THOUGHTS TO PONDER

PREPARING FOR THE FEAST OF FREEDOM

At this rather sombre time of year, when we are encouraged to reflect on the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness and on his suffering as he sought to live out the power of love and hope in the face of opposition from so many, it’s perhaps easy to forget that its purpose is preparation for the great feast of resurrection at Easter – the restoration of the light first manifest at Bethlehem. I remember sitting at midnight one Easter eve in the cathedral in Vienna with my two young nieces—in total darkness and silence while we waited for the words from the Catholic Archbishop : “Das Licht Christi”, the lighting of first the Easter candle, and then of the handheld candles of every congregant until the place blazed with light. A potent visual symbol of a reality beyond words…

The annual Edinburgh Diocesan retreat will have taken place in Dunblane towards the end of February. The challenge there will be to take time out – or maybe in! - to think about the relevance of the Lenten liturgy to our own lives and  to move more closely into the mystery celebrated in Eucharistic worship. I suppose, if Easter is the feast of freedom, then some of our reflection might be around what keeps us unfree, the discovering of those aspects of ourselves  which are ‘outside our ken’ but evident to others and operative in relationships. Many of the Gospel stories in Lent are about healing, not only in the physical sense but as aspects of becoming whole, becoming who we are, made in the image of God. The practice of ‘lectio divina ’ as practised from earliest times in the Church (and for which time will be allocated at Dunblane) is not about reading huge amounts of scripture, but about attentiveness  as we read a few verses. It’s more about listening to what the story may be saying to us as individuals. If we’re too busy to do that we may literally be too busy for our own good…

Remember hearing about Brother Lawrence who believed in practising the presence even amongst the pots and pans and household chores?  Perhaps one way to anticipate the feast of freedom might be to become better acquainted with the One who ‘set his people free’. For even in the darkest moments of our experience there is within the depths a calling to live the resurrected life, to dance to the tune of the new creation, and to share in the vision of a world turned not so much upside-down, but right- way- up at last!

Mary McMahon