Easter 2002.

Easter every year conjures up for me, and I am sure for most people, a time of year that speaks of freshness and newness, of flowers and birds, of sheep and lambs, a time when clocks change and evenings lengthen. It is a time of year when one can easily say: “ Thanks be to God to be alive and to be able to experience the beauty of God’s Creation”.

Speaking of lambs, I must say I look forward every year to seeing them frolicking in the fields not far from their maternal guardians, the white, the black and the in-betweens. Last year, when we faced the threat of the foot and mouth disease and saw the little lambs in the Cooley peninsula having to be slaughtered along with the ewes which gave them birth, a great sense of sadness came over me. I travelled through that area a short time later and I was stuck by the absence of animal life in the lush green fields. A week ago I was thrilled to see a beautiful picture in the Press showing the Cooley peninsula come back to life. The sheep and the lambs have brought a heart back into a people who have suffered so much. They are now living their ‘Easter’ after their ‘Good Friday’ experience. I’m so happy for them.

It was written of the One who makes of all our Easters ‘ a joy to behold’ that “ like a lamb that is led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers never opening its mouth”(Is. 53:7), “ He was harshly dealt with, He bore it humbly”(Is. 53: 6). Easter Sunday can only be understood in the light – or should I say the darkness – of Good Friday. The seeming finality of the Cross of Calvary gives way to the empty tomb and the reality of Resurrected Life in the Person of the ‘Lamb of God’. With Saint Paul we stand in awe as mortal nature has put on immortality in the Risen Christ and we exclaim: “ Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?”(1 Cor. 15:55).

Easter celebrates life and light, overcomes death and darkness, and gives hope eternal to a world which so often promotes the ‘ culture of death’. Let us always be an Easter People rising to new life in Christ, the Risen One, and let us always tender the hand of Christian solidarity to those who are in danger of losing their way in the darkness and turmoil of a world loved and redeemed by a God Who can make all things new.

A Happy and a Blessed Easter to all and may you experience the joy of life and heart in knowing that you are loved and cherished by a Saviour Who gave His Life so that we all “ may have life and have it to the full” (Jn.10:10).

+ John Magee.

Bishop of Cloyne.