The season of Lent started on 18th February and Easter is on 5th April (early this year as worked out with the Lunar calendar) so this Bere Link comes in the middle. Should I think about Lent or Easter? Or maybe the two live together and it is not just a case of getting through the trials represented by Lent in order to reach our goal of Easter’s light and hope. Maybe the suffering we have are an integral part of knowing new life……
I do not wish illness, poverty, bereavement, loss or pain on anyone but we might be missing a life giving time if we rush through them and look only to it all being over. In a flippant way if we give up chocolate do we simply look forward to the first bite on Easter Day or can we look at our feelings of craving chocolate and live with that for a while?
This is a difficult area because we want the best for everyone and indeed at the very close of the bible when talking about heaven we read of a place where, ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away’ (Rev 21:4).
So, do we grit our teeth in this life and hope for heaven; do we try to create heaven on earth and push on to cure all ills, irradicate poverty; or can we, should we, live with the moment? In Gospel we read that Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus left that place of no more mourning and crying and pain and joined us, even to the ultimate in sharing our humanity and the eternal being experiencing death (there is a mystery for you).
Is it either / or? Or Both / and? What might be a better position? We must dwell in our ‘fleshiness’ and engage with the particular ‘now’ we experience; we must also love our neighbour and love ourselves and do all we can to relive the plight of many without rushing through to what we hope might be.
This is all a bit vague but if you can live each day to the full in a Lenten fast you will find the reality of resurrection all the more glorious.
Nick
Team Vicar