Easter Reflections…
I once was given the opportunity to do the 19th Annotation of the Ignatian Exercises and sat with prescribed scriptures each day for eight months, sharing each week with others doing the same. When meditating on the Easter story, I remember experiencing a deep sense of Jesus’ solidarity with the marginalised and oppressed; those experiencing inhumane and dehumanising treatment. I believe that when humans are disconnected from a love for all people, not just those we admire, we can be deliberately or unconsciously cruel, violent or ambivalent to the suffering of others. And when connected to this kind of love we can be consciously and unconsciously kind and full of compassion and action, with a sense of solidarity with the suffering of others.
After meditating daily on the cruel execution of an innocent man, whose life and death beautifully embodied this kind of love, it birthed a renewed hope in me. A hope that love was indeed stronger than hate and fear - that “love is our deepest identity” .
Spending time with the Easter story, I saw this radical kind of love in Jesus, Mary Magdelene, Joseph of Amarithea, Veronica, Mary mother of Jesus, John, present alongside the lovelessness, almost shining through the cracks. It has got me thinking of all those suffering and caught up in the atrocities of war – which we are aware of more than ever before, in part due to social media…we can see unfiltered images and videos of those living and experiencing the horrors of conflict around the world.
So this Easter weekend, I invite you to join me to take a pause to remember all those who have suffered and are suffering from the atrocities and lovelessness of war… and as the quakers would say “hold them in the light”…
Those in Gaza. Sudan. Ukraine. Ethiopia. Somalia. South Sudan. Demcoratic Republic of Congo. Chad. Burkina Faso. Mali. Yemen. The West Bank, Palestine. Israel. Venezuela. Haiti. Niger. Nigeria. The Sahel.
Refugees, displaced. those that live in need, those that have lost loved ones. Those that find it hard to see a hopeful future.
And hold onto the idea hope that love is stronger than hate…
”Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace.
Let peace fill our lives, our world, our universe.
Peace, peace, peace.”
The Universal Prayer for Peace from the Iona Community Prayer Book