Dear family in Christ.
We stand somewhat on a plateau, not unlike the moment Jesus is taken up and shown all the kingdoms that they might be given to him, but ours will be hopefully the pause we have taken over these weeks of lent and self examination as we turn and face our own Jerusalem’s, and those little epiphany’s where our realizations of which way to turn and go become the better part of discernment in all these things. One may quote the song, with an appropriate word change, ‘ I can see clearly now the snow has gone, I can see all obstacles in my way…’, if only!
We head over these next days with Jesus, coming into Jerusalem, determined, headstrong, fateful, faithful with his community of disciples, men, women, expectant, needy, fearful, but, nevertheless honouring this Jesus, whose presence and life, teaching, healing and friendship has made all the difference in their lives and their deep desire to share it with others.
A divine human who was able to love on our terms, so deeply that he finally wept, deeply moved for all that he saw and witnessed in his friends and their human condition.
There was/ is hope after all and the one way, the best way was to go to the cross so that salvation would not end just in mortal death, but divine resurrection. The paradox of the divine in human flesh, we are saved in death on a cross, laid in a tomb and God’s Glory begins for all people in the first light of that Easter Day when death conquered, becomes our hope, our faith, our way of life.
From darkness, to light, only if we have had the courage to take up our cross and follow Jesus.
A walk through Lent, listening to scripture, to the truths of the world in which we now live, our praying together, the receiving of the sacraments, the blackened soot of palm branches crossed onto our foreheads, the freshly folded palm frongs reminding us of a confident and resolved Jesus and the triumph of the empty cross takes us to the inconvenience of the words of the gospels and the freedom won for us and the depth of sacrificial love in which new life is breathed into us once again.
It is never too late to begin again, to sing our song and to rejoice in the spirit, to hope for renewal in our ministry and witness in the world and to give ourselves to the one who would lead us towards the truth.
“I no longer call you servants, but friends and a new commandment I give to you; that you love one another as I have loved you”.
And so we sing the song again…Christ is risen…he is risen indeed…alleluia alleluia alleluia.
As ever, in gratitude and love.
Fr. Jeff and team.
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