A
few years ago I got an email from a friend of mine to say that he and
some others were setting up a group called ‘Count me in’. This
was a group of mostly young people who wanted to stand up for their
faith and be counted and to do whatever they could to bring about
renewal in the Church in Ireland. They were starting this group
partly in reaction to another group called ‘Count me out’ which,
as you might guess, was a group of people who no longer wanted to
have anything to do with the Church. I must admit I was very
heartened to hear of this group ‘Count me in’ especially being
started by young Catholics who felt the need to stand up and be
counted. As my friend so rightly stated in his letter to me, ‘Though
we want very much to count ourselves out from any kind of abuse and
cover-up by individual Church members and ministers, there is no way
we can count ourselves out from Christ’s Body and from his offer of
salvation.’ I was hoping for and half expecting that something like
that would happen, as the Holy Spirit always moves people at the
right time.
At
a time when we are seeing so many very frightening things in the
world, it is good to remind ourselves who it is we believe in. We
believe in the Son of God who conquered death and evil. If we stay
focused on the world and what is going on, we could easily become
overwhelmed with fear and even despairing. But if we keep our focus
on Jesus we will see the world in a different way. Remember that his
death was just like some of the horrific and pointless killings that
we are hearing about in the news; the death of completely innocent
people.
I
can’t help thinking of the time when Jesus gave the teaching about
his body and blood, saying that ‘Unless you eat my flesh and drink
my blood you cannot have life in you.’ It says that ‘After this
many of his followers stopped going with him.’ His teaching was too
much for them. But when he turned to the disciples and said, ‘What
about you. Do you want to go away too?’ Peter said, ‘Lord to whom
shall we go, you have the message of eternal life.’ That is very
much how I feel myself. I am horrified and disheartened by all the
horrors we are hearing about in our world, but I also feel, where
else would I go? I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that
he is Lord and that he has revealed God to us. Why would I want
to go anywhere else?
What
has all this to do with Easter you might ask? What is key to the
event of Easter is that it was the last thing that anyone expected to
happen. As far as the disciples were concerned it was all over. The
master had been killed and they didn’t know what to do. It took
quite a bit of convincing for them to believe that Jesus had risen
from the dead. When the women first came to them and told them that
they had seen a vision of angels who told them Jesus was alive, the
Apostles simply didn’t believe them. Then Jesus began to appear to
them himself and it still took quite a while for them to really
believe.
Either
Jesus rose from the dead or he didn’t. If he did, then we have
nothing to be afraid of, because it is the Son of God who is guiding
his Church, who continues to make himself present in each mass, who
continues to minister to his people through the priesthood. If the
resurrection of Jesus is not true, then none of us should be here,
because everything we believe in is based on the fact that God raised
Jesus from the dead.
All
that happened at Easter was totally unexpected. The worst
disaster—the death of the only completely innocent man—was turned
into the greatest event imaginable, an event that changed the course
of history. This man Jesus, whom we celebrate, is Lord and he is the
one who is guiding us. He is the one we believe in and we must keep
going back to his words and his teachings. ‘In the world you will
have trouble. But do not be afraid; I have overcome the world.’
Remember too that several of his apostles let him down badly, but it
didn’t stop Jesus from using them and from passing his teaching on
to us.
At
the moment our faith is being tested with what is going on in the
world, but we must remember the event of Easter. God turned
everything around when people least expected it and in a way that
they could never have imagined. This is the God we believe in, who is
just as powerfully present to us today. So let us never lose heart or
be afraid. God has always been with his people and He always will be.
‘I
am with you always. Yes, until the end of the world.’