Holy week seems to unite, yet Jews celebrate early in the week, while for Christians the end of the week becomes important. Even though these festivals fall together, their meaning separates those who celebrate. Religion still puts us in different boxes more than commerce, work or geographic location. If we could perceive the various faith communities as individual drawers in a large cabinet and their content as sharing the same space, we might even find that some items can be “misplaced” from one drawer to the next. Whole drawers might be exchangeable in a well-made cabinet. Therefore, let us concentrate on the cabinet as a whole. We should be guided by the overarching structure and meaning of the Holy or Numinous. Individual drawers (faiths) are full of cultural clutter, traditional trinkets, sediment of sentiments. These obscure the substance and meaning of the Holy.

Spring is traditionally a time to clean out winter’s accumulation of dust and worse garbage. It asks us to evaluate what we can or even must throw out and what we should keep. Let this also be a time for mental and emotional spring cleaning, so that our inner house becomes redy to open up to guests who may bring surprising gifts of insight.