Become a Light

 

Reflection selected by Deacon Steve.

Easter - the resurrection of Christ. The feast of feasts! The final proof of Christ’s divinity! Easter the first feast of the early Church, around which all the other feasts grew like stars around the sun.

We celebrate Christ’s resurrection as something absolutely, fantastically beautiful that has happened and is still happening. The fact there is an Easter is something to be grateful for. Now death has become a passage. A passage to what, to where, to whom? It is the passage of you to God and me to God.

Yes, Easter is the apex of feasts, the feast of all feasts- Christ is risen! …It is eternal – it picks you up and drops you into eternity. 

God loves me. He loves me when I am good and when I am not so good, because he loves sinners. He forgives them too. His mercy is infinite and so is his love, his goodness, his forgiveness. My hand nestles easily in the immense hand of God, and I shiver with delight. 

Christ is risen! Let us love one another as Christ loved us. Then we are clothed in the shining garments of one who is baptised, one whose garments shine from far away and even through the night. Then we become a light to our neighbour’s feet.

- Catherine Doherty, “Season of Mercy; Lent and Easter” Madonna House Publications, 2011, Combermere, p. 92 – 95

The Test of Progress

 

The test of our progress

is not

whether we add more

to the abundance of those

who have much; 

it is

whether we provide enough

for those

who have too little.

― Franklin D. Roosevelt

Refugees (and Migrants) - a Spiritual Reflection

 

Sculpture by Banksy

REFUGEES
By Brian Bilston

They have no need of our help

So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves

They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way

(now read from bottom to top)

Jesus is the master of challenging us to view the world and its values from the bottom up. Perhaps the best example is the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 and Luke 6 (Sermon on the Plain). In his world and time, everybody believed and taught that the poor and sick were cursed by God. Jesus had the audacity to say that they were blessed and would inherit God's blessings.