Due to it being Easter weekend I like many others had Easter Monday off, hence no email yesterday.
What a difference a day makes though? Had the email been yesterday Pope Francis would still have been alive and this update would not have mentioned him at all. Now though almost every paper is looking back over his life, his achievements, and of course looking forward to who the next Pope is going to be. In his last encyclical Pope Francis wrote this: “I would add that the heart of Christ also frees us from another kind of dualism found in communities and pastors excessively caught up in external activities, structural reforms that have little to do with the Gospel, obsessive reorganization plans, worldly projects, secular ways of thinking and mandatory programmes. The result is often a Christianity stripped of the tender consolations of faith, the joy of serving others, the fervour of personal commitment to mission, the beauty of knowing Christ and the profound gratitude born of the friendship he offers and the ultimate meaning he gives to our lives. This too is the expression of an illusory and disembodied otherworldliness.” Thanks to Stuart Banks Kelly for sending that through, it illustrates how his faith was central to who he was.
The difference a day makes can be astonishing. If the Christian story were to stop on Holy Saturday then there would be no resurrection, no risen Christ, no hope and no future. Our faith would be in a dead guy entombed in Judea. In all honesty he would have remained anonymous, just a local carpenter who became a bit of a mystic. Sunday followed Saturday and our Lord rose; because of that day our faith is a in a living Lord. This is the difference a day can make.
In your life and mine, in the lives of those we meet, what difference can the next day bring? Do we find life, joy, hope and all the things Christ promised or do we find despair and discouragement? It would be very easy in today’s world to be discouraged. Yet as Christians we believe there will always be a next day, whether that is in this life or the life to come. For Pope Francis, he closed his days in this world and he opened them in the next. A journey that one day we shall all take.
Remember the words of Jesus in John Chapter 14: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Rather than go through all the usual stuff of updates and such, these will be held over till the next update, take a moment and rest in the knowledge that God’s promise means he is preparing a place for you and all is children.
1 For all the saints who from their labours rest,
who Thee by faith before the world confessed;
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
2 Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
3 O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
4 And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
5 But then there breaks a still more glorious day:
the saints triumphant rise in bright array;
the King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
6 From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
in praise of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
God Bless you and yours. May you find the peace that comes from resting in the arms of God this day and in all the days to come. What a difference a day can make. He is risen!
Norman