Thought for the Week

Some years ago, I found myself in Sainsbury’s on Holy Saturday evening, the day before Ester Sunday, with the intention of getting some last minute gifts – chocolate and the like. I was surprised to find that this was not straightforward because many of the shelves that had, only a few days before, been laden with eatables were now full of summer vacation products – bits and pieces for picnics and barbeques. The eggs were there (much to my relief) but in the bargain giveaway area. Easter was, to all intents and purposes, over, and that was before the season had even begun.

It is easy in the run up to Easter Sunday to focus on those very important events and conversations of Holy Week – Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday – and to see Easter as the end of the story: the culmination of all that went before. We’re there, we’ve made it, we can relax. Of course it is the culmination of Holy Week but it is by no means the end of the story; it is actually the start, the start of the Easter season proper.

The resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ is at the very centre of our Christian faith, the fundamental fact which gives us all hope and an assurance of God’s saving love by his victory over death and sin. So important is it that it is celebrated every Sunday, the first day of the week – the day of resurrection. But in the weeks after Easter Sunday itself, we need to spend time thinking, praying and contemplating particularly on that wonderful event because it is so important to us and to our world. It is an opportunity to ask ourselves and our church what the resurrection means now, what implications there might be and what difference it might make to our lives. These are big questions and although we should ideally be asking them all the time, the six weeks or so of Easter give us a specific time to do so. The Easter season lasts until Pentecost (which this year falls on 28^th May), 50 days exactly, during which time we also think about Our Lord’s Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost itself.

So Easter Day is by no means the end. It is the start of a very important season of the church but, most importantly, the start of our faith journey.

                                                  Tony Bushell