Lectionary Devotions by Father Gethin

Like the people of Israel, who longed for the restoration of their earthly kingdom, we must come to accept that our faith is not a vessel of earthly reward; it is not for the glorification of this mortal life that Jesus suffers, but so that we may pass from this earthly way into His own, heavenly, kingdom.

As we make our way through the gracious and peaceful season of Eastertide, our Sunday readings take care not only to make plain the Easter Proclamation, ‘Alleluia, Christ is Risen!’, but also to begin to prepare our hearts and minds for the next stage in the story…

“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” All true authority, all true claims of dominion and power and honour, depend on the leader’s willingness to provide for the common good out of his own person, which is to say, by laying down his own life.

As the fulfillment of His earthly life and ministry, the forty days of our Lord’s Resurrected presence provide us with a series of cameos or episodes, in which we find His mandate for us as His disciples and followers become more clearly and sharply focussed…

Our Lord’s Easter appearances focus our attention on His risen presence as the fulfillment of God’s work of Salvation, that the risen Christ is the source and location of all our peace and beatitude: “Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.”

“Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” Peace, after all, is the name of His kingdom: He is the Prince of Peace.

The story of our faith is the story of salvation; that we, who were lost in the darkness of a false and idolatrous world, and condemned by our own disobedience, might have light to bring us out into a new day, and new life to overcome our approaching doom.

In her masterful 19th century metrical rendering of the ancient Irish hymn ‘St. Patrick’s breastplate’, Cecil Alexander recounts our Lord’s Resurrection with this remarkable line: “His bursting from the spicèd tomb.” The verse captures, with a profound clarity and depth, the sense and significance of this day…

All things here, in this silent hour, are reduced to their simplest, and their most profound, for all things are here described only by hope and faith and charity…

Come and see, see how gracious is His love for us, and see too, how willful and wretched is our disobedience, our selfish disinterest in love; and be changed by the vision. Be loved.