April 2022: Editorial

Resurrection
 

The resurrection – a heart’s clarion – away grief gasping, joyless days, dejection. In a flash, at a trumpet crash, I am all at once what Christ is –
immortal diamond, immortal diamond!
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Last week a duck and her colourful mate floated up the stream in my front garden in Termonfeckin as they often do this time of year. Soon – going by experience. there will be a half dozen ducklings accompanying mother up and down stream – dad will have disappeared- I think a few human mothers can see parallels with the world of nature! The happy coincidence in our part of the world of spring with Easter sees all of creation caught up in the new life of Christ. This life and energy – the commotion and colour of fresh growth reflects the joyous chaos of the Easter Gospel. 

On Easter Sunday itself there is no Gospel text that includes an actual spotting of Jesus. Instead we find the disciples Mary, Peter and John and their reaction to what has happened. We do not witness the risen Jesus but the faith of the disciples. An energy deep within each of them suddenly breaks the surface like a plant bursting from the warming earth. It is the coming to life of God’s promise that he would take his people from their graves and a put a new heart and spirit in them. The message of Easter is not just that Jesus came out of the tomb raised from the dead but that the disciples also rose, that there was new life and vital energy in them. Their faith in what happened would now see them to the end. With all that has happened in recent weeks in Ukraine and elsewhere we too need that level of faith and energy to hold fast to the promise of resurrection in the face of innocent suffering and death.

There is a story told in India about a village during a drought where the community decided to come together and pray for rain. But on the day they gathered it was noticed that just one small boy carried an umbrella – he really believed! That was Easter faith in action. We are an Easter people, Christ’s risen presence in the world and with a faith that can change the world. Let us come out from our tombs.

Paul Clayton-Lea