Easter lily opened, and I could finally inhale the fragrance of Easter. One flower was not enough, I needed a bouquet. Now, my home is filled with the scent of lilies. 

It wasn’t COVID that prevented me from inhaling Easter.  It was just that one bloom couldn’t do it on its own. It needed a bouquet. It needed a community. 

By nature, I’m an introvert, and I find refreshment in solitude.  The past several years have been difficult, and I felt the need to take a step back to facilitate my own healing. I was still a person of faith. I was still a person of love.  But I was a solitary bloom; the fragrance was being lost. I needed to be part of a bouquet.

St. Paul, in his second letter to the people of Corinth wrote, “Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God. (II Cor. 2:15 Msg.). Note the use of the plural – we. We give off a sweet scent.  We can do it alone but the Fragrance of Christ, the Fragrance of Easter is most powerful in community. That is the scent that lingers. It’s the reason that churches are filled with flowers on Easter morning; having just one bloom won’t do.

There is another element to being the fragrance of Christ.

It’s been said that of all senses, smell is the most powerful. One whiff of a familiar odor can transport us back to a time, place or person. When my mother died, I kept a vial of her favorite perfume. Whenever I want to feel her presence, I inhale it and then step into a small spray of the perfume. She’s with me again. And people who never knew my mother can also inhale her sweet fragrance.

As persons who follow the Risen Christ, together, we are to share the fragrance of Easter, especially with those who have lost their sense of smell or who remain locked in the smell of fear and death and despair. 

When the stone of the tomb of Jesus was rolled away, it brought in the morning light and the aroma of dawn to that place of death.  When Jesus stepped out of that darkness, he brought out the fragrance of Resurrection, the fragrance of Easter. 

One of the first commands he gave to Mary Magdalene that morning was to go and tell his disciples that he had risen. She was the first to give off that sweet fragrance of new life in Jesus. She wouldn’t be the last. That is now our mission. For we are the fragrance of Christ, the fragrance of Easter.

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Taylor, is a retired Episcopal Priest and full-time animal lover.
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