Easter Sunday 17 April 2022 Still true
Imagine that you are in the garden with Mary Magdalene on that original Easter Sunday, and you do not know the story as you do now.
Imagine the sense of loss and grief in a moment turned to great joy, such as Mary experienced. And that is your position also.
Grief turns into joy. This is today’s feast.
But something has gone wrong. It should have been the case that from initial rapture the existing disciples would have held onto that Good News; and the Church should have become stronger and stronger, gathering more disciples and eventually just about everyone, into its ranks.
I saw a film once where some pre-historic people had just discovered fire. They had come across it accidentally, but not knowing how it started they had to be careful not to let the existing flame go out. Precisely the Church’s problem in every age.
We have moments of strong faith, clear insight, even a conversion experience. But how do we keep the fire lit? How do we take that intense joy of Resurrection morning and carry it all through the rest of our lives?
We face the choice: do we stay with Christ Risen or do we drift off into the vague world of unbelief and confusion?
Of course we know we should want to stay with Christ, but there are many obstacles in our way – either our own doing, such as our own sin; or the difficulties of living in a non-Christian world, such as we have everywhere we look.
My own sin complicates things, because when I defy God I am implicitly rejecting that moment in the garden. He is Risen, but sorry I am busy with other things.
The world around us complicates things because it has forgotten (or never knew) that it was created to know, love and serve God, and so pursues lesser objectives.
And people blame God when they should be blaming sin, for what goes wrong in the world.
We remember all the major aspects of our faith in a yearly cycle of seasons and feasts. All these events (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Second Coming) are put before us so that we can keep that flame lit
If we neglect to observe these events we will lose the light and the faith too.
We repeat our beliefs, such as in the Creed, not because we doubt them but to drive them home more firmly, so firmly that they can never be lost.
Some will say that the Resurrection never happened. It has as much evidence as other events around that time, events which nobody doubts (eg the Roman empire and all its doings).
And it is not difficult to believe in life after death if we believe in a God who has infinite power. It is no harder for Him to raise a dead body than to make a body in the first place.
Our own weakness and the surrounding environment make it harder to maintain faith, but not impossible. It just means we have to work harder to keep that faith at a high pitch, so we have some evangelistic effect on those around us.
Everyone who is converted would have others to thank for contributing to that result. Somebody helped to convert me; in my turn I help somebody else to convert, and so it goes on.
Go tell My brothers (Mt 28,10) Go and baptise all nations (Mt 28,19). Individual, or the whole human race, everyone needs to know that Christ is risen.
The news is still good, and still true. Good because of what it offers. True because time has no effect on it. Time might affect our response to the truth but not the truth itself.
Far from cooling off over time, our faith should increase as we discover more and more God's goodness and power.
If we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him (2 Tm 2,11-12)
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