Letter from Fr.Marcus - March 2010

To help us embrace Easter in all it’s glory

My Dear Friends,

Hopefully you will read this, and reflect on it in the weeks leading up to our most Holy Celebration: that of the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We know the story so well, and are not surprised on Easter Day when we hear the proclamation ‘Christ is Risen’. And we respond with enthusiasm ‘He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!’ So if we are not surprised, what should our emotion be? Joy, yes of course. Excitement, well yes, in a way, but we will have been preparing for this for weeks. I hope you will be excited, but will understand if you are just happy. Should we be reflective? If so, then what have we been doing during Lent. I know it is not for me to tell you how to feel, but I would like to suggest that we may feel energised!

We are celebrating the great mystery of our faith, and I genuinely believe it should call forth from us some action. Some response. Some desire. Some expression of living out the reality that Christ is alive, and he is with us, and in us, and works through us.

For me, one of the helpful ways of doing this is to focus on the story of Mary Magdalene. We are so blessed to worship in a Church of which she is the Patron Saint. Possibly the woman who had been healed of seven demons, probably the woman who had anointed the feet of Jesus, washed them with her tears, and dried them with her hair. Definitely the woman who witnessed the crucifixion, and went to the tomb, to be met with the Risen Christ, and, according to John, the first to proclaim the news of the resurrection.

I love to dwell on these stories. To think of that passion and self giving of Mary as she kisses Jesus’ feet. This is an extraordinary account, sensual, humble and extravagant at the same time. Some believed to be outrageous, others a sign of devotion, but for some of us, it puts our response to the love of Christ to shame. We keep our emotions and feelings in-check, doing only what is ‘right and proper’. But add to the feet washing, the fact that Jesus chooses Mary Magdalene to go and tell this awesome story. How typical of Jesus to chose someone with ‘a history’, and a woman as well! Would anybody believe her?

Well I do, and I can’t get enough of this story, and it lifts my spirits through the roof when I realise the first response to the resurrection is to go tell people about it, and that my friends is what we are called to do. It is much too exciting and brilliant to keep to ourselves.

So the big question is, how do we go about telling people? I am not sure that shouting ‘Christ is Risen!’ in Budgens is the best way. Nor is hustling people who don’t go to church by constantly telling them that Christ died for their sins (they would run a mile, and rightly so). I think the best way we can let people know about Christ is by the way we live our lives. It means being faithful to our spiritual discipline: putting worship at the top of our agenda, endeavouring to follow the teaching of Jesus which is about loving God and neighbour, about forgiving, including, respecting, putting others first and striving for peace and justice. It is about allowing the Holy Spirit to use us, being prepared to tell our story, to love our church and all that it does and to invite those who we get to know to ‘come and see’.

I pray that our shared Lent will be wonderful, that we will grow in faith, and in love for God and one another, and that our Easter Experience will enthuse us to live lives to the full, and tell of the great things God has done, using words only if we have to.

Blessings abound, Fr. Marcus.