From the Vicar.
Easter Day April 12th 2020. From my study window I am hugely privileged to be able to look out onto a spectacular view; of the distant Gower peninsula and west over Pembrey Country Park towards Carmarthen Bay. I think of the thousands of people confined at present in small flats, possibly in multi-rise accommodation in our towns and cities. The struggle to keep children occupied and amused. The frustrations of being in close proximity to those, whom even though we love them, can be so irritating at times. The test of patience and tolerance!
The view I am fortunate to enjoy (and frequently take for granted) ‘terminates’ with a horizon. As I write, it appears as a distant line, slightly darker than the light blue of the sky and with a shimmering quality in the morning sunshine. It invites me to think of freedom; that distant ‘line’ hinting at something beyond, worlds I know little about and have rarely experienced.
Reflecting on this image I think it’s a useful one as we reflect on our own lives this Easter. When all is well, the horizon is distant; the space between us and it suggesting freedom, expansiveness, the ability to live life to the full. An image of potential. But, when things are not so good, when experiences in life draw that horizon ever closer and tighter we experience life differently; we feel trapped, our choices are reduced and limited; words like ‘suffocating’ come to mind. Our freedoms are taken away, trapped by circumstance: financial hardship, relational break-down, loss of employment, ill health, bereavement. Paralysing experiences that drain our energies; we become ‘depressed’ rather than ‘elated’.
These are experiences that can impact on individuals of any age. Some are better at recognising their feelings and articulating them. They are very human, common to all of us. A number of individuals feature in the accounts of the first ‘Easter experience’ but the one I am particularly drawn to is Mary of Magdala; Mary Magdalene. Tradition connects her with the woman from whom Jesus cast out ‘demons’. Perhaps her ‘demons’ were the sort that thousands struggle with: addictions, guilt, shame, the sense of being socially unacceptable, the gnawing feeling of never being ‘good enough’. And yet, despite the sense (implied in the Gospels) of her total unworthiness Jesus loved her in such a way that she found new self-regard, new self-esteem, a new way of looking at life. She was, if you like, ‘loved into wholeness’ ( redeemed) and the suffocating horizons of her life were pushed back so she could breathe again.
And now, those horizons have closed in again. The One who had loved her into well-being (saved) was dead. Brutally murdered by a complex collusion of the Institutions of both State and Religion. Who stood up for Him? It was all over. Broken hopes and dreams. Death had apparently silenced the One who brought Life. And Mary? We have to ‘read between the lines’, but I image ‘gutted’ would be somewhere near to her feelings. And she goes searching for where they laid Him, following that swift burial with almost no one present. Had prayers been said? We are not told.
To her amazement, we are told that she finds the tomb empty and, meeting someone she thinks is the gardener, asks him where the body might be? ‘Mary’ she hears him say. That all too familiar voice; the understanding tone; the all-embracing love that could bring warmth even in that place of death. And the horizons of her life are opened up again; a new joy, a new hope and new thirst for living because His sort of love was stronger than death, it was able to transform and offer a new way forward, a new way of being. It was real in two ways; He was still alive and she had experienced that reality.
To ask scientific questions of Articles of Faith is an old chestnut. ‘Prove it’, some will say. In reality none of the Gospel accounts of that first Easter experience can offer that sort of scientific ‘evidence’. But, experience itself is sometimes evidence. People can, and do, ‘break free’ even if that means changing their thinking and living habits. We can change things in our world. We can claim Life over Death. And is it really too much to believe that the One who brought the swirling galaxies of space into being cannot also bring newness of life out of death in a different dimension of time and space? We are all of us ‘Marys’; broken one way or another by the twists and turns of our pilgrimage through life. We are fearful of the future, we grieve past and present, but we are also uniquely loved by Him who brings new life and will ‘never let us go’. Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! For Mary, a new day was dawning. Bird song and the fresh smell of flowers in the morning dew. It was the same, but somehow different. May I wish you all a Happy, Blessed and Hope-filled Easter-tide. Our present circumstances will be overcome. All our ‘Good Fridays’ will become the starting points for new Hope, Potential and Life.
Prayers for Our Times
Lord of the Cross, You are also
The Lord of the empty tomb.
In our struggles to believe that that is true
Give us a glimpse of your Glory in our daily living.
Help us to hear your voice calling us by name,
Bringing calm to our fears and hope in the anxieties of our days.
Give us Grace to put our trust in your power
Both in this life and the life to come,
Through Jesus Christ our Crucified and yet Risen Lord. Amen.
We offer our prayer, Lord, for all who are forced to grieve
At this time when your Church celebrates new life;
Your victory over sin, broken-ness and death.
Be close to those who, overwhelmed by their circumstances
Cannot find peace within themselves.
Grant to them, and us,
The serenity to accept the things that cannot
Now be changed; the courage to change the things we can,
And the wisdom and faith to recognise that your Love
Is so strong that, in You, all shall be well. Amen.
Canon Dewi Davies
