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Weekend Butler: I’m not a Christian. What can Easter mean to me? (It can mean good news!) Holiday Ham or Holiday Lamb. Vivaldi. Handel.
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Published: Apr 15, 2022
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Weekend
I’M NOT A CHRISTIAN. WHAT CAN EASTER MEAN FOR ME? (GOOD NEWS)
Easter is not my holiday.
I believe Jesus was a great spiritual presence, but I don’t believe in the Resurrection, so I’m not saved, I face death without a savior.
Not a pleasant thought to contemplate if you fear death.
If you’re not a Christian and you fear oblivion is your post-death destiny, these are hard times. For the usual reasons, plus the plague, changes in your work, the fraying of relationships. Is it too much to bear? Some days, it surely feels that way.
The good news, which I often forget: If you’re not a Christian, other traditions deliver somewhat the same message: the seasonal marker of rebirth, a new beginning, renewal.
It’s in so many cultures.
In Greek myths: the goddess Persephone returns from the underworld, carrying the shoots of new growth.
In Germany: The goddess Eostre — who gives us the name of this holiday — delivers the return of light and other forms of rebirth.
There are more, all carrying the same message: escape the finality of death by identifying with the rhythms of the seasons.
My reading for 50 years has focused on the East, so I am taken by Thich Nhat Hanh’s beautiful explanation of our existence:
This body is not me. I am much more than this body. The space of 50 or 60 or 70 years is not my lifespan. It is not true that I did not exist before I was born. It is not true that I will no longer exist after the disintegration of this body. My ground of being is the reality of no birth, no death. No coming, no going. It is like water is the ground of being of a wave. The wave might be afraid of being or non-being. But if she knows that she is water, she will lose all her fear. Nothing is born…nothing dies. Birth and death cannot really touch us. If you know that, you will be able to enjoy every second of your daily life — even if you are in terminal illness.
This is the quote at the beginning of my new book. It’s from the Dalai Lama, who says the same thing in just 9 words:
Death? No big deal. Just a change of clothes.
An important period in my life seems to have ended in late winter.
The beginning of spring signifies a new start.
Outside my window, a tree grows in East Harlem. It’s blossoming. Soon white petals will blow onto the sidewalk. A pavement of flowers for the people who walk down my street to get to Costco.
What can I think but this: It’s all holy.
A joyous holiday to you.
HOLIDAY HAM OR HOLIDAY LAMB
from Bistro Cooking
GIGOT ROTI AU GRATIN DE MONSIEUR HENRY
(Roast Lamb with Monsieur Henry’s Potato, Onion and Tomato Gratin)
serves 8-10
6 garlic cloves (1 clove peeled and split, the rest peeled and chopped)
1 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and sliced very thin
2 large onions, peeled and sliced very thin
5 medium tomatoes, cored and sliced very thin
1 leg of lamb, bone-in (6-7 pounds)
2/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
l tablespoon fresh thyme salt, pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Rub the bottom of a large (16 x 10 x 2) oval porcelain gratin dish (or casserole dish) with the split clove of garlic.
Arrange the potatoes in a single layer, season with salt, pepper, some of the thyme and some of the chopped garlic.
Layer the sliced onions on top, season as you did the potatoes.
Layer the tomatoes on top of the onions. Season with salt, pepper, the rest of the thyme and chopped garlic.
Pour on the white wine, then the olive oil.
Trim the thicker portions of fat from the lamb, season with salt and pepper. Set a cake or oven rack on (or in) the gratin dish and set the lamb on the rack so its juices will drip into the gratin.
Roast, uncovered, for 1 hour and 15 minutes for rare lamb (for medium lamb, roast for 15-30 more minutes). Turn the lamb every 15 minutes, basting with liquid from the gratin dish.
Remove the pan from oven and let the lamb sit for 15 minutes before carving.
Serve the thinly sliced lamb on warmed dinner plates, with the gratin alongside. Vegetable suggestion: Green or French beans.
HOLIDAY HAM
serves 10-12
16-18 pound ready-to-eat ham, pre-cooked, with bone in (A smoked ham is okay; an unsmoked ham is better. But do NOT get a spiral-cut ham — the edges will overcook.)
l box dark brown sugar
l/2 cup Gulden’s mustard
l/2 cup bourbon
l/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
l cup honey
2 tablespoons ground cloves
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix ingredients. Pour over ham.
Cooking tip: set the ham in a tin foil pan. Or, better, two. It’s so much easier to dispose of a sticky foil pan than spend fifteen minutes scouring one you value.
Cook in oven for 2-3 hours.
Baste constantly after first half hour.
HOLY MUSIC: VIVALDI “GLORIA” AND HANDEL “DIXIT DOMINUS”
Vivaldi’s “Gloria” and Handel’s “Dixit Dominus” on a single disc — that’s the eighteenth-century version of a concert with The Who doing “Tommy” and The Beatles performing “Sgt. Pepper.” That is, killer harmonies, dazzling melodies and an overt sense of exaltation. High-energy, feelgood music. And the inventiveness never lags.
