Easter: Window of Opportunity

Overtaken by a Red Bus while cycling on the N25 hard shoulder, its eye-catching advert struck a chord: ‘Want to sit in this seat? There’s a window of opportunity up front. We’re hiring drivers.’ 

Easter is nothing if not a window of opportunity up front, inviting competent leaders to see and usher in positive future possibilities. The bus ad could equally well be a rallying cry for mature Christians to promote justice, peace, hope, joy and love in our weary and war-torn world.

Before St. Patrick’s Day, children giddy with glee gushed, "the leprechaun came and left treats", reminding me of Fr Paddy Barry’s wry observation after ministering for decades in South Africa: "the vacuum left by the demise of religion is quickly filled with superstition." 

Religion, and in particular the Catholic Church, has been in retreat for the past generation or more, demoralised by criminal child abuse coverups. But there is another root cause of disconnect: the failure to foster an adult faith, which can dialogue with all contemporary advances in knowledge of the workings of the world. Thus, believers were forced to live in two parallel universes: the world of science and technology where they carry out their secular task, and a world of fantasy, which they must enter in their faith.

In the past, primitive people didn’t know the direct causes of thunder and lightning, of fertility in the Nile valley, of floods, of sulphur springs – or of life, sickness and death…and attributed them to good or evil spirits. The role of the religious person was to stand by, and call on God to intervene. Life here was a vale of tears, happiness and wellbeing were for heaven.

As our understanding of the world has advanced, our interpretation of the Easter event (crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus) must change. Easter is not just about Jesus or the past. Christians believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, and that we and the world are being raised with him. Easter is about past, present and future. 

Hence, Christians, as the community of those who hope, should show in practice that our hope is capable of changing the world now, as well as expecting a perfect forever future (heaven). 

Christians are not baptised to be hurlers on the ditch, but, following in Jesus’ footsteps, to play our part in making the world a better place for all. 

In the words of a friend, "it’s all very well to say God will provide, but he could do with a hand!" 

Human freedom is core. God won’t force others to do what we want. When we think God is distant, perhaps it is that we are outgrowing a naive image or expectation of an interventionist or micromanaging God, and discovering a more sophisticated Creator, Lover, Enabler who is present even in perceived absence. I’m sorry for getting so abstract! Let’s look at faith in action.

Motivated by a firm faith in Jesus, our parish accountant did more than his bit as a volunteer to improve the wider community. He was open to all to the end, saying mere days before his quick death, "if I were talking to the one Person who could do something, I don’t think I could ask him to intervene. I’ve had a good run, 85 and never in hospital before. There are others, with young children, more deserving." 

Surprised to recently find two young ladies in a monastic guesthouse, I was all ears. 

"I feel I’ve come home to myself," said one, born and reared in Australia to an Irish mother and now living in London. 

"I went to Mass with my parents, but was always looking for something outside myself. Over the past five weeks here in the monastery, I realised that what I was seeking out there, was, all along, inside myself. I want to take this with me when I leave." 

"How?" 

"I’ll find a flat with a quiet corner. I’ll set my alarm for early each morning, get up and read the day’s meditation on the phone, and do some Centering Prayer." 

A cycling friend’s unexpected, "show me how to do that," after seeing me peel an orange, put me thinking. Could there be things we Christians habitually do, that others, possibly younger, would wish to imitate, and ask, "how do you do that?" 

What unspoken and unseen insights, coping mechanisms, faith perspective for dealing with difficulties, including, but not limited to, dying and letting go? Is it prayer and meditation, staying in the moment, knowing that all is in flux? Is it our sense, no matter how cloudy, that there is Someone at the helm, regardless of the scale of the storm?

I thought I’d seen it all when I read recently that scholars suspect Jesus was sexually assaulted by the soldiers the night before the crucifixion, as was common practice at the time. For me, this was an eye opener. If true, it deepens the sense that Jesus really did descend into the depths of human suffering.

Asked to visit and chat with a lady at end of life, I was privileged to pray and keep a silent vigil with her children and grandchildren. Emotions are laid bare as every family’s worst fear is about to be realised. For weeks she had been praying the rosary nonstop, knowing her body was breaking down. Her breathing slowed and softened, her son suggesting a decade, one Hail Mary each. Prayer barely over, her breathing stopped. Just like that. 

A line from the prayer after death stood out, "Now that she has passed from this life, may she live on in your presence." 

Feeding horses in the sunshine when I phoned to organise Holy Week, a key local leader said: "I’m sitting on a bale of hay, looking out at Mine Head, Hook Head and the Engine House in Bonmahon. Where else would you rather be?" 

As in good weather, when people work together for the good of all, we’ve heaven on earth. Like the Clonea Strand sea-swimmers picking up litter left by others, while I type this piece. Or soon to be centenarian, Fr John O’Connor O.S.A. who loves to spread beauty by planting flowers at the Friary College. Easter is a rebirthing, a challenge to forgive and trust again; to break hard old habits, soften and love once more; new life springing out of death, a fresh start emerging from harsh endings.

Easter is the ultimate window of opportunity up front, and when our time on earth is up, we trust we’ll live on in the presence of Jesus. 

Meanwhile, our unstable and divided world badly needs Easter people: mature Christians full of hope, willing to lead, drive and work for peace, justice, equality and love. So, let’s pray, wish and work for a Happy Easter.