A Body Destroyed
Easter is a time of bodily destruction. On a hill called Calvary, on the first Good Friday, the body of Our Lord was not only thought expendable, but was punished, abused, tormented and beaten until all breath had gone from it. We might wonder how human beings could be as cruel as that, killing the most innocent and pure person who ever lived.
But then, we come back with stark reality to the world which we inhabit today. This province knows well the devastating potential when hatred is given free rein: The kind of hatred which would simply remove from the equation people who were of the ‘wrong kind' because they didn't deserve to breathe. And this is not something entirely of the past. We have seen it on our street recently.
We know too, in many of our lives, the destructive power of physical, mental and sexual abuse which can make life feel as through it is not worth living; and the growing number of young people who feel that the self-destruction of suicide is the only way out.
And we know, tragically, the clean, clinical destruction of the weakest little bodies of all in the horrific number of abortions which happen in the UK as a matter of course - so often for social reasons. How do we allow it to happen?
These are our personal calvaries.
This Easter, we need a new determination to respect and protect every human body, and to inculcate in the society in which we live such a respect for one another. We also need to stand in support alongside those who have experienced bodily cruelty and destruction with the knowledge that Jesus Christ who suffered Calvary both understands our pain, and offers hope beyond human hope in the Resurrection of the Body on that first Easter Day.
+ Harold, Down & Dromore
19 March 2008