As I write at the beginning of Holy Week, I am conscious that Scripture reminds us that God is both patient and just.
This creates a problem for the faithful. While working for just outcomes, we must sometimes wait for long periods before seeing positive results. God’s timing does not always line up nicely with our expectations or even our lifetime.
Rightly, people of good will, people who love justice, and people of faith are disturbed by the many insults to the image of God, that is to say, human dignity, over recent decades.
Injustice
We have laws that permit the deliberate creation of embryonic humans in a laboratory, with the permission to freeze, experiment on, and destroy them.
We have laws that permit the killing of unborn babies, to full term in most jurisdictions.
We have laws that allow doctors deliberately to assist a patient to end their own life.
We have laws that make it an offence to do good, to speak truth and to avoid evil.
We have inflexible rulings that disregard the special circumstances of asylum seekers.
We have regulations that unfairly advantage those with capital over those without capital.
Naturally, many despair. But some don’t. I want to congratulate those of you who have not given up hope, who keep on loving and doing and encourage those of you who despair or are simply exhausted.
Listening
We also read in Scripture that God’s voice is gentle. It takes practice to discern God’s voice as distinct from our own mind or, possibly, intrusive thoughts from elsewhere. This is why many spiritual leaders throughout Christian history have emphasised the need for frequent meditative prayer. That is, quiet conversational prayer which waits and listens for God’s voice in response to our own supplications, intercessions, questions, and complaints.
I think the whole effort of human progress hangs on our willingness and ability to hear and obey the voice of God. It could be the smallest of things, the faintest of promptings to do – or not do – something. It could also be big: to begin a new work of charity, or to end an entrenched injustice.
We have a choice: to edge closer to peace and justice, or to cede ground to chaos and evil.
So, what does Easter time mean for Christians?
It recounts Jesus of Nazareth’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, his torture and death, and resurrection from the dead. It is a declaration of the generosity of God, who offers to forgive sins, and desires reconciliation with each and every one of us.
Together, with God’s grace, we can endure the taunts, the humiliations, the setbacks, and the waiting.
We hope you can make it to the upcoming event, “Truth & Beauty”, a Thomas More Centre Autumn School in Albury, from April 19 to 20.
