I give you this day eight reflections for the days that will lead us from today through to Easter Wednesday.
Wednesday April 4th: On Forgiveness
The other morning some of us were together in a church where the rector was saying Morning Prayer, and leading us in guided silent prayer. He said ‘Let us pray for those whom we love.’ And that was easy. Then he said,’ Let us pray for those whom we do not love.’ And there rose up before my mind three men for whom I had to pray. They were men who have opposed my work. In this they may have been wrong. But my wrong was in resentment and a feeling of letting myself be cut off from them, and even from praying for them, because of it. Years ago I read a quotation from Mary Lyon that recurs to me again and again: ‘Nine-tenths of our suffering is caused by others not thinking so much of us as we think they ought.’ If you want to know where pride nestles and festers in most of us, that is right where it is; and it is not the opposition of others, but our own pride, which causes us the deepest hurt. I never read a word that penetrated more deeply into the sin of pride from which all of us suffer, nor one which opens up more surgically our places of unforgiveness.
Samuel Moon Shoemaker And Thy Neighbour (pg 246 Celtic Book of Prayer)
Thursday April 5th: A.E. Withorn “The Washing of Feet” (pg. 249 Celtic Book of Prayer)
I was dreaming that I was treading the streets of the Holy City, pottering about like a tourist. In my wandering I came upon the museum of that city o four dream. I went in, and a courteous attendant conducted me round. There was some old armour there, much bruised with battle. Many things were conspicuous by their absence. I saw nothing of Alexander’s, nor of Napoleon’s. there was no Pope’s ring, nor even the ink-bottle that Luther is said to have thrown at the devil, nor Wesley’s seal and keys. I saw a widow’s mite and the feather of a little bird. I saw some swaddling clothes, a hammer, and three nails, and a few thorns. I saw a bit of a fishing-net and the broken oar of a boat. I saw a sponge that had once been dipped in vinegar, and a small piece of silver. But I cannot enumerate all I saw, nor describe all I felt. Whilst I was turning over a common drinking cup which had a very honourable place, I whispered to the attendant, ‘Have you not got a towel and basin among your collection?’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘not here; you see they are in constant use.’ Then I know I was in Heaven, in the Holy City, and amid the redeemed society.
Knowing that He came from God and went to God… Jesus took a towel and a basin.
A.E. Withorn The Washing of Feet (pg 249 Celtic Book of Prayer)
Friday April 6th: John 19:28-42
Saturday April 7th: Philippians 2:1-11
Easter Sunday April 8th: John 20
Easter Monday April 9th: John 1:1-5, 14
Easter Tuesday April 10th: Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. and so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.
We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us. It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and a dye or stain which soaks right through. He never talked vague, idealistic gas. When he said, ‘Be perfect,’ He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder – in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird; it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you can not go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity
Easter Wednesday April 11th: Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
I find a good many people have been bothered by…. Our Lord’s words, ‘Be ye perfect’. Some people seem to think this means ‘Unless you are perfect, I will not help you’; and as we cannot be perfect, then, if He meant that, our position is hopeless. But I do not think He did mean that. I think He meant ‘The only help I will give is help to become perfect. You may want something less: but I will give you nothing less.’
Let me explain. When I was a child I often had toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother – at least, not till the pain become very bad. And the reason I did not go was this. I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from pain; but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists: I knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. They would not let sleeping dogs like, if you gave them an inch they took an ell.
Now, if I may put it that way, Our Lord is like the dentists. If you give Him an inch, He will take an ell. Dozens of people of to Him to be cured of some one particular sin which they are ashamed of (like masturbation or physical cowardice) or which is obviously spoiling daily like (like bad temper or drunkenness). Well, He will cure it all right: but He will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if one you call Him in, He will give you the full treatment.
C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity
Christ is Risen
He is Risen Indeed
In Christ,
Jeremy Bell